Feeds:
Posts
Comments

Posts Tagged ‘Klahowya’

Back in first!!

Posted in Girls Basketball, tagged , , , , , on January 16, 2018| Leave a Comment »

   Defensive hustle, like this shown by Ema Smith in an earlier game, has kept the Wolf girls in games this season. (Photo by JohnsPhotos.net)

The road to an Olympic League girls basketball title still goes through Coupeville.

While this year’s Wolves, battered by injuries and defections, aren’t running roughshod like they did the previous three seasons, they are still very much in the hunt for another crown.

That much was shown Tuesday, when CHS used a blistering defensive stand to throttle visiting Klahowya 28-17.

With the win, the Wolves rise to 3-2 in league play, 5-11 overall, and force a three-way tie at the top of the conference with four league games to play.

Port Townsend (3-2, 5-8) and Chimacum (3-2, 6-8), which Coupeville faces Friday, are part of the logjam, while Klahowya (1-4, 3-11) brings up the rear.

Facing off Tuesday with an Eagles squad which was coming off a big win over Chimacum, the Wolves clamped down and never let up.

Ferocious on the boards, Coupeville hounded Klahowya into a ton of bad shots and then snatched away the resulting rebounds.

While their own offensive prowess fluctuated throughout the game, the Wolves also proved deadly at the line, where they had a 13-5 advantage in made free throws.

The game didn’t exactly get off to a roaring start on the offensive end, as neither team scored in the first three minutes-plus, while Klahowya didn’t sink its first bucket until the 2:31 mark of the first quarter.

Clinging to a 4-2 lead at the first break, the Wolves promptly went scoreless for almost the first half of the second quarter.

But then, with the game knotted at 4-4, Scout Smith handed her squad a lead it would never relinquish.

The Wolf sophomore slashed to the hoop, drew the foul, then calmly swished a pair of free throws through the net to kick-start what would be an 11-0 run to end the half.

Scout Smith also drilled a jumper from the side during the surge, while Ema Smith, playing on a bum leg, but hiding it well, dropped in five, packaging a pair of buckets around a free throw.

Hannah Davidson slid a pair of free throws through the net with just a few ticks to play, and with Coupeville’s defense refusing to bend to Klahowya’s will, the game was 15-4 and firmly headed to the win column at the break.

The second half was a fairly even battle, with Lindsey Roberts stepping in to the spotlight to seal the deal for the Wolves.

The long ‘n lanky junior cleaned the boards like a pro, threw down seven points with a variety of moves — including a three-ball and a beautiful catch-and-roll through the paint for a layup — then punctuated things with a spike.

Late in the fourth, Klahowya was out on the break and had numbers, but Roberts, coming from behind, went airborne and firmly rejected an Eagle shot off the back wall.

Catching the ball with her fingertips, while avoiding the shooter’s body, she effectively ended the night’s conversation with a firm “No, ma’am!!”

Roberts block was emblematic of the defensive grit which has kept the Wolves afloat, even after they lost their #1 scorer when Mikayla Elfrank suffered a brutal ankle injury mid-season.

“Our defense keeps us in games and has really improved as the season has gone on,” said Coupeville coach David King. “Always happy to see us play like that.”

While Roberts was a one-woman wrecking crew, King also hailed the defensive work of others such as Sarah Wright, Allison Wenzel and Hannah Davidson, who “had her best game of the season.”

Coupeville, as it has done for much of the season, spread out its offensive workload, with Roberts tossing in a team-high nine.

Ema Smith banked home seven in support, while Scout Smith and Kyla Briscoe each added four.

Davidson and Wright rounded out the scoring with two apiece, Wenzel and Chelsea Prescott brought hustle when they were on the floor and Elfrank and Avalon Renninger were solid cheerleaders for their teammates.

Read Full Post »

Heart, soul and passion!!

Posted in Girls Basketball, tagged , , , , , , on January 6, 2018| Leave a Comment »

   Sarah Wright filled up the stat sheet Saturday, collecting five points, seven rebounds, two steals and an assist in a Wolf win. (Photo by JohnsPhotos.net)

It was gut check time, and the Wolves passed.

Playing on the road less than 24 hours after its worst offensive performance of the season, missing its top scorer and facing the unthinkable — a slide into the Olympic League cellar — the Coupeville High School girls basketball squad responded with grit and fire.

Putting together a ferocious defensive stand in the late going, the Wolves rallied to upend host Klahowya 29-23 Saturday, evening their conference mark at 1-1.

Now 3-9 overall in a rebuilding year, CHS pulled within a half game of Chimacum (2-1) and a full game of Port Townsend (3-1) in the league standings.

The three-time defending champs, who lost four starters before the season (three to graduation, one to a transfer) and two more starters in the past month (one to injury, one who quit), needed to dig deep, and they did.

Hitting seven of 10 free throws in the fourth quarter, after netting just 5-15 up to that point, Coupeville used a 12-5 surge in the final eight minutes to turn a one-point deficit into a semi-comfortable win.

“The fourth hit and something clicked,” said Wolf coach David King. “We came out with more fire, a confidence, one could say.

“Our energy was at its highest throughout the fourth,” he added. “We threw on a press and created havoc. Got some turnovers and got them sped up.”

Trailing 18-17 after three quarters of defensive struggle, the Wolves seized their moment.

Lindsey Roberts, stepping up big to fill the gap left by the absence of top scorer Mikayla Elfrank, out with a severe ankle injury, dropped in both ends of a one-and-one opportunity at the free throw line.

That put CHS up 21-20, and gave it a lead it would never relinquish.

To drive home the point, the Wolves immediately jumped on Klahowya on the very next play, stealing the in-bounds pass and turning it into a game-busting play.

With the shot clock running down, Sarah Wright set a screen for Kyla Briscoe, who drove right to left, got into the free throw line area, then threaded a flawless pass to Roberts on the wing.

The never-nervous junior caught the ball and promptly drained a three-ball, stretching the lead to four and knifing the Eagles for good.

“That play was the one that we could see the air went out of the Klahowya players,” King said.

Down the stretch, Coupeville iced the game with free throws and another play run to perfection by Wright and Briscoe.

On this one, Briscoe came off of a screen set by her teammate, rolled inside the charity stripe and singed the nets with a jumper over the outstretched arms of a defender who was a step too late to stop her.

Rebounding quickly after a sub-par 17-point performance in a non-conference loss to 2A North Mason, King was thrilled to see his players show their heart and will to win.

“Everyone had better games than last night,” he said. “It really was a game to see what we were made of, and we found a way.

“It was a well-deserved win by and for the players.”

Playing in Klahowya’s deadly-quiet gym, the Wolves allowed their hosts to be the aggressors in the early going. After falling behind 8-4 at the end of one quarter, however, Coupeville noticeably toughened up.

Wright ripped down “a monster rebound” in the second quarter, in which she out-dueled three rivals in her pursuit of the ball, and that lit a spark under the Wolves.

Radically cutting down their turnovers in the second half, and relentlessly attacking the hoop (“I’ll take 25 free throws every game!”), Coupeville turned the tide.

“They battled the whole night,” King said.

With Elfrank injured, Avalon Renninger sick and Hannah Davidson on her way back from an out-of-state trip, Coupeville only went seven deep Saturday, but got big play from everyone in uniform.

Ema Smith was a whirling dervish on both ends of the floor, and when foul trouble sent her to the bench, freshman Chelsea Prescott stepped up, hitting the boards hard.

Still recovering from her own illness, Scout Smith was healthier than she had been against North Mason and brought “energy and heart to the court,” while Allison Wenzel drew a tough assignment and nailed it.

Matched up against Klahowya’s talented Amber Bumbalough, Wenzel was an aggressive shadow, always with a hand in her face, preventing the Eagle gunner from getting hot.

“Allison is a hard-nosed defender and she did a great job all night,” King said.

Rounding out the Wolf bench were Maddy Hilkey and Ashlie Shank, who made the jump up from the JV squad. While the duo didn’t see floor time, they brought an extra jolt of energy as vocal cheerleaders for their teammates.

With Elfrank expected to be out for much, if not all, of the rest of the regular season, others will need to help fill the gap.

“We need everyone else to step up their games,” King said. “It’s going to have to be a team effort. Tonight, that’s exactly what it was.

“All of the players have a well-earned day off tomorrow.”

Roberts paced the Wolves, throwing down a double-double with 11 points and 10 rebounds, while still finding time to pilfer three steals.

Briscoe, Ema Smith and Wright each dropped five points in support, while Prescott notched three.

Every girl who played helped fill up the stat sheet, with Briscoe (five rebounds, three steals, two blocks) and Ema Smith (five boards, four steals, two assists) busy bees.

Wenzel ripped down three rebounds, while Scout Smith picked the pocket of an Eagle ball-handler twice.

Read Full Post »

“It was a very tough game!!”

Posted in Girls Basketball, tagged , , , , , on January 6, 2018| Leave a Comment »

   Maddy Hilkey is not too sure about the quality of the refs in Klahowya. (Amy King photo)

Playing on the road for the second time in less than 24 hours, and with a thin roster to boot, the Coupeville High School JV girls basketball squad struggled Saturday against a rugged Klahowya team.

Despite a strong effort on the boards, the young Wolves fell 33-17, evening their Olympic League mark at 1-1 on the season.

Coupeville’s JV sits at 5-6 overall heading home to play Tuesday against Port Townsend.

Facing off with Klahowya, and playing second after the Wolf varsity won in the opener, Amy King’s squad got out-muscled a bit.

“There was a lot of Eagle contact – they are always super aggressive,” she said. “We pull a rebound down, they have two to three girls mauling whoever has the ball.

“Our girls don’t appreciate that much contact, so…”

The Wolves, who only suited seven with several players missing, got strong games from Maddy Hilkey and Genna Wright.

“Maddy and Genna played the most controlled during the whole game,” King said. “Maddy found herself at the free throw line a lot in the second half because she was getting some good shots off of being fouled.

“Genna was just a tough player who worked hard on both ends of the court.”

Ashlie Shank and Nicole Lester both took rebounds back up strongly, netting buckets on second-chance plays, while Lester also hooked up with point guard Mollie Bailey for the best basket of the night.

Finding herself matched up with a smaller defender, Lester, listening to her coach, stepped in front of the Eagle and converted after getting a quick pass delivered onto her fingertips.

“Mollie and Nicole locked eyes and it was an easy basket,” King said. “Something we did not get too many of during the night.”

Hilkey paced the Wolves with a team-high nine points, and, after one made free throw, one of her teammates tried to get a little extra.

Foreign exchange student Julia García Oñoro, still learning the intricacies of American basketball, snatched the ball away from the Eagles and tried to inbound it.

“We look and Julia had picked up the ball and was trying to throw it in,” King said. “Funnier, the Klahowya team was trying to defend the throw in.

“It was determined that it was actually their ball,” she added. “Then you hear Sarah (Wright’s) voice from the bleachers: ‘She’s from Spain.’ It was pretty funny.”

Even in a loss, King came away happy with her player’s fight. Whether the ball belonged to them or not, they weren’t willing to go down easy.

All seven Wolves who suited up had at least one rebound, with defensive dynamo Tia Wurzrainer snatching six boards and making off with three steals.

“Despite the score, the girls never let down,” King said. “Their effort was there and it was one of the better games, with everyone fighting and playing with energy from start to finish.”

Read Full Post »

No refs for you!!

Posted in Boys Basketball, tagged , , , , , on January 6, 2018| Leave a Comment »

   Wolf fans were expecting action like this Saturday. It didn’t happen, though, as a lack of refs forced a rare postponement. (Photo by JohnsPhotos.net)

Talk about anticlimactic.

The stage was set Saturday for an exciting evening of high school basketball, with Klahowya in town for a big Olympic League game.

Win, and Coupeville would improve to 2-0 in conference play and sit alone atop the league.

If you’re a stats hound, you also knew Wolf senior Hunter Smith, who is averaging 19.2 points a night, needed just 20 Saturday to jump from #23 to #18 on the CHS career scoring chart.

In doing so, he would have swept past Wolf legends Wade Ellsworth, Pat Bennett, Foster Faris, Virgil Roehl and Gavin Keohane.

But then, in one fell swoop, all the air went out of the gym.

For reasons yet unclear, not a single ref showed for the game, and, despite scrambling, CHS officials were unable to track down any local ones sitting around their house on a Saturday evening.

Faced with no other choices, the game was officially postponed, and all tickets were refunded.

The game will be rescheduled at a later date.

While the Wolves and Eagles could have played the JV contest without official refs, using coaches in their place, that’s not allowed for varsity contests.

So, for the moment, Coupeville remains 1-0 in league play, with three games, the first two league clashes, scheduled for next week.

CHS travels to Port Townsend Tuesday, welcomes Chimacum to town Wednesday, then heads to Sultan for a non-conference rumble next Saturday.

Read Full Post »

Bye, bye, bye (Olympic League)!!

Posted in Everything changes, Olympic League, tagged , , , , on December 6, 2017| Leave a Comment »

   Jake Pease and the rest of Coupeville’s underclassmen will jump to a new league next school year. (Photo by JohnsPhotos.net)

Change is in the air.

After a very-successful four-year run in the 1A Olympic League, in terms of wins, titles and confidence restored, Coupeville High School is swapping leagues.

Now the question is which direction CHS goes in — down to 2B, where it thrived for many years, or to a new 1A league formed out of the smoldering ruins of its former home in the Cascade Conference.

Coupeville Athletic Director Willie Smith confirmed Wednesday the school would leave the Olympic League at the end of the 2017-2018 school year and outlined the wide-open future.

In his words:

Coupeville has decided to leave the Olympic League (high school) and North Olympic League (middle school) for the following reasons:

**Out of class time for students: we are very often leaving the school at 11:00-12:00 and not returning until 9:30 at night.

During district tournaments the return times are often much later, as the majority of the tournaments are in the Tacoma area (and this year fast-pitch will be traveling to Lacey to play their tourney) requiring us to take the Mukilteo/Clinton ferry at a much later time.

**Cost: we were over our transportation budget by over $15,000 last year due to the use of the ferry for every away league game in HS, every away game in MS, many non-league away games with the 2A’s of the Olympic League, travel to/from district events in Tacoma, and staying overnight for district tournaments that were two-day tourneys that played on back-to-back days.

**Scheduling: we have to schedule games around the PT/Keystone ferry schedule. Neither the ferry or reservation system works as consistently as we need and we had multiple re-schedules as well as cancellations due to ferry-related issues.

In addition, the 1A’s were planning on reducing the number of league games we played each from three to two, which would result in trying to find an inordinate amount of non-league games for each season.

As an example: in a 20-game season (basketball, baseball, fast-pitch) we would only have 6/20 league games and trying to find 14 non-league games to fill the schedule.

The resulting schedule would not be consistent in days we play, number of games per week, and more importantly, in meaningful league games.

So what’s our path?

We are at the end of the first two years of the WIAA four-year cycle, which means we can apply for two things: re-classification or joining another league; we are doing both.

Our current grades 9-11 enrollment is below the 2B cutoff and we are in process of appealing to the WIAA to move into the 2B classification.

We will not find out their decision until January 28th.

If approved, we would then apply to join the Northwest 2B League (Concrete, Darrington, La Conner, Friday Harbor, Orcas Island).

We don’t know what the WIAA will consider as significant change in enrollment, as this is the first time the WIAA has ever had to render these decisions.

Neither myself or WIAA representatives can really speak to whether we have a legitimate chance of winning the appeal but we are appealing.

We have had a long history of playing all of these teams and play them in non-league games on a regular basis, so it’s not really a stretch for us to move in this direction.

We have also inquired and have begun the process of looking into joining the newly formed 1A North Sound Conference, which currently consists of Sultan, South Whidbey, Granite Falls (appealing to drop from 2A to 1A), King’s, and Cedar Park Christian.

We have had a long history of playing the majority of these teams and play them in non-league games on a regular basis, so it’s not really a stretch for us to move in this direction.

It’s a 1A only league, which we have not been in for over 10 years.

Nothing, other than exiting the Olympic League at the conclusion of this year, is set, and even that needs approval from District 3, District 1, and the WIAA, which should happen, but is not always 100%.

There are a lot of documentation, hearings, and legwork that is currently being done, and will continue to be done before anything firm happens.

I would like to add that I have nothing but positive things to say about the Olympic League and its Athletic Directors.

They brought us in and re-worked an entire league in order to make it happen for Coupeville at a time when we desperately needed a change.

It helped our programs get healthy again, kids turning out, and we have had a lot of successes in the Olympic League.

But, and very importantly, it comes down to what is best for our schools and our kids.

The amount of time and school our kids miss coupled with the reality of the costs has really made us (coaches, administration) look at where we were at and a change was something that needed to occur.

Prior to bringing in four 1A schools in 2014 — Coupeville, Klahowya, Port Townsend and Chimacum — the Olympic League was a 2A conference.

In the three-plus seasons of the 1A division, Coupeville has won 11 league titles and claimed 153 varsity wins against its three 1A foes.

Girls basketball and tennis, which have yet to lose a league contest, each own three titles. Volleyball (2), boys tennis (2) and baseball (1) also have added to the school’s Wall of Honor.

Read Full Post »

« Newer Posts - Older Posts »