Bob Martin (left) and fellow Hall o’ Fame inductees (top to bottom) John Fisken, Jai’Lysa Hoskins, Jason Bagby and Grace LaPoint.
Indispensable.
The five members of the 44th class to be inducted into the Coupeville Sports Hall o’ Fame can all be summed up with that one word.
Whether they were/are coaching, playing or snapping pics, this five-pack is the glue which holds/held everything together.
So, with that, we welcome Bob Martin, Jai’Lysa Hoskins, John Fisken, Jason Bagby and Grace LaPoint to these hallowed digital walls.
From this point on, you’ll find them up at the top of the blog, enshrined with their brethren under the Legends tab.
Our first inductee, Bagby, was one of the most successful athletes in Coupeville High School history, a star across three (football, basketball, baseball) sports.
Part of it was genes — dad Ron was a state champion track runner in the wilds of Forks and all of Jason’s siblings are superior athletic specimens — but a lot of it was work, skills and a burning desire to kick his opponent’s fannies.
That carried him to All-League honors, huge performances in the red and black (he was the second-leading scorer on a 16-5 hoops squad in 2009-2010) and a successful run as a college ball player.
And now, a few years down the road, he’s still a beast, as evidenced by his performances during the annual Tom Roehl Roundball Classics, where he remains a bucket-making, shot-rejecting animal with mad hops.
Our second inductee, Hoskins, offered blazing speed, big school spirit, a spine of steel and underneath the mega-grin, a willingness to get feisty.
A cheerleader and basketball assassin — she delighted in dropping the boom on foes — her greatest accomplishments came on the track oval, where she ran to state glory.
As a senior in 2013, she teamed with classmate Madison Tisa McPhee and two promising freshmen, Sylvia Hurlburt and Makana Stone, to make it to Cheney in both the 4 x 100 and 4 x 200, bringing home a medal in the latter event.
Over her four years of running for the Wolves, Hoskins won 47 times as a sprinter, relay runner, high jumper and long jumper, setting a true legacy of excellence.
Her ability to excel in whatever sport she picked up was matched by LaPoint, who juggled stints in cheer, soccer, basketball, softball and track.
An absolute joy as a person who was beloved by her coaches, Grace won 10 times in two track seasons — including beating future throwing state champ Angelina Berger of South Whidbey head-to-head in the javelin during her senior campaign — then went on to play college softball.
While taking the field for Evangel University in Missouri, she also found the time to put in above-average work in the classroom and beyond.
A 2015 grad with a degree in Business Administration, LaPoint took second in the nation in the Integrated Marketing Campaign competition at the Phi Beta Lambda National Leadership Conference, which drew 1,800 competitors total.
Her drive for excellence is matched by our fourth inductee, Martin.
The former Marine has become an indispensable part of Wolf Nation, going above and beyond the call of duty to take on every coaching job necessary in recent years.
A key member of the CHS Booster Club, Martin has guided numerous athletes, male and female, working as a football, basketball and track guru at the high school, middle school and community levels.
As Coupeville has rebuilt its youth programs, which are hugely important to setting up success at the middle school and high school levels, I would wager there is no one who has been a bigger part of that success than him.
Of course, in typical low-key Martin style, he is likely rolling his eyes right now, and would say he’s just part of the team.
So, we’re going to toot his horn for him.
Without Bob Martin, and the countless hours he’s given to local youth athletics, some paid (way too little), a ton as a volunteer, we wouldn’t be seeing the rise in Wolf athletics we have been witnessing in the past couple years.
Every town needs that one person who steps up and carries everyone on their shoulders, inspiring other coaches and athletes alike.
Bob is Coupeville’s unsung MVP, and he deserves all our praise.
And a schedule which doesn’t make him and his 22-man roster play middle school football games against schools with 600+ students…
And then we reach our fifth and final inductee today, Fisken.
I am not a photographer — never have been, never will be, as I’m more likely to break a camera than get it to focus and am the last human alive without a cell phone.
Which is why Fisken, and Shelli Trumbull, one of our earliest Hall inductees, are so important.
Without Trumbull and her pics, Coupeville Sports would never have gotten off the ground.
And without Fisken and his glossy photos, and his willingness to put up with my constant nattering, we wouldn’t be soaring up in the stratosphere, making serious inroads on our mega-rich Canadian-funded newspaper rivals.
For a man who lives in Oak Harbor, and has a child at OHHS, he has bent over backwards to shoot sports in Cow Town, going out of his way to not only net mucho action shots, but all of the goofy side stuff that sets Coupeville Sports apart.
I can write a billion words (and do), but I need eyeballs to gravitate to those words, and nothing brings in the peepers like a really spectacular photo.
To say I owe him a lifetime supply of Diet Coke is an understatement.
Having bought a couple of 20-packs (what is up with that, Prairie Center? You’ve never heard of selling an actual case?!?), I remain a few trillion behind on that right now.
But, as we wait for me to catch up, welcome to the Hall o’ Fame, Fisken. Hope you brought your own beverage for the induction ceremony.
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