Owen Barenburg (13) and other Coupeville High School boys soccer players will play in the fall, and not the spring, starting next school year. (Photo by JohnsPhotos.net)
OK, now stay with me on this.
With Coupeville High School slated to drop from 1A to 2B next school year, the Wolves will bounce from the 1A North Sound Conference to the Northwest 2B/1B League in the fall.
The change in classifications and league will offer new challenges to every CHS sports program, but boys soccer will likely face the biggest upheaval.
The Wolf booters are currently sidelined by the coronavirus pandemic, waiting to see if they will play a compressed spring schedule in May, or if Washington state schools (and prep sports) will be shut down for good until fall.
Of course, a return in fall is still, like everything else in the world, a maybe.
But keeping a positive outlook, if things are back up and going then, Coupeville’s boys soccer program will make the jump not only from one league and classification to another, but one season to another.
While 1A boys soccer is played in the spring, 2B schools play the sport in the fall, sharing field space with girls soccer and football.
Coupeville’s soccer programs share a head coach in Kyle Nelson. With one team in the fall and another in the spring, that’s worked fine.
Whether he would try and balance both jobs in the same season, or if a new coach will be hired for one of the teams, is unknown at this point.
What’s also unknown is how the jump will affect the roster, as the move will give CHS four boys sports in the fall, with soccer competing against football, tennis, and cross country for athletes.
When they do hit the field, the Wolf boys will have a new set of league foes, and the lineup won’t look exactly like the one most other CHS squads will face.
Five of the eight Northwest League teams — 2B schools La Conner, Friday Harbor, and Coupeville, and 1B schools Mount Vernon Christian and Orcas Island — have active boys soccer program.
That leaves Concrete, Darrington, and, apparently, Chimacum, on the sideline.
To fill the gap, the NWL schools pick up four schools from the 1B Northwest League (similar name, different conference) to make a patchwork nine-team boys soccer league.
Having six of nine teams be 1B is not that big of a deal, though, since 2B and 1B are compressed together when it comes to the state tournament.
The 1B schools from the outlying league are Lopez, Grace Academy from Marysville, Providence Classical Christian from Bothell, and Cedar Park Christian-Mountlake Terrace.
While it’s part of a group of affiliated private schools, CPC-MTL is not the same as CPC-Bothell, which has been one of Coupeville’s rivals in the North Sound Conference.
So, who’s the team(s) to beat?
Based on last season, it’s Orcas Island, which won its second-straight league crown, and league runner-up Friday Harbor. Both teams fell in the first round at state in fall 2019.
But don’t count out Providence, which captured the conference title in 2017.
Or Mount Vernon Christian, which won five-straight titles between 2012-2016, with 2012 being the farthest back the NWL web site has records.
The MVC Hurricanes finished in the top two every year between 2012 and 2018, until “crashing” to a 6-6 mark last fall.
So, while realizing there still might be tweaks between now and September, an early look at what could play out in the fall:
2020 CHS boys soccer schedule (Fall)
(* = league game):
Tues-Sept. 8 — Friday Harbor (6:00) *
Thur-Sept. 10 — @Providence Classical Christian (3:30) *
Fri-Sept. 11 — La Conner (6:00) *
Tues-Sept. 15 — Mount Vernon Christian (6:00) *
Fri-Sept. 18 — @Orcas Island (3:00) *
Tues-Sept. 22 — Cedar Park Christian-MLT (6:00) *
Mon-Sept. 28 — Grace Academy (6:00) *
Wed-Sept. 30 — Lopez (6:00) *
Tues-Oct. 6 — @Friday Harbor (4:30) *
Fri-Oct. 9 — @La Conner (4:00) *
Mon-Oct. 12 — @Mount Vernon Christian (4:00) *
Wed-Oct. 14 — Orcas Island (6:00) *
Fri-Oct. 16 — @Cedar Park Christian-MTL (4:15) *
Tues-Oct. 20 — Providence Classical Christian (6:00) *
Fri-Oct. 23 — @Grace Academy (3:30) *
Tues-Oct. 27 — @Lopez (3:00) *
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