Wolf seniors-to-be (l to r) Clay Reilly, Jacob Martin, Uriel Liquidano, Ethan Marx and Jonathan Thurston. (Kalia Littlejohn photo)
Football’s back, at least for a few days.
Spring practice kicked off Wednesday, and returning Coupeville High School players were out on the practice field after school.
Without an official head coach, but with high hopes intact.
The Wolves, who open the season Sept. 2 at home against South Whidbey, will be playing for their third coach in as many seasons — once that coach is actually hired.
With the departure of Brett Smedley (he left after one season to take a coordinator job at Columbia River), players who will be a junior this fall will have played for a different head coach every year in high school.
After two years of playing twice against league rivals, they’ll also face a twist in the schedule, with the Olympic League and Nisqually League having formed a super league for football.
Coupeville will play three non-conference foes, then seven league games, with Port Townsend, Chimacum and Klahowya now joined by Cascade Christian, Vashon Island, Bellevue Christian and Charles Wright Academy.
But a new coach and the schedule are thoughts for tomorrow.
For now, the focus is on putting in work under assistant coach Ryan King (a candidate for the head job), and turning things around after last fall’s 1-9 season.
Some thoughts from day one:
Ryan King:
We had 27 kids show up today, not including the incoming freshman, and a few others who couldn’t make it due to legion baseball and what not.
But those kids are determined, they put in the work today and their mindset isn’t on who will be the next head coach but their focus is on game number one.
They want to be the best and they want to make a difference. They want to compete for a league title.
I have an amazing group of kids.
From the seniors to the juniors to the sophomores and I know a lot of the freshman coming up; I am so proud of what I saw today from them.
Whoever will be the next head coach is gonna have a great group of athletes.
If I get the position, awesome, I’m honored.
If not, then at least I got these kids ready.
Jonathan Thurston (senior):
We’re seniors and we’re gonna try to do better then last year.
I’m excited to play at home to win The Bucket; it’s gonna be a great game.
Going into this new league is gonna be interesting, but fun to play different schools than what we’re used to.
I could not ask for better players to be side by side with on that field and senior year is gonna be a blast!
Jacob Martin (senior):
We have strong returners from Clay, Uriel, Mitchell Carroll, me and Jon.
It’s all about the players, and how much work they’ve put in during the off-season.
No coach, no problem!
I personally think this team will be special, despite being delayed without a coach, or low expectations from others. We genuinely have seniors who will unite this team.
Uriel Liquidano (senior):
To start, I want to say that it’s going to be a great season and I have a strong feeling that we are going to do good.
It sucks we won’t have Smedley next year but who ever is going to be the new head coach I’m sure he’ll do good.
This coming football year I’m going to be a senior so I’m going to have to GIVE IT ALL I HAVE for my team, my family, my town.
It’s going to be a good year!
We’re going to lead this town together. Give it all we have. And yes, beat South Whidbey here on our game field and take that bucket back.
Clay Reilly (senior):
The goals I have in mind for this upcoming football season are beating South Whidbey at home, fighting until the end against every team we face and hopefully winning league.
I’m so stoked to play football as a senior and leading the team into every game.
With finding a new coach, I hope us seniors find common ground and excel with what he wants to do with this great program.
This new league is a whole bunch of new challenges and I think it will make us better individually and as a unit. I want this season to be one I can look back on throughout the rest of my life.
Gabe Eck (sophomore):
The goals for this year would be to definitely beat South Whidbey and improve and build on what we had from the season before.
With the league bigger we’re going to have to be in the weight room all summer and come out bigger, faster, and stronger.
Ethan Marx (senior):
I’d like to add, we play as a team, and that our team remains a family no matter what happens on or off the field!
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