Hawthorne Wolfe is on pace to score more points than any freshman in the 102-year history of CHS varsity boys basketball. (Photo by JohnsPhotos.net)
Hawthorne Wolfe is on the verge of gettin’ all historical on us.
The Coupeville High School freshman has only played eight basketball games in high school, yet he’s on target to do something only a select few have accomplished.
The 2018-2019 season is the 102nd for the Wolf boys basketball program, and the 45th for the CHS girls.
During those previous 145 seasons, only nine players – five girls and four boys – have scored 100+ points in varsity action during their freshman season.
Barring a major plot twist, Wolfe is about to become #10, and could easily finish with the best point total ever achieved by a freshman boy.
Through the first eight games of the season, the young gunner has been a crack shot from behind the three-point arc, while also showing a refreshing willingness to drive the ball to the hoop, forcing his defenders back on their heels.
Wolfe was the leading scorer on opening night, with nine points, and his 18 on the road at Orcas Island is the most any Coupeville varsity boy has tallied this season.
So, it comes as little surprise he sits atop his team’s scoring chart with 84 points as we leave 2018 behind.
That puts him well ahead of his veteran teammates, as juniors Sean Toomey-Stout (48), Ulrik Wells (46), Mason Grove (44) and Jered Brown (40) fill the #2-5 slots currently.
Averaging 10.5 a night, Wolfe has nine games left in the regular season, with the hope of playoff action arriving to stretch out the campaign.
If he keeps at his current pace he would have 178 points heading into the postseason, which would be the best-ever point total for a Coupeville freshman boy, and third-best in school history.
Even if Wolfe were to rapidly fade, which doesn’t seem likely, barring an injury or alien abduction, he needs less than a basket a game the rest of the way to hit the magical 1-0-0.
And it is magical, as so few in school history have accomplished the feat.
Why it’s been achieved so infrequently comes down to several things, actually.
Some of the greatest scorers in school history – Jeff Stone, Randy Keefe and Bill Jarrell, for three – were simply prevented from playing varsity basketball as freshmen because they suited up in the late ’60s through mid-’70s.
That was a time period when 9th graders weren’t eligible to play high school basketball, with Coupeville having a junior high instead of the current middle school system.
Other net-burners didn’t make an immediate impact as freshman for varied reasons.
Brad Sherman, who is now Wolfe’s coach, spent his first year on the JV, yet still managed to ring up 874 points in his remaining three years, eighth-best in program history.
Then there are all-time greats who got some varsity floor time as freshmen, but because of a glut of solid upperclassmen, or a coach leery of throwing the youngsters into the fray, had limited impact their first time out.
There’s Hunter Smith, who scored just three points as a frosh, before ringing up seasons of 130 (while sitting out a chunk of games with an injury), 332 and 382.
Or, Corey Cross (4, 211, 333, 263), Denny Clark (5, 180, 319, 365), Pete Petrov (13, 188, 442, 274) or Greg White (18, 194, 131, 261).
If there’s a common theme among the nine Wolves who broke 100 points as a freshman, it’s that, with one exception, they turned out to be Coupeville legends.
Three of the four boys sit among the top 10 career scorers, while the five girls account for #1, #2, #3, #4, and #6 on the all-time points chart.
But there were a lot of greats who didn’t get that chance to soar as a frosh, so talent alone is not the whole story.
Also important is simply getting a chance to play.
The one outlier in this group, Taylor Ebersole, was a starter from day one thanks partly to his freshman season of 2011-2012 being a complete rebuilding season.
Longtime coach Randy King had just retired after 20 seasons at the helm of the Wolf program, and new coach Anthony Smith was left with painfully few veterans. Therefore, why not play any talented kids?
And who knows what Ebersole might have accomplished if he had stayed at CHS, instead of transferring to La Conner after the Wolves went win-less in his freshman season?
The Ebersole scenario is somewhat similar to what Zenovia Barron encountered in 1994-1995 and Wolfe is benefiting from this season.
Coupeville’s girls went 1-19 the year before Barron moved to the high school, and the roster was wide open when she blew the door down on day one.
The 2017-2018 CHS boys were much better than the 93-94 girls, winning seven games, but they graduated six of their top seven scorers, headed up by Hunter Smith, who finished #12 in program history.
So when Wolfe came bounding on the court for the first day of practice, he had a better shot at making the roster and making an immediate impact than some others in the past.
Like say, Petrov, who, as talented as he was at 14, joined a team where six veteran players scored between 238 points (Brad Miller) and 100 (Boom Phomvongkoth) during his freshman season.
Or Sherman, who starred on the JV while the top five varsity guys in 1999-2000 singed the nets for between 340 (Pat Bennett) and 129 (Noah Roehl).
So, it’s one part talent, one part having a nose for scoring, and one huge part opportunity, which ultimately unite Wolfe and the select group he’s about to crash.
And that group, in full?
CHS players who scored 100 varsity points as a freshman:
Brianne King — (275 in 1999-2000) — (Career – 1549 – #1 girls)
Zenovia Barron — (242 in 1994-1995) — (Career – 1270 – #2 girls)
Ashley Ellsworth-Bagby — (163 in 1998-1999) — (Career – 892 – #6 girls)
Megan Smith — (161 in 2006-2007) — (Career – 1042 – #4 girls)
Mike Bagby — (137 in 2002-2003) — (Career – 1137 – tied for #1 boys)
Makana Stone — (116 in 2012-2013) — (Career – 1158 – #3 girls)
Mike Criscuola — (115 in 1956-1957) — (Career – 979 – #5 boys)
Taylor Ebersole — (114 in 2011-2012) — (Career – 114 – #157 boys)
Arik Garthwaite — (109 in 1994-1995) — (Career – 867 – #10 boys)
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