The triple threat trio (top, l to r, Nick Sellgren, Mike Vaughan and Rich Morris) are joined by (bottom, l to r) Allie Hanigan, Janiece Jenkins, and, leading her 2004 CHS volleyball squad, Toni Crebbin.
Bring out the big guns.
That’s what we’re doing today, as we welcome our 31st class into the Coupeville Sports Hall o’ Fame.
Five individual athletes and the only Wolf team to be ranked #1 in the entire state in any sport in the modern era, this is the cream of the crop.
With that, we welcome Rich Morris, Mike Vaughan, Nick Sellgren, Janiece Jenkins, Allie Hanigan and the 2004 Coupeville High School volleyball squad to these hallowed digital walls.
From this point on, you’ll find them up at the top of the blog, under the Legends tab.
We kick things off with one of the speediest runners this town has ever known.
Jenkins was a speed demon on the track oval for the Wolves and held the school record in the 200 for a stellar eight years, before gracefully congratulating her successor when Makana Stone finally shattered her mark.
Even if she no longer holds a record on the big board, the memory of her senior year trip to state will last forever.
Competing in the spotlight in 2005, Jenkins brought home three medals, finishing fifth in the 100, eighth in the 200 and running a leg on a 4 x 100 unit that claimed sixth.
Along with raw athletic talent, Janiece shares other traits with our second inductee, Allie Hanigan.
Both played with a rare sense of grace and drew frequent praise from teammates, both at the time and after their prep sports careers ended.
Hanigan was a two-sport star for CHS, a standout tennis player who anchored the Wolves at first singles, and a ferocious hitter on the volleyball squad who controlled play at the net.
She was also a great teammate, or at least always seemed that way from the view the stands offers.
Now, Allie is blazing a bright trail in the modeling world while attending college, and, one day soon we’re all going to turn around and marvel that the biggest name in the biz used to live in our small town.
Joining her are a trio of three-sport stars who spent much of their high school days together, on and off the field.
Morris, Vaughan and Sellgren played football, basketball and baseball and were stars in every sport, leaders for their entire high school careers.
If you add up all the trophies and awards the trio earned, it would fill a nice-sized room, and they all continue to kick butt even as they (slightly) age.
Vaughan, for one, was a key part of the Red Pride hoops squad which ran the table at the most recent Tom Roehl Roundball Classic.
If it’s hoops, though, Morris gets the nod over his buddies.
While Sellgren had two strong years as a big-game scorer, and Vaughan saw varsity action all four years, Morris had a rare knack for putting the ball in the hoop.
He remains one of just three CHS boys players in the last 25 years to score 300+ points in two separate seasons (he netted 328 and 309), a feat matched only by Gavin Keohane and Mike Bagby.
Turn to the other sports and we could start an argument which will never end, or we can just acknowledge the trio as a testament to a time when high school athletes played three sports, year in and year out, and excelled at them all.
They left a mark, both as athletes and showmen, which will be long remembered.
As did our final inductee, a team which still casts a huge shadow.
The 2004 CHS volleyball squad set a program record with 13 wins, but the biggest one might have come at districts, when the Wolves shocked Bush, who had been ranked #1 in the state all season.
With the win, Coupeville inherited the top spot in the polls, something no other team in any sport at CHS has done as far as my research shows.
After opening the state tourney by thrashing Zillah, the Wolves ran headlong into their arch-rival that season, La Conner, losing a hard-fought duel to the eventual state runner-ups.
The schools had split two matches during the regular season, sharing a league title, before Coupeville won a third meeting during the playoffs. Round #4 was not to be, however.
A second loss at state, coming in five epic sets against Freeman, denied the Wolves a chance to bring a banner home, but even now, 12 years later, that squad remains the best group of spikers the school has ever seen.
So, let’s bring them back together one more time for another bow, at least in the digital world.
Inducted, as a team:
Toni Crebbin (head coach)
Thea Flynn (assistant coach)
Jennifer Bailey
Brittany Black
Lyndsay Boling
Laura Crandall
Kirsty Croghan
Heather Davis
Heather Fakkema
Mindy Horr
Taniel Lamb
Annie Larson
Kristina Morris
Beth Mouw
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