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Posts Tagged ‘Onalaska’

Falcon ace nabs All-State invite

Posted in Football, tagged , , , , on February 7, 2025| Leave a Comment »

Cody Redford rambles for yardage. (Photo by JohnsPhotos.net)

The Rock will be repped at the season’s last game.

While no Coupeville or Oak Harbor players made the cut this year, South Whidbey senior quarterback Cody Redford has been selected to participate in the Earl Barden Classic.

The game, which goes down June 21 in Yakima, is an all-star event featuring seniors from 2A, 1A, 2B, and 1B football programs.

In the past, Coupeville stars such as Mike Bagby, Dominic Coffman, Josh Bayne, and Ryan Labrador have received the call.

Redford, a dual threat both as a runner and passer, led South Whidbey to back-to-back wins in the annual Bucket Game with Coupeville the past two seasons, and is currently playing basketball for the Falcons.

Among his projected teammates at the summer game, if everyone accepts their invite, are gridiron stars from two-time 2A state champ Anacortes, as well as 2B powers Onalaska and Napavine.

Also on the West roster are players from two other 1A teams Coupeville played this past fall — Klahowya and Cedar Park Christian-Bothell.

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Sluggers split series, snatch sweet success

Posted in Softball, tagged , , , , , on March 30, 2024| Leave a Comment »

Teagan Calkins has no choice. She must destroy you. It is the way of her people. (Jackie Saia photo)

The scorebook will say Coupeville and Onalaska split their varsity softball doubleheader Saturday afternoon on the prairie.

But for the Wolves, it was really a total win.

CHS got the W in the opener, running the Loggers off the field 13-3 in a game mercy-ruled after five innings, before coming back around to almost pull off a stunning last inning rally in an 11-10 loss.

The non-conference split leaves the Wolves, who start three 8th graders and two freshmen, at a still impressive 5-1.

Better yet, having the chance to face a really solid foe, and a top-notch pitcher in the second game, is invaluable for Coupeville’s growth as a team.

And, in a side note, the Wolves raised more than $1,200 for an important cause with their annual “Strike Out Cancer” gift basket fundraiser.

The money, which will be donated to WhidbeyHealth, will increase once online donations are added.

Along with the financial windfall, Wolf sluggers Danica Strong and Madison McMillan delivered eloquent tributes to close family members who have fought cancer.

Wolf Nation leaves no one behind. (Kim Brotemarkle photo)

On the field, the young Wolves got to square off with an Onalaska squad which was making a 300+ mile round trip.

The Loggers are led by diamond dandy Lisa Liddell, who pitched the second game and thumped two fences-clearing homeruns.

Coupeville coach Kevin McGranahan was suitably impressed.

Both by the visiting star, and by how his own team upped their game while facing her.

“The best pitcher by far we have seen this year,” McGranahan said.

“Our girls were not intimidated at all and welcomed the challenge and put 10 runs on the board against her. We learned a lot about our team today.”

While he wanted the sweep, and the Wolves had the tying run at third when they recorded their final out, the softball sage loves the growth and grit he witnessed on a slightly sunny Saturday on the prairie.

“We have a bunch of tough young ladies that never say quit and are never out of a game,” McGranahan said. “I couldn’t be more proud of each and every one of them.”

How the day played out:

 

Game 1:

The Wolves heard the chatter about how the second inning was their weak spot, and they took it personally.

Jumping on Onalaska for eight runs in the frame, after a superb double play thwarted a first running rally, Coupeville led from start to finish, before ending the game early thanks to the mercy rule.

That second inning surge began with a bang, as Madison McMillan thumped a leadoff triple to right field, beating the throw by several steps.

She then scampered home on a passed ball to put the afternoon’s first run on the board, before walks to Teagan Calkins, Jada Heaton, and Ava Lucero filled the bags.

An RBI groundout from Capri Anter and a bases-loaded walk to Mia Farris made it 3-0, then Taylor Brotemarkle got electric.

“Two hits every game. It’s what I do.” (Jackie Saia photo)

Coupeville’s most rambunctious hitter, Brotemarkle loves to talk to everyone — coaches, fellow players, umpires, fans, maybe even a passing bird or two — while doing her work.

And her job?

Mashing balls which rival defenders can’t hold on to, such as the laser Brotemarkle lofted to left, which hit leather, skidded merrily away, and plated two more runs.

A couple of Onalaska errors and some more walks pushed the lead out to 8-0, and Wolf starting pitcher Adeline Maynes was crushing it on the other side of the ball.

The 8th grade fireballer had some help, however, as the Wolves pulled off three consecutive dynamite defensive plays in the top of the third.

Heaton, zipping lightly atop the blades of grass in the outfield, hauled in a blast for out #1.

Then Haylee Armstrong elevated to snag a liner down the first base line and McMillan tracked down a towering popup at third.

A sac fly from Farris in the third and an RBI groundout from Heaton in the fourth stretched things to 10-0, and while Onalaska finally broke through for three runs in the fifth, the Wolves immediately matched them to end things.

The finale was pure fire, as Anter and Armstrong rapped back-to-back triples, Farris spanked a single, and Brotemarkle bashed a double to straight-away center to nail down the win.

Maynes, a middle schooler who lives to mow down high school rivals, finished with five strikeouts across her five innings of work.

Sydney Van Dyke (right), learning the ways of the diamond warrior from Madison McMillan. (Grant Van Dyke photo)

 

Game 2:

Liddell, who played at first base in the opener and is just now returning from a layoff, stepped into the pitcher’s circle as Onalaska vied for the split.

With the Loggers playing as the home team, they chipped, chipped, chipped away, scoring in every inning while never really busting loose.

Coupeville put runners aboard in both of the first two frames, but came up empty, not scoring until it busted out for four runs in the third to take the lead at 4-3.

Armstrong smoked a double to left center, followed by singles from Brotemarkle and McMillan, before Calkins, the sensational sophomore slugger, crushed the life out of the softball for a three-run home run to right.

Onalaska was resilient, however, knotting things back up on a tater by Liddell, before pushing ahead.

The Wolves kept things close thanks to an eye-popping defensive play from Farris in the deepest, darkest part of centerfield.

“Mia the Magnificent” hauled in an epic blast over her shoulder while on the run, took two steps, then, as the crowd erupted, flipped up and over the outfield wall.

While never dropping the ball.

Back in game one, Farris bowed down to best bud Jada Heaton after her sensational snag in left, and now the former returned the favor to her running mate.

Onalaska was in a groove on offense, however, and reclaimed the lead, eventually sending it to 11-5 with back-to-back longballs in the bottom of the sixth.

Oh, and just to prove her nimble moves weren’t a fluke, Farris, who briefly left the game after trying to break herself in half on a slide at home, went up and over the outfield fence a second time.

Then got back up, and three batters later, sprinted on a dead run towards the infield, went airborne, and yanked a rapidly falling ball off the daisies to deny a Logger slugger an extra base hit.

Down to their final at-bats and inspired by Farris writing her novel “Fantastic Plays and Where to Find Them,” the Wolves got dramatic in the top of the seventh.

An error, a single, and a walk set the table, and 8th grade RBI machine Sydney Van Dyke cooked the meal, swatting a two-run single to right.

A run off of a passed ball cut the deficit to 11-8, with Armstrong, who sprays line drives to all fields like a young Chelsea Prescott, thunking a two-run single to make it 11-10.

Onalaska had one last gasp, however, going to the bullpen and getting the final out courtesy their version of Mariano Rivera, while the tying run lurked 60 feet from paydirt.

 

Stats:

Capri Anter — One triple, one walk
Haylee Armstrong — Two singles, one double, one triple, two walks
Taylor Brotemarkle — Two singles, one double
Teagan Calkins — One single, one home run, three walks
Mia Farris — Two singles, one walk
Jada Heaton — One single, two walks
Ava Lucero — One single, one walk
Adeline Maynes — One walk
Madison McMillan — Two singles, one triple
Sydney Van Dyke — One single, two walks

 

Onalaska’s coach won a gift basket full of Coupeville swag. (Kevin McGranahan photo)

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Epic trek, sweet split

Posted in Softball, tagged , , , , , on April 15, 2023| Leave a Comment »

The Wolves feast. (Kim Brotemarkle photo)

Diamond coach Kevin McGranahan wants to take his Coupeville High School softball team back to the state tourney.

The Wolves were last there in 2019, playing three games in one day against elite competition and holding their own in the spotlight.

Then came the pandemic, wiping out any chance of returning to the big dance in 2020 — no games were even played that spring.

Now, as 2023 unfolds, with this year’s seniors the girls who were denied a season as freshmen, McGranahan and Co. continue to build back towards the big goal.

A two-day, two-game, 320-mile round trip to Onalaska this weekend is proof of that.

Wanting to play the kind of teams the Wolves might meet at state, CHS set up a Saturday doubleheader with the Loggers.

The mission – a team-building trip in which players, coaches, and family members left Whidbey Island Friday, ended on a high note as McGranahan’s squad earned a split at Onalaska.

The Wolves fell 5-1 against a top-caliber pitcher in the opener, then unleashed holy heck with their bats in the nightcap, rolling to a 23-9 victory in a game mercy-ruled after six innings.

The split lifts Coupeville to 8-5 heading into its biggest game of the season, when Friday Harbor travels to Whidbey Tuesday, April 18 for a clash with huge playoff implications.

Win, and CHS will have split its first two games with the Wolverines, after a tough 13-12 road loss at the end of March.

That would set up a winner-take-all clash when the Wolves travel to Friday Harbor May 4, with the victor claiming the lone playoff spot up for grabs among the 2B schools in the Northwest 2B/1B League.

For now, though, the Wolves can bask in the glow of their most-recent trip.

After arriving in Tumwater (where, side note, I attended school from grades 6-12), Coupeville watched the T-Birds play Rochester, then put in some practice time.

“The Tumwater coaches were nice enough to let us use their practice field,” McGranahan said. “A class act.”

Starting the day right. (Katrina McGranahan photo)

The Wolves also found time for a team dinner, a celebration of Wolf Mom Kim Brotemarkle’s “25th birthday” and an early morning visit to Dutch Bros Coffee for “the morning pick-me-up.”

Once on the field, Coupeville faced off with an Onalaska squad which McGranahan hailed as “a great group of girls and coaches, who were very good hosts.”

 

Game #1:

CHS wanted a major challenge, and they found it in Logger sophomore hurler Lisa Liddell.

“Their ace pitcher was exactly what I was looking for,” McGranahan said. “Hard throwing with good command – something we don’t see in our league.

“She held us in check; we had some good hits but couldn’t sustain rallies. But good for our girls to see that type of pitching.”

Coupeville pitcher Allie Lucero was on target as well, whiffing seven Loggers and never letting her foes put together any big surges.

Onalaska put up a run in the first, two more in the third, and one each in the fourth and fifth, with the Wolves scratching out their tally in the top of the sixth.

Taylor Brotemarkle bashed a leadoff double, then came flying home to score on a groundout RBI off the bat of Madison McMillan, before Liddell shut things back down.

 

Game #2:

Let the bodies hit the floor, and the bats hit the ball.

With a different Onalaska pitcher in the circle, Coupeville unleashed, pounding out 27 hits, including nine which went for extra bases.

The Wolves put nine runs on the scoreboard in the top of the first, effectively ending the game right there, then built a 14-2 lead coming out of the top of the third.

The Loggers managed to prevent the 10-run mercy rule from being enforced after the fifth inning, having trimmed the margin to 15-6, but that just set CHS off again.

With Teagan Calkins and Mia Farris both picking up two base knocks in the sixth frame, the Wolves sent eight more runners zipping across the plate.

Everyone chipped in, but senior Gwen Gustafson was especially efficient in the nightcap, with all four of her hits resulting in RBI’s.

Wolf 8th grader Haylee Armstrong enjoys a breakfast of champions before the doubleheader. (Michelle Armstrong photo)

Whichever team emerges from District 1, whether it’s Coupeville or Friday Harbor, that squad plays a team from District 4 — where Onalaska hails from — in a loser-out, winner-to-state playoff game.

Having made their epic trek this weekend, and played solidly, the Wolves are ready for whatever awaits them, McGranahan said.

“Our girls now know that we can beat teams in District 4,” he said. “We can have some confidence if we have to come down here again.”

 

Saturday stats:

Haylee Armstrong — Two walks
Taylor Brotemarkle — One single, three doubles
Teagan Calkins — Five singles, one double
Mia Farris — One single, three doubles, one triple
Gwen Gustafson — Four singles, one double
Jada Heaton — Three singles, one walk
Allie Lucero — Two triples, one walk
Maya Lucero — Three singles, one double, one walk
Madison McMillan— Three singles
Melanie Navarro — One walk
Sofia Peters — One single

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Scores fade, pride endures

Posted in Football, tagged , , , , , on November 12, 2022| Leave a Comment »

Wolf seniors Kai Wong (left) and Dominic Coffman hug it out. (Becky Terry photo)

“They gave their town something to be proud of.”

Bennett Richter’s first year as the head football coach at Coupeville High School is one to remember, as he and his squad put together the best run the program has witnessed in 32 seasons.

Which is why, as he hugged his players and thanked them in the cold November air Saturday night, a season-ending loss in the first round of the 2B state playoffs offered a mixture of happiness and sadness for the gridiron guru.

Facing perennial powerhouse Onalaska on the turf at Oak Harbor’s Wildcat Memorial Stadium, the Wolves were doomed by a variety of things in a 30-14 defeat in a game much closer than the score might sound.

A bad bounce here, a call or two which could have gone either way there, and the loss of starting quarterback Logan Downes to a knee injury with the game tied late in the third quarter conspired to deny Coupeville.

Onalaska, which won a state title as recently as 2019, advances to the quarterfinals to face undefeated Okanogan next weekend, while the Wolves finish at 7-2.

That’s the most wins for a CHS gridiron team since the 1990 team went 9-1, which, not coincidentally, was the last time the program won a league title and earned a trip to the state tourney.

Ron Bagby (left) and Jason McFadyen, Coupeville’s coach and starting QB the last time the Wolves were in the state playoffs. (Photo courtesy McFadyen)

Jump forward three decades, or 11,691 days, if we’re counting, and Coupeville football was back in the big dance.

Riding a six-game winning streak, the Wolves earned a “home” playoff game, meaning they travelled just 10 miles up the road to O-Town, while Onalaska bumped and bounced on the bus for close to 200 miles one way.

Richter’s first playoff game as a head coach came on the same field where he played the final two years of his own prep career for Oak Harbor High School.

Both teams came prepared to slug it out, bodies slamming into bodies, uppercuts mixing with jabs. It was an old-fashioned, rock-em, sock-em brawl, just the way the game was designed to be played.

Coupeville got first crack at the ball, mixing up its play-calling with Logan Downes zipping 10 and 15-yard passes to Hunter Bronec and Tim Ursu, respectively.

But a big sack on third-and-nine forced a Wolf punt, and Onalaska went on a 17-play, 88-yard drive which ended with Rodrigo Rodriguez crashing into the end zone from three yards out.

The Wolf defense stiffened, denying the Loggers on a two-point conversion run, but a pattern was set with Onalaska running, running some more, then running another billion times while keeping the clock ticking away.

CHS wasn’t backing down, however, and it reclaimed the lead on its second drive.

Back-to-back penalties on Onalaska got things rolling, while Ursu made a phenomenal snag on a fourth-down pass while bouncing all of his body off the turf.

With the Logger defense back on its heels, Scott Hilborn burst through the line, veered to the left sideline and outran the defense on a 14-yard scoring run, knotting things at 6-6 with 9:47 left in the half.

A booming PAT kick from Daylon Houston gave Coupeville its one and only lead of the game at 7-6, but Rodriguez punched in a one-yard scoring run two minutes later to push the visitors back in front.

This time the Loggers were successful on their conversion play to push the margin to 14-7.

Wolf lineman Josh Upchurch and his biggest lil’ fan. (Brittany Kolbet photo)

With the ball back in their hands, the Wolves put together a stellar drive which, unfortunately, ended in heartbreak.

Downes was operating at peak performance, threading a 14-yard pass to Hilborn through a forest of defender arms, while also juking a Logger defender out of his shoes on a 19-yard quarterback scramble.

Toss in a face mask penalty on Onalaska and several smash-mouth runs from Dominic Coffman, shedding tacklers by knocking them on their butts, and the Wolves were headed for the tying score.

And it looked like they got it, until the refs said no, no, no.

Downes pegged a pass to the left on third-and-goal from the seven-yard line, and in the resulting explosion of bodies, the ball came loose.

Had the Wolf receiver already crossed the line, as Coupeville coaches argued?

Or did the ball pop free before the six points were official, allowing Onalaska to pounce on it for a touchback?

The refs ruled the latter, and it stung badly for the Wolves.

Hilborn did his best to make sure the score would stay at 14-7, bringing down a runner behind the line for a solid loss, then skying high to poke away a potential touchdown pass on the final play of the half.

Still, Onalaska had the lead, and would receive the opening second-half kickoff. Coupeville needed to make a stand.

And boy howdy, did the Wolves, as they forced, and recovered fumbles on three straight possessions.

Two of those came on on-side kicks, the ball skittering off of Loggers and being snatched up by Coupeville’s rampaging pack of hit-happy defenders.

The Wolves converted the second of those turnovers into a game-tying touchdown, with Downes hitting Hilborn on a 25-yard pass, before Coffman blew through the line on his way for a 19-yard jaunt to the end zone.

The third of those fumble recoveries seemingly shifted the momentum firmly to Coupeville, only for tragedy to strike.

Downes connected with Ursu on another big pass play only to be smushed while scrambling three plays later.

The ball popped free, was recovered by Onalaska, but then popped free a second time thanks to a wicked hit from a Wolf defender at the goal line and looked like it had been recovered by Coupeville.

Instead, the refs ruled the Loggers retained possession, which set them up with a first-and-goal at the two-yard line.

Enter Mr. Rodriguez, who bowled over the Wolf defense with what would prove to be the winning score.

While Onalaska’s splendid sophomore celebrated a three-touchdown game, the mood was much more somber on Coupeville’s side of the field.

Downes spent the game’s final 16 minutes on the sideline, his knee wrapped in ice, with freshman QB Chase Anderson making a sudden, unexpected playoff debut against a fired-up Logger defense.

After throwing just 10 passes during the regular season, the young gun held up well in the spotlight, hitting a 20-yard pass to Ursu late in the game and showing fleet feet on scrambles.

But the Onalaska defense was stout and stingy, and it held at the most-important moment of the game.

After almost bending too far.

Coupeville, trailing 22-14 and facing third-and-12 from its own three-yard line late in the fourth quarter, pulled off a play which had, in the words of CHS Athletic Director Willie Smith, “both the razzle and the dazzle.”

Anderson flipped the ball to Ursu, who dropped a pass over the defense and into the long arms of Bronec, who weaved back and forth for 54 yards before finally being brought down from behind.

Add in that previously mentioned 20-yard bomb from Anderson to Ursu, and a shorter, but still very key pass to Houston, and the Wolves were in business.

Until Onalaska stiffened, denying Coupeville on a third-down plunge from the one-yard line, on a play which got more damaging after the refs dinged the Wolves for unsportsmanlike conduct.

A questionable call, that shoved CHS back to the 18-yard line, and an interception on the next play put a cap on things.

Don’t stop believin’. (Becky Terry photo)

Or so it seemed, until the Wolves quickly forced a three-and-out, got the ball back with less than two minutes to play, and went for the tie one more time.

Anderson alertly scrambled away from the defense to get Coupeville to midfield, but a holding penalty on the Wolves two plays later hurt.

Onalaska finally slammed the door shut with just 48 ticks on the clock thanks to a pick-six from Case McGraw, sending Logger fans to the parking lot with an extra skip to their steps.

While the loss ends Coupeville’s season, the 2022 campaign was a huge step forward for a program which failed to post a winning record between 2006-2018.

The coach who ended that skid in 2019, Marcus Carr, was on hand Saturday to watch his former players in action, as was Ron Bagby, who led the last Wolf gridiron squad to reach the state playoffs in 1990.

This year’s team boasted 34 players, the deepest roster in years, and racked up 52 touchdowns, led by Coffman (14 TD’s), Hilborn (13), and Ursu (12).

The Wolves scored 26 times on the ground — tying the program record set in 2014 — 18 times through the air, twice on interceptions, twice on fumble recoveries, twice on kickoff returns, and twice on punt returns.

More than the wins and losses, however, was how the team gelled, and how the community rallied around them.

The stands were overflowing for home games, fans traveled for road rumbles, near or far, and there was an excitement around the program which was infectious.

“The guys poured their hearts into this all season,” Richter said. “You can see that tonight with the hugs and the emotion.

“A loss always stings, but this is a resilient group; they didn’t put their heads down no matter the situation,” he added.

“The seniors led, and the young guys stepped up, and now that they’ve had a taste of what this is like, they’ll want more.

“I couldn’t be more proud of them!”

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Coupeville has Onalaska’s number (sorta)

Posted in Football, Girls Basketball, tagged , , , , on November 10, 2022| Leave a Comment »

Lexie Black and friends beat Onalaska the one time the schools played at the state tourney. (Photo by JohnsPhotos.net)

Coupeville doesn’t lose to Onalaska in the state playoffs.

That’s just a stone-cold fact.

Sorta.

As we head towards Saturday’s gridiron rumble between the Wolves and Loggers, I decided to look back and see if the two schools had ever met before at the big dance.

And lo and behold, they have, and Coupeville won the showdown.

No, we’re not talking about the Wolf football team.

Instead, the one previous time Onalaska and CHS met in the state tourney, it was the school’s girls’ basketball squads which faced off in Mortal Kombat.

The date was Feb. 27, 2002, and the Wolves held off the Loggers 39-31 in a first-round game, the first of two victories Coupeville captured as they advanced to the semifinals.

A 53-37 dunking of Overlake the next day pushed CHS to within two wins of a state title, but it wasn’t to be, as losses to Colfax and Brewster left the Wolf hoops stars with a 6th place trophy.

The 2001-2002 Coupeville girls’ hardwood team remains the highest scoring unit in program history, rippling the nets for 1,499 points as six players topped triple-digits.

Brianne King led the way with 386 points, with Ashley Ellsworth-Bagby (266), Sarah Mouw (259), Erica Lamb (174), Amy Mouw (137), and Tracy Taylor (115) also making the nets pop.

Rounding out a deep roster were Vanessa Davis, Carly Guillory, Christine Larson, Lexie Black, Whitney Clark, and Taniel Lamb.

And what does this all mean?

Well, probably not a whole lot, seeing as how those Wolf basketball players are all in their mid to late 30’s now, and no current CHS football player was alive in 2002.

But it is a fun fact.

And if Coupeville fans holler “The Wolves don’t lose to Onalaska!” Saturday, well, facts are facts, even when they’re cherry-picked by bloggers with possibly too much time on their hands.

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