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Posts Tagged ‘Jon Roberts’

Killing me softly (with a pat o’ butter)!!

Posted in Fundraisers, tagged , , , , , on November 14, 2018| Leave a Comment »

“Dang it, the ‘stache stays, Sherry! In the words of ’70s rock gods ELO … It’s a livin’ thing; It’s a terrible thing to lose; It’s a given thing; What a terrible thing to lose.” (Photos by Ema Smith)

“Was I not clear on this, sir? I’m just sayin’, you give my friend here a free 7-Up and maybe you get to keep using all your fingers. Maybe.”

When she uses that strawberry shampoo.

There’s another side to the Coupeville Booster Club’s annual Crab Feed.

Sure, the event is the biggest fundraiser of the year, and sure, all that money helps drive Wolf athletics for another year.

Community members get to mingle, and all is good and well.

Unless you’re a crab!

Than it’s The Night of a Thousand Butter Pats, an urban legend crab moms pass down to scare their unruly children at bed time.

At least I’d like to think so.

One second you’re the first crab in your whole family to go to college. The next you’re headed to the big hot tub in the sky. Life comes at you fast. If you don’t stop and look around once in awhile, you could miss it.

That moment when you realize the crabs didn’t volunteer.

“Get in the pot, crabs! The Strawberry Slammer has spoken!!”

“Hey there, little crab buddies, I’ll sneak you out of this joint. You can hide in my pot of butter. Of course I brought my own butter pot … does it look like this is my first time at the rodeo, skippy?”

“Pinch, pinch, lil’ crabbies. You all float down here.”

“Goodnight, sweet crab princes, and flights of angels sing thee to thy butter-encrusted rest.”

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“The bats are starting to come alive!!”

Posted in Baseball, tagged , , , , on May 4, 2018| Leave a Comment »

   Landon Roberts and the Central Whidbey Little League Majors baseball squad are flying high after back-to-back wins over Oak Harbor. (Stephanie Montgomery photo)

Our game, our Island.

Making a bid for Whidbey dominance, the Central Whidbey Little League Majors baseball squad swept a pair of games, played on two days at two different fields, from the Oak Harbor Mariners.

After escaping with a 7-6 win Tuesday at Windjammer Park, the Wolves came home to Rhodey Thursday and strolled to a 6-2 victory.

The sweep lifts CWLL to 4-3 on the still-young campaign.

“It’s been a good, tough season so far,” said Central coach Jon Roberts. “Learning a lot about the game of baseball and teaching it to 10-13 year-olds.

“We continue to make silly mental errors while playing rather good baseball,” he added. “The bats are starting to come alive as the boys learn to catch up with the faster pitchers.”

In the first match-up the Wolves rallied from a two-run deficit to nab the come-from-behind W.

Levi Pulliam and Landon Roberts shared pitching duties, combining for seven strikeouts and scattering four hits.

CWLL committed seven errors in the game, giving Oak Harbor hope, but the Wolf bats were strong enough to answer the call.

Peyton Caveness led the way, whacking a pair of singles and a double while scampering across home plate to score three times.

Chase Anderson collected three singles, Zane Oldenstandt crunched a huge double and Jack Porter and Landon Roberts each had a base-knock.

While CWLL struggled at times on defense, it came up huge in the game’s crucial moment.

Landon Roberts, patrolling center field for the first time, chased down a rip to right-center and heaved a dart to third to prevent an inside-the-park home run by Conner Cash.

“It turned out to be the difference between extra innings and a win,” said Jon Roberts, his very-relieved dad/coach.

While Tuesday was touch-and-go, Thursday was a beat-down.

Caveness opened with two shutout innings, whiffing four, before Anderson followed with a four-inning, eight-K performance.

CWLL took advantage of a ton of free passes (including several batters being plunked), while peppering in some crucial hits along the way.

Porter and Oldenstandt delivered singles, while Caveness tore the cover off the ball, smoking a single and a triple.

In a side note, Coupeville High School hardball star Dane Lucero, who provides the little league players with a glimpse of what they can one day accomplish, made his debut as an umpire.

He earned praise from Jon Roberts for quickly showing he would be an impartial judge.

“Dane did a great job and made a great call at second base when a Wolves player was tagged out in a throw from home with an emphatic OUT with the arm pump!!”

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Fight till the final swing!!

Posted in Baseball, Little League, tagged , , , , on June 25, 2017| Leave a Comment »

   Jack Porter exits the season sporting a rather impressive shiner. (Jeff Porter photo)

Peyton Caveness is just hanging around. (Stephanie Pulliam photos)

Jon Roberts, master of sunscreen.

Pressure, what pressure? You’re looking at the most laid-back dugout in the biz.

Alex Smith is not sure about the whole “taking my picture” thing.

Landon Roberts gets limbered up.

“I throw strikes, son. It’s kind of my thing.”

They ran into the big boys.

Central Whidbey Little League soared through the Minors baseball season in style, winning tournaments and racking up win after win.

All-Star play turned out to be a bit different, however, as Coupeville’s diamond men went two and out at the district tourney.

Facing big city squads from Burlington and Anacortes, Central Whidbey got roughed up a bit, losing 27-1 Friday and 18-5 Sunday.

CWLL put up a fight in its finale, though, rapping out 10 hits.

Landon Roberts led the way with three singles and two RBI, while Peyton Caveness and Johnny Porter added a pair of base-knocks apiece.

Chase Anderson, Seth Woollet and Jordan Bradford rounded out the hit parade, each collecting a single.

Caveness was also a force on defense against Anacortes, making a spectacular diving catch while on the run in center.

In the opening game of the double-elimination tourney, Central Whidbey had a tougher time scraping out hits, finishing with three, one each from Caveness, Roberts and Anderson.

Levi Pulliam, Mike Robinett, Alex Smith, Jack Porter, Gabe Reed and Aiden O’Neill rounded out the All-Star roster.

While the season ended prematurely, Central coach Jon Roberts sees a bright future ahead for the program.

“Coaching, we made some mistakes that we will learn from and will return next year with most of the team intact, as we were a very young 9-10-11 team.”

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Sweet revenge is ours!!

Posted in Baseball, Little League, tagged , , , , on June 8, 2017| Leave a Comment »

   Chase Anderson had three hits, including a homer, as Central Whidbey won the title game of the Henry Pope Memorial Tournament. (Stephanie Pulliam photos)

“Hey, we just won! Everyone attack the photographer!!”

   The Central Whidbey coaching staff, which, unlike its rivals, remembered “Don’t use up all your pitching before the end of the tourney.”

Kyrese Simpson intently studies the pitcher for weaknesses.

Da champs.

Hard-earned hardware. (Jon Roberts photo)

Payback was epic.

Avenging its only loss of the season, the Central Whidbey Little League Minors baseball squad scorched host South Whidbey 11-0 Thursday to win the Henry Pope Memorial Tournament.

Coupeville’s sluggers entered the night thinking they would need two wins to claim the title.

But after dismantling their rivals, who had nipped them 3-2 Tuesday, Central Whidbey got an unexpected bit of good news.

South Whidbey’s coaches had gambled, and lost, burning through their pitching staff, and had to forfeit Friday’s game, which would have pitted the two squads in a winner-take-all finale.

With the wins, one by bat and one by brain (Central coaches still had several limber, and eligible, pitching arms at their disposal), CW improves to 17-1.

After winning five of six in the week-long, double-elimination tourney, Coupeville’s hardball warriors now move on to All-Star play.

But Thursday night, that was a far-off thought, as everyone was still locked firmly in celebration mode.

“Without a doubt the best single season I have ever been a part of as a player or coach,” said Jon Roberts.

The title game started off with a classy note, as Teresa Pope, the wife of the late, great South Whidbey coach for whom the tourney is named, threw out the first pitch.

As soon as it took the field, Central Whidbey was in lock-down mode.

A run in the first, another in the second, then the floodgates opened in the third, with four Coupeville players stamping on home plate.

The big blow was a thunderous home run off of the bat of starting pitcher Chase Anderson.

It was especially sweet as South Whidbey had intentionally walked Landon Roberts to get to Anderson.

Why they did that, especially on a day when he rapped out three hits, adding two singles to his long ball, will remain a mystery.

Five more runs in the top of the fourth put Central Whidbey up by 11, giving it the chance to end the game early thanks to the mercy rule.

Not that Coupeville showed much mercy, as relief pitcher Levi Pulliam closed out the game with a bang.

The final out came courtesy a “a tag that looked like a linebacker placing a forearm shiver on the runner attempting to steal third.”

Central Whidbey finished with 10 hits, with Jordan Bradford crunching a pair of singles to back up Anderson’s three-hit assault.

John Rachal, Peyton Caveness, Roberts, Mike Robinett and Johnny Porter rounded out the hit parade with a single apiece.

Anderson and Pulliam combined for five strikeouts on the mound, while Kyrese Simpson, Alex Smith and Jack Porter joined their teammates in bringing home championship medals.

The 11-man squad is led by coaches Craig Anderson, Jon Roberts, Sandy Roberts, Michael Bradford, Josh Fiske, Ryan Lang and Jeff Porter.

Scorekeepers Adam Caveness and Jen Porter round out the brain trust.

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A blast from the past!!

Posted in Football, tagged , , , , , on August 31, 2016| Leave a Comment »

Today and yesterday, the football players of 1986. Mitch Aparicio (1) is joined by clockwise from top right, David Ford, his brother Marc, Rusty Bailey, Jay Roberts and Brad Trumbull.

   Today and yesterday, the football players of ’86. Mitch Aparicio (1) is joined by clockwise from top right, David Ford, Marc Aparicio, Rusty Bailey, Jay Roberts and Brad Trumbull.

What was your dad doing 30 years ago this fall?

Probably being a bad-ass, that’s what.

Going through piles of paperwork found at the bottom of a filing cabinet deep in the darkest heart of the CHS gym complex, I stumbled across a stat sheet for the 1986 Wolf football team.

Many of the names are fixtures in the local community, fair-haired lads who grew up to sire Cow Town athletic stars of the present day.

What better time to put their youthful exploits out on the internet, where they can be received with much hootin’ and hollerin’ by their progeny?

The ’86 squad, which celebrates a 30-year anniversary this fall (if the players care) is one of four Wolf gridiron squads to make it to the state playoffs in the modern era.

While they didn’t win a league title like the ’74 or ’90 teams, the ’86ers do have the distinction of coming the closest to a state win of any of the four CHS football teams.

They fell 21-15 to Naselle Nov. 15, 1986, losing by less than a touchdown.

By contrast, ’74 lost 12-0 to Willapa Valley, ’87 was rolled 34-7 by Mossyrock and ’90 was thumped 34-14 by Rainier in their state playoff battles.

Not having come to Whidbey Island until ’89, I never saw the ’86 squad play in person, though I frequently bump into many of the team’s players in modern times.

Looking just at the stark black and white of the stat sheet, it was an impressive team, one which outscored foes 201-95 on the season.

You might hang around for a quarter (the Wolves held a slim 45-40 edge in first quarter play), but then Coupeville would put you down with a vengeance.

The second quarter was where the massacre generally went down, with the Wolves drilling opponents 61-13.

There was little hope of a comeback after halftime, as the third (41-23) and especially the fourth (54-19) were almost as brutal on teams not wearing red and black.

Or was it still red and white back then?

The ’86 squad was fairly well balanced, gaining 1,106 yards on the ground and 1,386 through the air.

They were also, apparently, a fairly rough crew. Or just not great at avoiding the watchful eye of the ref.

One of the few places where they lose the statistical battle is on penalties, where they racked up 80 miscues, giving back 728 yards, almost 250 more than their foes (63-489) did.

Call them the Raiders-lite.

The stats from 30 falls ago:

Offense:

Passing:

Brad Brown 91 completions in 197 attempts
Tom Conard 3-7

Receiving:

Steve Konek 26 receptions for 516 yards
Chad Gale 24-346
David Ford 11-132
Mitch Aparicio 11-107
Dan Nieder 8-105
Rick Alexander 8-79
Jay Roberts 1-37
Rusty Bailey 1-27
Marc Aparicio 3-25
Brown 1-7
Jeff Sobieski 1-2
Tony Ford 1-0

Rushing:

Mi. Aparicio 94 carries for 522 yards
Alexander 74-413
Brown 52-220
Alan Weddel 18-65
Gale 2-27
Aaron Hall 6-11
Bailey 3-6
Conard 3-0
David Cox 2-(-2)
Rick McCormick 1-(-5)

Defense:

Tackles:

Konek 38
Alexander 34
Mi. Aparicio 31
Nieder 27
John Beasley 26
Weddel 25
Morgan Roehl 24
D. Ford 23
Cox 17
Roberts 16
Chip Perkins 12
Ma. Aparicio 11
Bailey 10
T. Ford 9
Scott Losey 8
GT Wolfe 6
Brown 5
Jason Jones 5
Kevin King 5
Conard 4
Eric Gunter 3
Andrew Bird 2
Gale 2
Hall 2
Sobieski 2
Nick Zustiak 2
Don Gullick 1
Steve Lewis 1
McCormick 1
Brad Trumbull 1

Assists

Beasley 38
Mi. Aparicio 30
Alexander 27
Konek 25
Weddel 23
Roberts 20
Perkins 18
Nieder 17
Cox 16
Losey 14
Ma. Aparicio 14
D. Ford 13
Bailey 10
Roehl 7
Wolfe 5
T. Ford 3
Gunter 3
McCormick 3
Sobieski 3
Gale 2
Gullick 2
Jones 2
King 2
Bird 1
Brown 1
Theron Wofford 1
Zustiak 1

Interceptions:

Konek 7 (tied for CHS single-season record)
Nieder 7 (tied for CHS single-season record)
Alexander 2
Mi. Aparicio 2
Ma. Aparicio 1
Bailey 1

Special Teams:

Kickoff returns:

Weddel 8 for 140 yards
Mi. Aparicio 4-67
T. Ford 3-29
Brown 1-12
Gale 1-11
Alexander 2-10
Hall 1-8
Sobieski 1-7

Punt returns:

Brown 4-53
Mi. Aparicio 2-42
Trumbull 1-7

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