CHS seniors (l to r) Maya Lucero, Gwen Gustafson, Melanie Navarro, Sofia Peters, and Allie Lucero join coach Kevin McGranahan on their prairie field of dreams. (Photos by JohnsPhotos.net)
Sports are weird sometimes.
Take this spring, where a winless Concrete baseball team is playoff eligible, while the Coupeville High School softball squad is not.
The Wolf sluggers can finish 14-6 with a win in their season finale against South Whidbey — a team they beat 20-2 the first time around.
But they won’t go to the postseason, because only one 2B softball program advances from District 1, and, this year, that’s Friday Harbor, thanks to a pair of one-run victories over CHS.
Meanwhile, all four 1B schools in the Northwest 2B/1B League make the baseball playoffs, regardless of record.
That’s because a much-larger pool of 1B schools in our district and District 2 makes it possible for a full-scale, 12-team bi-district tourney to be played.
A Wolf softball team which was truly dominant at times, a squad which held its own with big-timers like Forks, Onalaska, and Meridian, stays home.
While Concrete baseball, which is 0-14 and forfeited three games this season, may take the field this Saturday to face Pope John Paul II in a playoff rumble.
Emphasis on may, as two of those forfeits came in Concrete’s final two games.
Sports are weird sometimes.
But we’re not here to disparage the Lions. They are building for the future, and anything can happen in the playoffs.
Case in point, the 2011 edition of the Coupeville Wolves, who had six freshmen in the lineup while going 0-17 as the only 1A school playing softball in the 1A/2A Cascade Conference.
That team shocked the world in the playoffs, however, eliminating Meridian 5-1 behind Alexis Trumbull, Bessie Walstad, and Breeanna Messner.
Coached by Jackie (Calkins) Saia, mom of current Wolf freshman phenom Teagan Calkins, that squad launched the rebirth of Wolf softball, and now the program is a consistent winner, year in, year out.
So good luck, Concrete baseball — if you take the field Saturday — and go open a can of whup ass on the private school dandies.
But this blog isn’t called the Concrete Clarion, so let’s swing the focus back to Cow Town.
Coming off of an emotional 3-2 loss in extra innings Thursday at Friday Harbor, the Wolves mood probably resembles the weather outside – gray and gloomy.
But it shouldn’t. At least not completely.
As one fan said, “There’s always next year!” and it’s true, the Wolf roster is chock full of star players with multiple years left to play.
Madison McMillan, Mia Farris, Taylor Brotemarkle, Jada Heaton, and Chloe Marzocca? All sophomores.
Calkins, the team’s starting catcher and leadoff hitter, has three years left, while Haylee Armstrong, who lashed a laser of a triple against the Wolverines?
She just an 8th grader, which means she’s been launching moon shots and chasing down balls in the outfield while still attending middle school classes.
Those core players, and others, should have many more chances to conduct group sing-a-longs on the prairie after wins in the future.
But, for Coupeville’s five seniors — Melanie Navarro, Allie Lucero, Sofia Peters, Maya Lucero, and Gwen Gustafson — next week’s clash with South Whidbey marks their final moments in a Wolf jersey.
They are an amazingly resilient bunch of young women, bright, outgoing, dedicated — and we can’t put enough emphasis on that last word.
These five are the last group which took a hit when the world shut down over the pandemic.
Just as they were about to make the jump from little league to high school games, Covid-19 restrictions erased all spring sports in 2020.
When they returned as sophomores, games were played again, but only against league rivals, which limited Coupeville to 12 games, instead of the normal 20, with no playoffs.
It wasn’t until their junior campaign that the Wolves played a full schedule, and, through no fault of their own, the seniors exit having played just 2.5 of the four, or five, seasons many others are given.
Through it all, they remained dedicated.
They found ways to work on their skills when government officials shoved them apart, and they proudly returned to the prairie diamond the first chance they got.
With one game left to play, this five-pack has led Wolf softball to a 41-9 record in their time on the field, a superior winning percentage in any world.
They are a group, and yet each one brings a unique skill set to the game.
Navarro, beloved by CHS football coaches for her stellar four-year run as that team’s manager, brings power to each swing, sending tremors down the spine of rival pitchers as she blasts home runs over far-flung fences.
Seeing her team pour out of the dugout to swarm Melanie after each tater, while her parents proudly beam from behind the fence, has been one of the true feel-good stories of this school year.
Gustafson, the third Wolf from her family I have written about, after older siblings Amanda Fabrizi and Clay Reilly, remains as happy an athlete as any I have witnessed.
Her smile carrying from one end of the prairie to the other, Gwen truly seems to enjoy every moment she is given on a court or diamond, an admirable trait.
Peters, the daughter of a coach, like Gustafson and the Lucero twins, is a two-way winner.
She can lash hits and knock down grounders and has shown an ability to pass on her knowledge to the next generation, joining dad Mike in guiding little league girls who will one day inherit her place on the CHS diamond.
A few years down the road, there will be a young woman who delivers a tear-stained Senior Night farewell in which she thanks Sofia for being her inspiration, and the circle will be complete.
And then there are the Lucero twins, who, at times seem interchangeable (thank heavens for uniform numbers…), and yet emerge as very distinct the longer I watch them play.
I mean, Allie throws and hits left-handed while Maya operates from the right side, so there’s that.
But they also have their own styles, in how they approach their time in the pitcher’s circle and at the plate, while sharing a quiet passion installed in them by being part of a diamond-mad family.
With no disrespect to the first three, it is the Lucero twins who I see as the heart and soul of this squad.
These five young women have dealt with world-shaking events and emerged stronger for it.
I have no doubt they wanted to end their runs in the playoffs — you could see that on their faces, and in the effort given.
But when they exit after next week’s finale in Langley, they should do so with heads held high.
Melanie, Maya, Gwen, Sofia, and Allie will always be remembered as one thing — winners, pure and simple.
Down the road, as they pursue excellence in other parts of their lives, they may return to the prairie diamond they once ruled.
When they do so, let them walk with pride. They earned it.
Once more, with feeling.
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