Feeds:
Posts
Comments

Posts Tagged ‘Jeff Fielding’

Prove me wrong (I dare you)!!

Posted in history, tagged , , , , , on July 20, 2016| 1 Comment »

CHS state track champs (clockwise from top left) Jeff Fielding, Kyle King, Steven McDonald, Chris Hutchinson, Jon Chittim, Amy (Mouw) Fasolo, Tyler King, Natasha Bamberger.

   CHS state track champs (clockwise from top left) Jeff Fielding, Kyle King, Steven McDonald, Chris Hutchinson, Jon Chittim, Amy (Mouw) Fasolo, Tyler King, Natasha Bamberger.

This is actually going to happen.

After a lot of work, by a lot of people, the effort to install 116 years of Coupeville High School athletic history on the school’s gym walls is heading down the backstretch.

The research has been done (though, in a second I’m going to ask for your proofreading on that), the proper authorities have signed off on the idea, most of the fundraising is accomplished, and we meet with the sign guy Friday.

The plan has always been to have this installed prior to the start of the new school year in Sept., and it seems 99.2% likely at this point.

After years of having just a handful of banners hanging in the gym, the new installation aims to honor every league and district title won by Wolf teams, as well as individual state championships (there are 17) and top 10 team finishes at state.

That entails, as far as I have been able to determine, 112 title boards.

Originally, it was 109, but supporters of CHS cheer have made a solid argument that the program’s three top-four finishes at state (including a title in 2006) deserve to be on the wall as well.

And, before you say it, this is a SPORTS installation going up.

I am well aware the school has a strong run of accomplishments in History Day, band, Science Olympiad and the like.

Some of those are honored in other places at the school, and, to those who would like to see a more complete version, go get ’em.

I’m behind you, I support you, I would certainly write about your efforts and help drive your cause, but Indiana Jonesing 116 years of CHS sports history, on my own time, with no pay, has wiped me out.

The sports history was my crusade.

Someone else better suited to the task will have to take up the academic side of things, if that’s something you’re burning to get accomplished.

It can be done.

We’re proving that with this project, which has brought together the Whidbey newspapers (primarily Jim Waller and Keven R. Graves) with the pain in the ass blogger who you’re currently reading.

The Booster Club, bigwigs like Coupeville Schools Superintendent Dr. Jim Shank and CHS Principal Duane Baumann, and all the people who have donated money or offered research tips, are a huge part of this.

Of course, without the athletes who accomplished these feats, and the coaches who guided them, none of this would be possible in the first place.

When the display goes up, it’s all for us, Wolf Nation, near and far.

But now, as we head towards that meeting with the sign guy Friday, scan my list and see if you notice anything off. Did I miss a title somewhere in my bleary-eyed final days?

If so, let me know. You can reach me at davidsvien@hotmail.com.

And also, you can still chip in and help the fundraising efforts. Every buck counts, especially as we add cheer.

https://www.gofundme.com/2bzt6x76

 

Titles being honored:

 

BASEBALL:

1960 — Northwest League

1965 — Northwest League

1969 — Northwest League

1973 — Northwest League

1973 — District

1974 — Northwest League

1975 — Northwest League

1976 — Northwest League

1976 — District

1977 — Northwest League

1977 — District

1978 — District

1980 — Cascade League

1987 — District

1987 — 3rd at State

1991 — Northwest League

2008 — District

2016 — Olympic League

 

BOYS BASKETBALL:

1970 — Northwest League

1970 — District

1971 — Northwest League

1972 — Cascade League

1975 — Northwest League

1979 — Cascade League

1998 — Northwest League

2002 — Northwest League

 

BOYS TENNIS:

1961 — Northwest League

1967 — Northwest League

1968 — Northwest League

2002 — Northwest League

2009 — Northwest League

2009 — District

2010 — Northwest League

2011 — Northwest League

2015 — Olympic League

 

CHEER:

2006 — 1st at State

2007 — 2nd at State

2011 — 4th at State

 

CROSS COUNTRY:

1975 — Boys 9th at State

1976 — Boys 5th at State

1977 — Boys – Cascade League

1977 — Boys – District

1977 — Boys 5th at State

1981 — Girls 8th at State

1982 — Girls – Cascade League

1982 — Girls 4th at State

1985 — Natasha Bamberger – State Champ

2010 — Tyler King – State Champ

 

FOOTBALL:

1974 — Northwest League

1990 — Northwest League

 

GIRLS BASKETBALL:

1998 — Northwest League

2002 — Northwest League

2002 — 6th at State

2003 — 8th at State

2005 — Northwest League

2005 — 8th at State

2006 — Northwest League

2015 — Olympic League

2016 — Olympic League

 

GIRLS TENNIS:

1981 — Cascade League

1982 — Cascade League

1983 — Cascade League

1998 — Northwest League

1999 — Northwest League

2000 — Northwest League

2001 — Northwest League

2002 — Northwest League

2003 — Northwest League

2004 — Northwest League

2005 — Northwest League

2005 — 3rd at State

2008 — Northwest League

2009 — Northwest League

2010 — Northwest League

2011 — Northwest League

2012 — Northwest League

2015 — Olympic League

2016 — Olympic League

 

SOFTBALL:

2002 — Northwest League

2002 — 3rd at State

 

TRACK:

1979 — Jeff Fielding – State Champ (3200)

1979 — Boys 8th at State

1984 — Boys – Northwest League

1984 — Natasha Bamberger – State Champ (1600, 3200)

1984 — Girls 5th at State

1985 — Boys – District

1985 — Natasha Bamberger – State Champ (3200)

1986 — Natasha Bamberger – State Champ (3200)

1986 — Boys – 6th at State

1986 — Girls – 8th at State

1987 — Boys – Northwest League

1987 — Boys – District

1989 — Girls – Northwest League

1989 — Girls – District

2003 — Amy Mouw – State Champ (800)

2005 — Boys – Bi-District

2005 — Boys – 8th at State

2006 — Boys – Bi-District

2006 — Jon Chittim – State Champ (200, 400)

2006 — Kyle King – State Champ (3200)

2006 — Boys 4 x 400 – State Champ (Chris Hutchinson, Jon Chittim, Kyle King, Steven McDonald)

2006 — Boys – 4th at State

2007 — Kyle King – State Champ (1600, 3200)

2008 — Kyle King – State Champ (3200)

2008 — Boys – 4th at State

2010 — Tyler King – State Champ (1600, 3200)

2010 — Boys — 6th at State

2011 — Boys – 7th at State

 

VOLLEYBALL:

1997 — Northwest League

2001 — Northwest League

2002 — Tri-District

2002 — District

Read Full Post »

They were the trailblazers!!

Posted in Hall o' Fame, tagged , , , , , , , on February 26, 2016| Leave a Comment »

The 1981 CHS cross country squad braved the weather to make history, and now join Jeff Fielding (top) and Pastor Cliff Horr in the Hall o' Fame. (Photos courtesy Kerry Rosenkranz and Pat Kelley)

  The 1981 CHS harriers braved the weather to make history, and now join Jeff Fielding (top) and Pastor Cliff Horr in the Hall o’ Fame. (Photos courtesy Kerry Rosenkranz and Pat Kelley)

With the state basketball playoffs and Oscars taking most of my attention this weekend (I didn’t spend 15+ years working in video stores for nothing), we’re jumping ahead two days on our normal schedule to honor this week’s Coupeville Sports Hall o’ Fame inductees.

And, with the jump, why not focus on athletes and coaches who took CHS on a huge jump into the future?

So, with that, we welcome the 36th class into these hallowed digital walls — Cliff Horr, Jeff Fielding and the 1981 CHS girls’ cross country team.

After this, you’ll find them at the top of the blog, residing under the Legends tab.

Our first inductee, Pastor Horr, is pretty much, without argument, the most successful coach in school history.

Certainly in terms of winning (non-existent) banners for his school.

Wolf baseball coach Jim Hosek captured five straight league titles in the ’70s, but Horr almost doubled him, going a perfect 8-for-8 during the years when he guided the CHS girls’ tennis team.

The female netters, despite getting a late start thanks to the long delay before, you know, girls were allowed to play competitive sports in high school and all, hold the most league titles of any Wolf program with 17.

The first three (’81-’83) came before Horr, and current coach Ken Stange enters this season seeking his seventh, but Horr’s squads remain at the pinnacle, rolling through league play from 1998-2005.

His final squad was his best, with star players Mindy Horr and Taniel Lamb advancing all the way to the state final in doubles, where they lost a three-set war with a private school powerhouse.

That gave the Wolves a 3rd place team finish, which ties the 1987 baseball team and 2002 softball squad for the best team finish at state in the school’s 116-year history.

Our second inductee, Fielding, redefined running at CHS and blazed the trail that folks like Kyle and Tyler King would one day tear up.

During his days as a Wolf, he qualified for state seven times (four as a cross country harrier, three in track), and put his name into the history books as the first CHS athlete, in any sport, to win a state title.

After narrowly missing a cross country championship in ’78 (he was second), Fielding capped his career with an awe-inspiring senior track season in ’79.

Undefeated in the 1600 and 3200 from opening day until the state meet, he snatched second-place in the 1600 and went home champ in the two-mile event.

It would take five more years before a second Wolf (Natasha Bamberger in ’84) would win a state title and 27 before another male athlete (Jon Chittim and Kyle King in 2006) would join Fielding on top of the victory stand.

His fellow athletes from the time remember him as being the most committed, and friendly, athlete they ever went to school with.

“Kid was a genuine and nice guy. Tiny. A leader of the school. Never heard him curse or be mean to anyone,” Pat Kelley said. “Stud on the run. ASB President and Letter C club president.

“I remember coming from home to school and passing him by on the highway about seven miles out running to school with a backpack on.”

Two years after Fielding celebrated his big moment, the school achieved a landmark event on the other side of the gender divide.

Bamberger was a year away, still just a middle school phenom, when the 1981 Wolf harriers became the first girls team, in any sport, to make it to state.

Led by junior Kerry McCormick (whose daughter Erin Rosenkranz would later star for CHS as a soccer player and long distance runner), the Wolves jelled under legendary coach Craig Pedlar and were high achievers all season.

They finished second at the Cascade League championships, third at districts and then eighth at state, not only advancing there for the first time, but bringing home a trophy to boot.

A year later, with McCormick a senior and Bamberger on the squad, the Wolves would win a league title and place 4th at state.

Three years later the greatest runner in school history would win an individual state title.

Four years later the program would fall apart for lack of numbers, and, after a brief revival, fade into memory.

Today, there is no cross country program at CHS and it is a shame.

If someone finally steps up and restarts the program, they can point to the past for inspiration.

Pedlar went on to a long career, first at Coupeville, then Oak Harbor, where he taught and coached multiple sports, while team members have fanned out and become leaders in their communities who have watched their own children achieve great athletic highs.

On this, the 35th anniversary of their run into school history, we reunite the ’81 harriers and honor them for blazing a trail that still lights up the way for Wolf athletes, in any sport, today.

Inducted, as a team:

Craig Pedlar (coach)
Sharon Brown
Debbie Logan
Jill Luedtke
Kristine Macnab
Terri McClane
Kerry McCormick
Karen Reuss

Read Full Post »