CJ Smith lines up a free throw. (John Fisken photos)
Isaac Vargas gets his body in between an opposing player and a potential rebound.
Beauman Davis triggers the play.
It was a season of progress.
The Coupeville High School JV boys’ basketball team didn’t set the world on fire with its win-loss record, but there were a lot of positives.
Players who show potential for the seasons to come. Moments when, as a team, the Wolves looked promising.
Now, as Coupeville gets free of playing 700-student 2A schools — CHS, the smallest 1A school in the state, is leaving the eight-team 1A/2A Cascade Conference and moving into a new four-team 1A division of the Olympic League this fall — the goal is simple.
Get more floor time.
Coupeville is rebuilding its feeder programs, which had fallen on hard times in recent years, and the Wolves will play much more off-season ball than in years past.
Sending experienced players onto the court — regardless of who the competition may be — is paramount for success.
Wolf JV coach Dustin Van Velkinburgh’s thoughts as he looks back at the season just wrapped and what’s ahead:
After some time to reflect, I have come to the conclusion that our JV season was more a success than numbers and wins would suggest.
With a very athletic group of kids, at times we were able to play with almost every team we faced. In every game this year we had spurts where we played good basketball.
Over half of our JV team are in their infancy of their basketball careers, having played less than three years.
In talking to other coaches who have been successful (as far as wins) there is one commonality — their kids play a ton of basketball every year.
Some teams play as many as 100 games. And that’s only counting the games that are organized by their coaches.
We have a group of athletes coming through our program that have the ability to have success, but how much success is directly linked to how hard they decide to work in the off-season.
I’m very excited to see who steps up to be a leader for this group.
Next year, I believe, will be a break-out year for our program, helping to restore some of the prominence that once surrounded the CHS boys’ basketball program.
Coupeville Sports 