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Posts Tagged ‘JV’

Never stop fighting!!

Posted in Girls Basketball, tagged , , , , , on December 8, 2017| Leave a Comment »

   Wolf frosh Mollie Bailey, seen here in an earlier game, dropped in 10 points Friday against Sequim. (Photo by JohnsPhotos.net)

Never say die.

It’s one of the trademarks of any Amy King team, and Friday was no different.

Shaking off an extremely lackluster first quarter, the Coupeville High School JV girls basketball team spent the rest of the night fighting to get back into its game against visiting 2A Sequim.

Give them two or three more minutes, and we might be talking about a win.

Instead, after slicing a 12-point deficit away, the young, thin Wolves finally ran out of time and luck, falling 41-36 to the invaders.

The loss drops Coupeville to 2-2 headed into another non-conference game Saturday, this one coming on the road at South Whidbey.

Friday, the Wolves, who played very, very early (a 3:30 PM tip), took eight minutes to wake up.

Down 15-3 at the first break, Coupeville was in trouble.

“We came out so slow tonight,” King said. “Our defense in the first quarter really did not exist.

“On offense, we had turnover after turnover on our first four to five possessions,” she added. “Both offense and defense for us were passive and just not clicking.”

Coupeville desperately needed a spark, and it arrived in the form of swing player Avalon Renninger.

Needing to save playing time in case the varsity needed her services later (it did), the sophomore sensation sat out the first quarter. Once in the game, though, she was raring to shake things up.

“Avalon made a noticeable difference with the energy,” King said. “She instantly scored and had fresh legs for defense that seemed to help energize her teammates.”

With energy crackling from one end of the floor to the other, Renninger’s teammates fed off of her go-go-go attitude.

Mollie Bailey and Kylie Chernikoff “hit a few really pretty shots,” Nicole Lester knocked down a bucket, then Chelsea Prescott went off, rattling the rim with shot after successful shot.

Coupeville came all the way back to claim a short-lived lead in the fourth quarter, off of a Prescott bucket set up by a Renninger pass and a Bailey screen.

Sequim, blessed with a much deeper bench (CHS was missing four players), used its fresh legs to reclaim the lead, however, and held on down the stretch.

King still walked away happy, pleased with her team’s refusal to go down easy.

“I know a few of the girls were not feeling well tonight and we’re still short-handed, but the girls fought their hardest,” she said. “I was happy for them with their comeback. They are learning with every game.”

Prescott led the way with 13 points, 11 rebounds, a steal and a block, while Bailey torched the nets for 10 points.

Renninger (5), Chernikoff (4) and Lester (4) rounded out the scorers, with Maddy Hilkey (in her season debut) and Julia García Oñoro also seeing floor time.

Playing a strong all-around game, Chernikoff snared five rebounds and delivered two soul-searing blocks.

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Mollie mania sweeps the land!!

Posted in Girls Basketball, tagged , , , , on November 30, 2017| Leave a Comment »

Mollie Bailey, breakin’ ankles and takin’ names. (Photo by JohnsPhotos.net)

Mollie Bailey is deceptive.

While older sisters McKayla and McKenzie were more openly vocal during their playing days at Coupeville High School, the youngest member of the family is more of a laid-back cool cat.

The Wolf freshman bops along, often looking like she’s in her own little world, a place where whatever song is playing in her head is something she, and she alone, can hear and appreciate.

And then, just when you think she’s drifting, BAM, Bailey slices you off at the kneecaps and leaves you to bleed out on the field or court.

Cause deep down, under the placid exterior, frequent one-liners and love of being an accomplished photo bomber, is a stone-cold killer who is already carving out a name for herself as a prairie legend.

The latest chapter in the best seller that is Mollie played out Wednesday night, as she outscored the visiting Blaine JV girls basketball squad by herself.

Pouring in 14 points, with eight coming in a game-busting run, she sparked the Wolves to a 25-11 win, evening Coupeville’s record at 1-1 on the season.

Playing against a 2A school with a much-deeper bench, CHS made do with just 6.5 players.

Missing four girls, and with swing player Avalon Renninger limited to just two quarters, Coupeville relied heavily on its starters, and they responded.

Bailey was in a groove from the word go, threading a beautiful pass to a sprinting Tia Wurzrainer for the game’s first bucket.

That was actually the only basket the Wolves scored in a defensive-minded first quarter, yet they still led 5-4 at the break.

With Nicole Lester, Kylie Chernikoff and Chelsea Prescott dominating on defense — Lester rejected one Borderite shot, then snatched the ball away and led the break herself — Blaine struggled mightily to get the ball in the hoop.

The visitors did briefly find a rhythm, scoring the final two buckets of the second quarter and the first one of the third to pull within 11-10, the closest they had been all game.

At which point Bailey sighed, thunked the ball a little harder on the floor as she dribbled up-court, then promptly went and ripped out her defender’s still-beating heart and showed it to her.

Metaphorically…

A free throw, a three-point play the hard way (bucket and free throw), then back-to-back dead-eye jumpers staggered Blaine and the rout was on.

And Bailey had plenty of help as she KO’d the Borderites.

The ever-friendly Lester transformed superbly into an on-court wild woman, swinging sharp elbows as she hauled in rebound after rebound.

Meanwhile, Chernikoff turned a broken play into a buzzer-beating bank shot after snaring a loose ball, Prescott cleaned the glass and turned it into a second-chance bucket and Renninger drilled a jumper from the top of the key.

Toss in a nice little bit of floor time for foreign exchange student Julia Garcia Onoro, and Coupeville JV coach Amy King walked off with yet another win.

It took Bailey a few extra minutes to join her coach in the locker room, though. She had to remove all the bodies she carved up first.

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We are … Iron Women!!

Posted in Girls Basketball, tagged , , , , , , on November 27, 2017| Leave a Comment »

   Wolf freshman Chelsea Prescott knocked down 12 points Monday in her first high school basketball game. (Photo by JohnsPhotos.net)

Bench? Amy King don’t need no stinkin’ bench.

Opening a new season Monday in Bellingham, the Coupeville High School JV girls basketball squad had only six of its 11 players in uniform.

Then the Wolves lost fab frosh Genna Wright to a painful leg injury in the third quarter, leaving their coach with no more ability to sub players.

So, it doesn’t come as a huge surprise that the CHS young guns fell 41-22 to their large-school 2A rivals in a non-conference tilt.

With tired players and a Red Raiders squad which featured twin towers — the sight of players standing six-foot-one and 5-10 in a girls JV game is, shall we say, super-rare — Coupeville absorbed a few lessons.

One of those is to be wary of rival JV coaches up by 20 in the fourth quarter on opening night who are still screaming at their defenders to double on the ball-handler.

But playing against a coronary waiting to happen or not, the Wolves impressed their own coach with their refusal to back down.

“We didn’t have it easy; we worked for everything we got,” King said. “The girls did great. I was very happy with the effort they gave and the way they played.

“Now we just need to get a few more healthy bodies before the next game.”

Despite not having any players who physically matched up to Bellingham’s 6-1 banger, the Wolves shut her completely down, limiting her to a single bucket in the second half.

Four of the six Wolves took her at one point or another on defense, with Nicole Lester, Chelsea Prescott, Kylie Chernikoff and Genna Wright all denying the Red Raider skyscraper.

Bellingham boasted a full bench, and took advantage of the disparity to run the Wolves ragged.

Coupeville fought back, though, with Prescott knocking down a team-high 12 points in her first high school hoops game.

When she wasn’t shooting, the fast-rising freshman set up her teammates, with one pass to Chernikoff a particular highlight.

“Chelsea had a great drive to the basket,” King said. “The defense came out to stop her and boom… a sweet bounce pass out to Kylie and a basketball player is born.

“Kylie’s first basket in her first year playing.”

Chernikoff also had the defensive play of the night, “chasing a girl down the court, running her down, hand out, and making the block to stop a fast break lay up.”

“Our side of the gym erupted!,” King added.

Freshman spark-plug Mollie Bailey backed up Prescott with five points, while Wright dropped in three and Chernikoff added a bucket to round out the scoring.

Lester and Tia Wurzrainer were stellar on defense, helping to disrupt Bellingham’s game plan.

“Tia, Nicole and Chelsea all had steals,” King said. “Which is so great to see, the anticipation and focus they have.”

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Pray for mercy!!

Posted in Volleyball, tagged , , , , on October 25, 2017| Leave a Comment »

   Lucy Sandahl played sensationally in all aspects of the game Wednesday, sparking the Wolf JV spikers to yet another win. (Photo by JohnsPhotos.net)

Savannah Smith is having none of your shenanigans.

There was a moment Wednesday during the JV volleyball match between Coupeville and Klahowya when the visiting Eagles seemed to still have a shot.

Enter Smith, and exit all hope from the hearts of her rivals.

Rising skyward with a mighty spring, the fab frosh rejected a Klahowya shot, using the very tippy-top of her fingers to forcibly send the ball skidding downward for a winner.

Then, after pausing to roll her eyes at the mere thought that someone would try and slip a volleyball past her impeccable defense, Smith softly smiled.

But just a bit, and quickly, and then the mask o’ death dropped again across her face as she stared holes through the players on the other side of the net.

It was a look shared by her teammates as well, as the Wolf young guns continue to thrash virtually everyone who wander into their path.

A mixture of freshmen and sophomores with their eye on making the jump to varsity next year when the departure of seven seniors will open a huge hole in the roster, they are now 11-1 overall, 8-0 in Olympic League play.

Their only defeat came to ginormous 2A Port Angeles, while the JV beat the only two teams the Wolf varsity has lost to — 2A Sequim and 1A powerhouse Bellevue Christian.

The latest JV win was a 25-12, 25-22, 25-21 dismantling of Klahowya which, frankly, wasn’t as close as some of those set scores might sound.

The Eagles were scrappy and put up a fight, but when it came time to ending points with a bang, that was reserved almost solely for the Wolves.

Whether Zoe Trujillo was slicing winners at the net, Raven Vick was pounding the crud out of the ball on spikes or Emma Mathusek was setting up her teammates for success, every Wolf on the floor was clicking.

Coupeville roared out to an early lead behind pinpoint serving from Lucy Sandahl, then coasted home for the first set win behind a sparkling tip from Maddie Vondrak and Maya Toomey-Stout unleashing heck on Earth.

“The Gazelle,” who is fond of climbing in the air, then breaking the laws of gravity by hanging for an eternity, before delivering crippling kills, was in fine form.

Toomey-Stout smoked the Eagles several times, but one kill in the first set, when she bounced a winner off of not one, not two, but three different players, was a thing of particular beauty.

For a moment, she was like a pool player ricocheting the ball around, leaving a little sting on the skin of every player whose body parts conflicted with the route of her shot.

While Coupeville dominated at the net — Chelsea Prescott joined her companions in regularly tattooing winners — the best play of the night came not on an outright winner, but on a sheer hustle play.

With the score knotted up midway through the second set, Klahowya appeared to have a winner, but Kylie Chernikoff had other ideas.

The Wolf frosh was down on the floor, but threw up her hand above her head while prone, somehow redirecting the ball back into play a millisecond before it skidded away into the crowd.

That gave Chernikoff’s teammates a chance to rally on a play which should have been dead, and, when the Wolves turned it into a point several hits later, all the momentum was on their side.

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Houston, we (don’t) have a problem!!

Posted in Football, tagged , , , , , on October 16, 2017| Leave a Comment »

   Cameron Dahl heads for the end zone Monday as the Coupeville JV walloped Vashon. (Photos by JohnsPhotos.net)

   Jean Lund-Olsen ran for two touchdowns (one was called back on a penalty) and a pair of two-point conversions.

   Dawson Houston stood tall in the pocket, throwing for 205 yards and a touchdown.

Vashon’s offense sputtered under the onslaught of Gavin Knoblich (71) and Co.

Dawson Houston can kill you in many ways.

Whether he was flinging balls through the air or scampering for yardage on the ground Monday, the Coupeville High School QB was a man on a mission.

By the time he was done, Houston had rolled up close to 300 yards of offense, with more than 200 coming in the passing game, powering the Wolf JV football squad to a 16-8 win over visiting Vashon Island.

With both teams dealing with rosters which were already thin long before injuries started to further cut numbers, the game was played as a fast-moving, no-special-teams-play, eight-man game.

For a Coupeville JV squad which had gone seven weeks into the season before getting to play a game of its own, just hitting the field was a victory.

Once on the gridiron, the young Wolves seized the moment.

Brian Roberts blunted Vashon’s opening drive with a resounding sack, then Houston and the offense went to work.

Starting at the 50-yard line, the Wolves only needed one play to break the game open. Almost.

Houston hit Koa Davison on a pass over the middle which turned into a 35-yard rumble.

Unfortunately, a Vashon player coming from behind poked the ball free, forcing a fumble. As the Vikings converged on the ball, what had seemed like a sure-thing Wolf TD vanished as quickly as it was set up.

It turned out not to matter too badly, however, as Coupeville’s defense was in lock-down mode throughout the game.

Dewitt Cole recovered a fumble, James Vidoni and Trevor Bell drove the opposing QB batty and most of the Vashon possessions resulted in “punts.”

With no special teams play, teams could elect to go for it or have the ball moved a set number of yards on fourth down, surrendering without having players fly around on a kicking play.

Coupeville broke the scoreless tie late in the first quarter, getting a short touchdown run from Jean Lund-Olsen, who then added two more points on a conversion scamper.

Lund-Olsen ran unchecked most of the night, with another longer TD run, this one of the 84-yard variety, called back when one of his teammates got caught applying an illegal block way, way behind the speedy Wolf runner.

Picking apart Vashon’s defense, Houston peppered the Pirates, hitting Davison, Lund-Olsen and Gavin Straub, while saving his biggest heaves for the fingertips of Cameron Dahl.

The game-winner came late in the third quarter, with Houston double-pumping, then nailing “Rodeo” in full stride down the right side of the field.

Dahl, having beaten his defender, snagged the bomb as it dropped over his head, cut back inside and was off to score, with the cheers of Wolf fans ringing in his ears every step of the way.

Another two-point conversion run from Lund-Olsen, who shot around the right side and was untouched until he was three steps deep in the end zone, stretched out the final scoring margin.

Not that Houston and Dahl were done, as they connected on two more passes, a 35-yarder and a 25-yarder, before the final whistle blew.

That 25-yarder was Wolf JV coach Jerry “No Worries” Helm at his best.

Facing fourth-and-five with a little over a minute left to play, Coupeville got the first down when Houston faked a pass, then pulled the ball in and sprinted up field for seven yards.

The Wolves could have taken a knee on the next two plays and called it a win, but Helm was looking to get his young guns as much playing time as possible in what could be their only JV game of the season.

So, instead of a victory formation, Coupeville let it fly, with Houston pegging the ball in between two defenders to Dahl for a game-capping reception.

What if the pass had been picked, and heaven forbid, run back for a touchdown? And then, what if Vashon had gotten the two-point conversion?

“Well, then I guess we would have played overtime!,” Helm said with a big grin.

Week after week this season, the JV games have been cancelled, and, going forward, only one of the three remaining varsity foes is still on the schedule for a JV clash as well.

And that will depend on Klahowya’s willingness to play some 8-man football.

With that in mind, getting in as many plays as possible was first and foremost on the Coupeville coaching staff’s minds.

“You want to get the young guys reps,” Helm said. “To give them the chance to see what the difference in speed is like between practice and a game, to get them ready for those Friday Night Lights.

“I was very happy with how they played.”

 

To see more photos from this game (purchases help fund college scholarships for CHS student/athletes), pop over to:

http://www.johnsphotos.net/Sports/2017-Coupeville-Football/2017-10-16-JV-vs-Vashon/

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