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Posts Tagged ‘Nick Etzell’

Diamond dandies debut dashingly!!

Posted in Baseball, tagged , , , , on March 11, 2018| Leave a Comment »

   It’s Opening Day, but James Vidoni already has the beard in mid-season form. (Photos by JohnsPhotos.net)

Wolf catcher Gavin Knoblich swaps baseballs (and small talk) with the ump.

Coupeville players hang out in the (surprising) sunshine.

Julian Welling awaits the throw at first.

CJ Smith, a roiling cauldron of emotion.

Shane Losey eyes his next victim.

Nick Etzell goes low to snag a hot grounder.

Opening Day went off without a hitch.

Astonishingly nice weather on the prairie, a big win for Coupeville High School baseball over highly-regarded Lynden Christian, and plenty of glossy pics.

To see everything John Fisken snapped (varsity and JV), pop over to:

https://www.johnsphotos.net/Sports/Coupeville-Baseball-2017-2018/2018-03-10-vs-Lynden-Christan/

When you land there, remember, any purchases help fund college scholarships for CHS student/athletes.

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Wolves nibble Cowboys!!

Posted in Boys Tennis, tagged , , , , on September 27, 2017| Leave a Comment »

   Pedro Gamarra fought like a wild man Wednesday, pulling out a tough win at #1 singles. (Photo by JohnsPhotos.net)

It was domination, pure and simple.

Which didn’t mean it always came easy, though.

The Coupeville High School boys tennis team took an important step Wednesday on the path to fighting for a third straight Olympic League championship.

Putting visiting Chimacum down hard, the Wolves rolled to a 7-0 win, evening their conference record at 1-1.

That pulls the Wolves back within a game of Klahowya (2-0) heading into a road match Friday with the Eagles.

Return from Silverdale with a victory and Coupeville would be tied for first, with the schools having split their first two meetings this season.

With Chimacum (0-2) being unable to mount a serious resistance, the title is fated to be a two-team race.

If CHS gets payback Friday, then Oct. 5, when Klahowya comes to Whidbey Island, would likely be a winner-take-all rumble with the league title at stake.

While the Cowboys aren’t anywhere close to being as dangerous as the Eagles, Chimacum did put up a strong battle in Wednesday’s premier match.

That one pitted Wolf foreign exchange student Pedro Gamarra against Port Townsend’s Isaiah Treibel.

The RedHawks don’t have a tennis program, so they have an agreement with Chimacum which allows a handful of players to swing a racket alongside their normal rivals.

Treibel, a strong player against the Wolves in the past, came out firing, but Gamarra didn’t wilt, mixing power with pluck.

The duo took turns lashing winners, with Gamarra kicking the ball soccer-style into the net on failed points, and the action seemed to relax the Spaniard and help him focus.

Despite trailing in both sets, he fought his way back again and again, finally felling Treibel in a second-set tiebreaker.

When the last point fell in, Gamarra’s American teammates whooped and hollered, causing the low-key netter to crack a quiet smile as he exited the court.

Other than in #1 singles, Coupeville romped, with five of the other 10 varsity sets played ending in a 6-0 win for the Wolves.

Complete Wednesday results:

Varsity:

1st Singles — Pedro Gamarra beat Isaiah Treibel 6-4, 7-6(7-5)

2nd Singles — Jakobi Baumann beat Emmett Erickson 6-0, 6-0

3rd Singles — Nile Lockwood won by forfeit

1st Doubles — William Nelson/Joey Lippo beat JJ Klaric/Jack Treibel 6-0, 6-2

2nd Doubles — Nick Etzell/Mason Grove beat Roman Powell/Tawan Lamaichampa 6-1, 6-1

3rd Doubles — Drake Borden/Zach Ginnings beat Nate Miller/TJ Brennan 6-0, 6-4

4th Doubles — Tiger Johnson/Jaschon Baumann beat Eli Bufford/Jack Gibbons 6-0, 6-1

JV:

5th Doubles — Thane Peterson/Koby Schreiber lost to Powell/Lamaichampa 6-2

6th Doubles — Harris Sinclair/Lockwood trailed Erickson/Klaric 4-1 (ferry)

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A bump in the road!!

Posted in Boys Tennis, tagged , , , , on September 16, 2017| Leave a Comment »

   Pedro Gamarra teamed with Jakobi Baumann to pick up a win at #3 doubles Friday afternoon. (Photo by JohnsPhotos.net)

Ken Stange rolled the dice, and it almost worked.

Stacking his top players in the doubles slots Friday, the Coupeville High School boys tennis coach played the odds against Klahowya, but the Eagles slipped through his grasp.

Pulling out late wins at #2 and #4 doubles, KSS escaped with a 5-2 win on its home courts, putting at least a momentary ding in the Wolves shield.

The conference loss dropped Coupeville to 1-3 overall, 0-1 in Olympic League play and will force the Wolves to fight back if they want to stretch their run of league titles to three years.

CHS still has plenty of time, though, with two more match-ups against Klahowya (Sept. 29 in Silverdale and Oct. 5 in Coupeville) and three against league door mat Chimacum.

Friday afternoon the Wolves got another win from top doubles duo William Nelson and Joey Lippo, who remained undefeated, cruising to a straight-sets win a match after a titanic fight against a Kingston pair.

The other Coupeville victory came courtesy Jakobi Baumann and Pedro Gamarra, who dropped down from singles to play together for the first time.

The difference between a 5-2 loss and a 4-3 win hinged on the other two doubles matches, but the Wolves dropped #2 doubles after being up a set, and fell in a razor-thin pro set in #4 doubles.

Complete Friday results:

Varsity:

1st Singles — Nile Lockwood lost to Taylor Fite 6-0, 6-0

2nd Singles — Zach Ginnings lost to Jacob Kraft 6-2, 6-1

3rd Singles — Drake Borden lost to Drew Kraft 6-0, 6-4

1st Doubles — William Nelson/Joey Lippo beat Morgan Seidel/William Stewart 6-1, 6-2

2nd Doubles — Nick Etzell/Mason Grove lost to Joe Bowman/Nick Hytinen 3-6, 6-3, 6-3

3rd Doubles — Pedro Gamarra/Jakobi Baumann beat Parker Short/Carson Short 7-5, 6-4

4th Doubles — Tiger Johnson/Jaschon Baumann lost to Dominic Westland/Eric Lochis 9-7

JV:

5th Doubles — Thane Peterson/Koby Schreiber lost to Cameron Johnson/Dylan Jackson 8-1

6th Doubles — Peterson/Schreiber lost to Tyler Godsey/Dakota Johnson 8-3

7th Doubles — Harris Sinclair/Ginnings beat Aiden Adams/Joe Potter 8-5

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Small roster, big dreams!!

Posted in Boys Tennis, tagged , , , , on August 30, 2017| Leave a Comment »

   CHS sophomore Mason Grove will hold down one of the varsity singles slots. (John Fisken photos)

After a breakout season in 2016, junior Jakobi Baumann is back for more.

Small but deadly.

The Coupeville High School boys tennis team isn’t exceptionally deep in numbers this season, but, what’s there, is pretty good.

Wolf coach Ken Stange will roll out 14 players when action starts next Tuesday, and, topped by a doubles duo with a solid shot of tangling for a berth to the state tourney, his squad is ready to rumble.

“We are a small team, and this could prove detrimental if players miss matches for any reason,” Stange said. “Many of our players are inexperienced, but are picking the game up quickly.

“It’ll be nice to have a match on the first day of school,” he added. “That will give us some useful information moving forward.”

Coupeville is the two-time defending Olympic League champs, and hasn’t lost a conference tilt since 2014.

To stay on track, the Wolves will need to stay healthy (they need 11 players for a varsity match) and focused.

“I expect that we will compete for our third straight league title,” Stange said. “We should also see Joey (Lippo) and Will (Nelson) repeat as league doubles champs, and hopefully a spot at state.

“I expect two or three of our singles players to qualify for districts,” he added. “Klahowya has the defending league and district singles champ, but beyond that, our guys are tough.”

The senior duo of Nelson and Lippo will anchor the team at #1 doubles, while all three of last year’s varsity singles players — senior Nick Etzell, junior Jakobi Baumann and sophomore Mason Grove — are back as well.

“They (the singles players) should shoulder more of the load this year, in terms of individual match wins,” Stange said.

Jaschon Baumann, Tiger Johnson, Zach Ginnings, Nile Lockwood, Koby Schreiber, Thane Peterson, Drake Borden, Harris Sinclair and foreign exchange student Pedro Gamarra round out the roster.

When CHS kicks off the new year Sept. 5 at home against 2A foe Port Angeles, it will mark the start of Stange’s 25th season as a tennis coach at the school.

It will be his 13th season at the helm of the Wolf boys, while he also has 12 campaigns with the Coupeville girl netters.

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Learning on the job!!

Posted in Baseball, tagged , , , , on June 20, 2017| Leave a Comment »

   Nick Etzell rapped out four hits at a weekend baseball tourney. (John Fisken photo)

Ignore the record and focus on the lessons learned.

That was the mantra for the Coupeville High School baseball squad after it absorbed four losses in as many games at a three-day tourney in Anacortes.

“It’s not a weekend we are going to brag about, but we put together a team and now we need to learn to play together and work as a team,” said CHS coach Chris Smith.

“We had a very good chance to win three of our four games and unfortunately we lacked the mental maturity and toughness to do so under less than ideal situations.”

Coupeville had to fight through player availability issues and injuries to field a squad.

“We had a lot to work around this weekend,” Smith said. “There were some big challenges and overall as a team we just couldn’t quite overcome them to pull off a W.”

The Wolves were one-runned in two of their games, being nipped 6-5 by Oak Harbor and 2-1 by host Anacortes.

CHS also fell 16-7 to Meridian after having the early lead and 20-2 to Lake Stevens.

While scrambling to get enough bodies, Smith also had to juggle those he had, with several players in new spots.

“As a coach I had the opportunity to see a number of guys in different positions, which was very helpful for me,” Smith said.

He praised the play of outfielder Kyle Rockwell and catcher Gavin Knoblich, as well as the hot bat of Nick Etzell, who delivered “some offensive firepower that apparently he has been waiting to unleash all year.”

Hunter Smith ripped five hits, including a pair of doubles, to pace the Wolf attack.

Etzell (four hits), Matt Hilborn (3), Jake Pease (3), Jake Hoagland (2) and Jonathan Thurston (2) had multiple hits, while Taylor Consford, Joey Lippo and Jacob Zettle chipped in with a base-knock apiece.

Consford and Hoagland had triples, while Lippo’s hit was a resounding double.

“Overall, we have got to keep learning, we have got to keep working to get better and we have to form into a cohesive unit if we want to do well as a team,” Chris Smith said.

Coupeville returns to action at a tourney in Gray’s Harbor June 30-July 3.

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