A few of the many faces that fuel “Coupeville Sports.”
Two years of exclamation points flyin’ everywhere.
From Maddie Big Time banking in buzzer-beatin’ three-point bombs from the same spot on the floor in back-to-back games, 17 days apart, to that time I got ejected from the CHS press box for promoting vuvuzela horns, it’s been a wild ride.
August 16, 2012, stung by the sale of the Whidbey Examiner to Canada, I struck out on my own and hit the interwebs with this here blog.
Now, some 700+ days later, I’ve cranked out 2,308 articles, published 1.73 million photos (give or take one or two) and rediscovered why I enjoyed covering sports.
After a two-year-plus stint as Sports Editor at the Whidbey News-Times and countless years toiling as a freelancer for the Examiner, I finally have what I always wanted.
The ability to be as big an idiot as humanly possible.
The days of answering to The Man vanished in 2012, and given the chance to write whatever I want, whenever I want, however I want, has been life-altering.
I’ve covered sports on Whidbey on and off for 24 years, but the last two have trumped the first 22, by a very wide margin.
Coupeville Sports is two things in one.
It is, largely, a one-man operation, as I write 99.3% of what I publish. It is my coverage, my slant, my world.
But, at the same time, I owe much to many.
We wouldn’t be where we are if it wasn’t for the photographers, the men and women (and kids) who snap photos for me, who let me run their pics, who provide the very core of what we do here.
Shelli Trumbull and John Fisken are the all-stars, the names you see pop up most frequently in photo credits. They have been invaluable, even when Fisken cries until I go out to the concession stand and buy him a Diet Coke from time to time.
If I listed every parent who has allowed me to use a photo, we’d be here for weeks.
I’ll give a quick shout-out to Robert Bishop, Linda Hammer, Nanette Streubel, Wendy McCormick, Kali Barrio, Janine Bundy and Sylvia Arnold.
To those named and unnamed, whether you lent me one photo or several dozen, your generosity is greatly appreciated.
The coaches, the athletes, the tipsters, the gossip traders — everyone who is willing to take a moment to answer my many (probably sometimes annoying) questions. You are amazing.
A few names off the top of my head (with no disrespect to countless others — we don’t want to be here for weeks):
Madeline Strasburg, for letting me call you Maddie Big Time, Nick Streubel, for being OK with being known as The Big Hurt, Julia Myers for poppin’ her elbow, Lathom Kelley for doin’ back-flips off the gym wall and Makana Stone for being the epitome of class.
Caleb Valko, for always bringin’ the smack talk, Breeanna Messner and Amanda Fabrizi, for being the absolute gold standard for what student/athletes can and should be, and McKayla Bailey, for being God’s gift to photographers and the greatest photo bomber to ever trod this here Earth.
Madison Tisa McPhee, for letting me run a photo of you live from the ER mere moments after a soccer ball broke your nose, Taya Boonstra, who started the delicious madness known as Cookie Wars 2014, and former CHS Athletic Director Lori Stolee, who was always helpful, even when I was (frequently) ticking her off.
Anyone, and everyone, who reads Coupeville Sports, whether you turn around and say something nice afterwards or scream at me for a bit — you shape where I go with this.
The people who have sent me notes or emails, or who have said something to me in person.
Yep, even the woman who started a South Whidbey sports blog cause she was mad at me, complete with an out-of-focus banner photo, posted one article blasting me, and then vanished into the mists, never to be seen or heard from again.
The softball and baseball moms who took Cookie Wars from a far-fetched dream to a full-on, chocolate-scented battle royal for two months.
Everyone who has gone up to the top of the blog and hit the donate button or slipped me a check and done their bit to keeping me moving forward, independent and able to pay my electricity.
You are what makes this work.
In “Guardians of the Galaxy,” the walkin’, talkin’, two-fisted tree known as Groot goes through much of the film saying only three words — “I am Groot.”
Until a moment near the end, when, as he saves his compatriots, he changes it up slightly and says “WE are Groot!!”
That’s how it is here as well.
Every day, in whatever way you take part in this affair, you are valuable. You are appreciated.
Cause, in the end, “WE are Coupeville Sports!!”
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Coupeville Sports 