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Posts Tagged ‘Jon Atkins’

“I believe our program is going in a great direction!!”

Posted in Football, tagged , , , , , on August 19, 2016| Leave a Comment »

Julian Welling (John Fisken photos)

   Julian Welling is one of several key returning players for first-year CHS football coach Jon Atkins. (John Fisken photo)

It’s the start of a new era.

Jon Atkins is diving in feet-first as the new head football coach at Coupeville High School, with two days of practice now under his belt.

As he and the Wolves get to know each other and prepare for their opener (Sept. 3 at home against South Whidbey), Atkins will be providing us with some of his thoughts on how things are unfolding.

He’ll be delivering a weekly address this season, which will hit the blogosphere Thursday (or early Friday in this case, since I went to bed early and ignored my emails…).

Anyway, without further ado, let’s head over to the Coaches Corner and see what Atkins has to say.

Hopefully David will let me hijack his blog for one post a week.

I don’t know if I have the knack for writing or the whimsical tone that he does, but I will try my best to keep Wolf Nation informed about our football boys throughout the season in this Coach’s Corner.

This is our first Thursday.

We have only had two days of practice and no game planning for an opponent this week; the coaching staff and the players have been working hard teaching, learning and memorizing a new playbook both offensively and defensively.

Each day the players are conditioning and getting their bodies ready for our first game on Saturday 3rd. (More on that in two weeks).

We are creating a new look for the 2016 season.

In the first few days of our fall camp in addition to installing our new defense and offense we have been installing our Core Covenants that will be the pillars in our program that the coaches believe in and will install in our players.

It is my hope that the community will see these behaviors  from our players in the community. 

The first two days we have focused on Competition and Leadership.

The players know that it is the coaching staff expectation that they compete in the classroom, on the field, or even in our Day 1 thumb war tournament competition, which ended with Co-Champions Woody Liquidano and Teo Keilwitz.

The second covenant is Leadership; all of our players are expected to be Leaders, and demonstrate Leadership in their position groups, in their PE classes and in the community.

We will install the last three covenants: Family, Commitment and Toughness.

We are thrilled to have the players out; we are still missing some faces from last year and would love to have them back out this year as well.

I believe that our program is going in a great direction and would love to have them hop on this train and enjoy the ride.

One of the differences you will see, well, you will hear if you come to practice, is a bit of practice music.

If you drive by practice you might hear some different sounds as our practice playlist changes up each day. 

We expect some AC/DC, Disturbed, Drake and Jake Owens to make an appearance on tomorrow’s practice playlist.

The coaching staff likes to make sure practice stay light and fun while getting our work done.

Next Coach’s Corner I will look to take on Burlington and La Conner in the La Conner Jamboree in our first test for Wolf Nation in 2016.

I am excited to meet all the football parents at our meeting Saturday, Aug. 20 at 4:00 PM.

PS — Don’t forget to follow us on Twitter — @WolfPrideFB.

Coach Atkins

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New gridiron coach builds stellar staff!!

Posted in Football, tagged , , , , on July 25, 2016| Leave a Comment »

Jon Atkins (John Fisken photo)

   Jon Atkins is Coupeville’s fourth head football coach in the last seven years. (John Fisken photo)

CHS football assistant coaches Ryan King, Jonathan Martin and Brad Sherman.

   CHS football assistant coaches Ryan King, Jonathan Martin and Brad Sherman all had strong high school careers of their own.

New boss, not the same as the old boss.

As Jon Atkins prepares for his first season at the helm of the Coupeville High School football squad — he’s the school’s fourth head coach in the last seven years — he’s busy putting together a staff to help his transition.

Longtime assistant (and former Wolf player) Ryan King returns, while Brad Sherman and Jonathan Martin have joined the cause.

Martin, dad of Wolf senior running back Jacob Martin, is helping King work with the linemen, while Sherman, arguably the most successful quarterback in school history, is passing on his wisdom to his successors.

The 2003 CHS grad, who holds the school season and career record for most passing yards (don’t believe the “record” board in the school gym hallway) is tutoring Coupeville’s quarterbacks and defensive backs.

Sherman has already had an impact on junior Hunter Downes, who was the team’s starting quarterback last year until an injury sidelined him.

Healthy and raring to go, the young gunslinger is listening intently to what the old-school legend has to say.

“I actually really like him after only working with him for a couple of days,” Downes said. “He really knows what he’s talking about and all of his drills and everything that he has us do just makes sense and really helps.

“It is really cool to have someone to coach QB’s who was also a great QB himself,” he added. “I think he will be a great contributor to our success down the line.”

Martin was a standout athlete at Lind High School, where he played football for three seasons and basketball all four.

A 1991 grad, he averaged 19 points a game his senior year on the hard-court and was named to the All Bi-County squad.

He coached youth football in Oak Harbor for five seasons and is looking forward to the transition of working with older players.

“I thought it was time to increase my knowledge of the game and I thought working with Jon Atkins was a good opportunity to do just that,” Martin said. “Youth football is great, but I really want a more in-depth knowledge of a whole program.”

King, who anchored the Wolf line when Coupeville had its last winning season, back in 2005, connects the program’s past with its future.

He played for Ron Bagby, who spent 26 years running the Wolf gridiron program, and is entering his sixth season as a Coupeville coach.

King started at the middle school level in 2011, working as an assistant to Bob Martin, then joined the high school staff under head coach Tony Maggio in 2013.

For this year’s seniors, players like Clay Reilly and Mitchell Carroll, Atkins will be their third head coach.

They were there for the final two campaigns of Maggio’s three-season run, then had Brett Smedley for their junior year.

The one thing connecting them together for their entire four-year run as Wolves is King, the rock on which the Wolf program is built.

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Wolf football picks new boss!!

Posted in Football, tagged , , , , , on June 10, 2016| Leave a Comment »

Jon Atkins patrols the sideline during an Oak Harbor High School girls' basketball game. (John Fisken photos)

   Jon Atkins will do double-duty, coaching football at Coupeville, while staying on as girls basketball coach at Oak Harbor. (John Fisken photo)

One part Wolf, one part Wildcat.

Jon Atkins will be balancing two schools, two teams and two towns from this point on, after being offered the head football coaching job at Coupeville High School.

While it won’t be official until the school board approves the hire at their next meeting June 27, Atkins met his new players Thursday and will run spring practices.

Taking the Wolf job, which opened up when Brett Smedley left after one season to return to Columbia River, his alma mater, Atkins will let go of his current football job — defensive coordinator for Oak Harbor.

But while he’ll be running the CHS football program, he will also remain at OHHS as a teacher and as the varsity girls’ basketball coach.

Atkins has coached in Oak Harbor the last four years.

Before that he did a stint in the U.S. Army and spent a year as an intern strength and conditioning coach at Washington State University.

The gridiron has always been important to Atkins, both as a player and coach.

“I played football since I was a young boy,” he said. “It was always a part of my life.”

After four years of high school ball, he played two years at Yuba Community College in California.

Coming out of the Army, Atkins attended Western Washington University, majoring in kinesiology.

That led him to Wazzu, before he took a detour into the world of high school athletics, getting his teaching degree along the way.

Working under Jay Turner in Oak Harbor, Atkins has been part of a successful program, one which he will still hold near and dear.

“The highlights of the program have to be the relationships that were built with the players and coaches,” Atkins said. “That I can say that the coaches and players did things the right way, even when faced with some tough decisions, we always did things right.”

He picks a playoff win over Kennedy Catholic in 2014 as a particular high point.

“One of my more memorable memories,” Atkins said. “The team really came together.”

When the Coupeville job came on the market — he will be the school’s fourth head coach in seven seasons after Ron Bagby put in a quarter-center at the helm of the Wolves — Atkins saw a chance to recapture what he experienced as a young athlete.

“I am from a small school, my alma mater has about 450 students,” Atkins said. “My former coach, Scott Turner, and Defensive Coordinator Ryan Reynolds, took that team and built a program that is respected throughout Northern California.

“More importantly, he (Turner) had a huge impact on the community and every player on his team,” he added. “I saw the CHS job as a way for me to make the same kind of impact on Central Whidbey as he did in my small town of Sutter, California.”

While he’s been on the job less than 24 hours, Atkins likes what he sees.

Coupeville went 1-9 last season, but returns a fair chunk of its starters.

That includes Hunter Smith, who owns the school single-season interception record, both players who saw time at QB a year ago — Hunter Downes and Gabe Eck — defensive whirlwinds Uriel Liquidano and Chris Battaglia, All-League punter Clay Reilly and durable running back Jacob Martin.

“I think that there is a lot of potential with this group,” Atkins said. “There are some very skilled players returning from last year’s team. They looked eager to get better and they are committed.”

The new coach plans to build around five core covenants — Commitment, Family, Toughness, Leadership, and Competition — and his new players seem eager to buy in.

“I spoke with the seniors that were out there and they seemed on board with those covenants and are going to work very hard to leave a legacy after they are gone,” Atkins said.

Goal one? An opening night win at home against arch-rival South Whidbey.

“The players and I were on the same page of returning The Bucket back to its rightful home on September 2nd.”

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