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Posts Tagged ‘Stats’

Wolf QB Joel Walstad prepares to kick off while Matt Shank (Photos courtesy Renee Walstad)

Wolf QB Joel Walstad prepares to kick off while lineman Matt Shank silently sings “Welcome to the Jungle” to himself. (Photos courtesy Renee Walstad)

Brenden Gilbert (74)

Brenden Gilbert (74) and the rest of the Wolf line listen intently to Walstad (5).

True story.

True story.

The computers have lost that lovin’ feeling for the Wolves, but the stat man still loves them.

A 40-18 loss to 2A Sequim Friday dropped the Coupeville High School football squad from #13 to #37 in the 1A rankings on http://www.scoreczar.org/.

Which manages to put a 1-1 Wolf squad that smacked Island rival South Whidbey on opening night two slots LOWER than next week’s opponent, Chimacum, which is 0-2 after losing 27-8 to Forks.

The Cowboys, who lost 47-21 to that same Sequim squad, have been outscored 74-29.

Computers…

Fellow Olympic League rivals Port Townsend (1-1) and Klahowya (0-2) are at #5 and #46, respectively, while Freeman has taken over the #1 ranking.

But, if we look at cold, hard stats, the Wolves are much more highly regarded.

In fact, Wolf QB Joel Walstad is flat-out #1.

The senior signal caller has thrown for 524 yards over his team’s two games (while also kicking and playing defense), the most of any quarterback among  Washington state schools who have reported stats to MaxPreps.com.

Not just in 1A. He’s #1 for ALL classifications, currently coming in ahead of quarterbacks from Lynnwood and Eastside Catholic.

At least for the moment.

Skyline’s Blake Gregory sits at #4 with 415 yards, but that was from one game. Once his second game stats come in, you would expect him to hurdle the guys ahead of him, including Walstad.

But right now, as I type this, the top passer in the state is a Wolf. So, there’s that.

Season stats:

Passing:

Joel Walstad 41-74 – 524 yards – 4 TD
CJ Smith 0-2

Receiving:

Smith 10-154
Ryan Griggs 10-128
Josh Bayne 10-112
Wiley Hesselgrave 4-77
Jacob Martin 5-32
Lathom Kelley 4-21
Gabe Wynn 1-0

Rushing:

Bayne 25-264
Martin 19-71
Hesselgrave 6-14
Walstad 8-11
Kelley 3-6

Touchdowns:

Bayne 3
Hesselgrave 2
Griggs 1
Kelley 1

Solo Tackles:

Bayne 10
Oscar Liquidano 7
Martin 7
Wynn 7
Kelley 4
Aaron Wright 4
Matt Shank 3
Griggs 2
Brenden Gilbert 1
Jake Lord 1
Hunter Smith 1
Walstad 1

Interceptions:

Bayne 1

Fumble Recoveries:

Bayne 1
Kelley 1
Wynn 1

Blocked Kicks:

Shank 1

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Some of the women who made news in 2013.

  Some of the women who made news in 2013. (Enlarge the photo to get the total poster-worthy collage experience.)

Women ruled in 2013.

Nine of the 15 most-viewed articles I produced this year were about female athletes (or non-athletes).

From South Whidbey’s exiled hoops star Hayley Newman at #3 (https://coupevillesports.com/2013/02/01/exclusive-south-whidbeys-best-player-walks-talks/) to Wolf grad turned competitive bodybuilder Cavan Simonson at #9 (https://coupevillesports.com/2013/11/03/cav-cav-kicks-some-well-toned-tushie/), it was a woman’s world.

Tragedy made an impact, in stories a person would prefer not to write.

The unexpected death of South Whidbey High School boys’ basketball coach Henry Pope (https://coupevillesports.com/2013/07/25/whidbey-loses-a-basketball-giant/) was the #1 most-read story of the year, while former CHS volleyball coach Kim Meche, and her battle with the cancer that eventually claimed her, nabbed slots #6 (https://coupevillesports.com/2013/04/11/night-coach/), #10, and #13.

You didn’t need to be an athlete, as proved by appearances from a mysterious Navy wife at #2 (https://coupevillesports.com/2013/07/28/exclusive-the-navy-wife-behind-i-support-the-olf-tells-all/) rock goddess Savanna Dohner at #11 (https://coupevillesports.com/2013/11/18/music-has-my-heart-and-it-always-will/ and all-around goddess Zoie Tingstad at #15 (https://coupevillesports.com/2013/10/18/say-a-prayer-for-zoie-please/).

And it wasn’t just the stories, as the feminine businesswomen ruled as well, with Kelsey Simmons Design having the most-viewed ad (by a large margin) among my 46 sponsors.

Helping her cause — a birthday article on Kelsey that topped out at #51 (https://coupevillesports.com/2013/11/18/awesome-just-turned-30/), a feature story on her business (https://coupevillesports.com/2013/06/22/kelsey-simmons-is-awesome-by-design/) that ended up at #33 (Larry Bird’s number, which always bodes well), and a story on her wonder dog, Sitka, (https://coupevillesports.com/2013/09/26/worlds-most-talented-dog-missing-find-her-and-get-a-free-dinner/) that trumped mama by ten slots.

Dogs. Fluffy, fluffy doggies. They’re popular.

While stories about women were the most-read, the best way to get comments (lots and lots of comments) was to write about the always-popular topic of Coupeville vs. South Whidbey, especially if you were prone to pokin’ the Falcons, as I was.

The five most-commented-on articles I wrote all concerned South Whidbey, with the ensuing brouhaha launched on the Hayley Newman article providing the only time I have had to ever shut down a talk-back. The Falcon faithful and their crayons…

I mellowed (a bit) as the year went on, however, and tried to send a (small) olive branch or two South Whidbey way, with a feature on personable, graceful Falcon soccer star Maia Sparkman (https://coupevillesports.com/2013/06/30/the-falcons-are-alright-maia-sparkman-sparkles/) getting big hits.

Small steps.

As we move into 2014, what have we learned?

McKayla Bailey, aka The Photo Bomb Queen, always gets big page hits for her photos. Always.

Belgium is my go-to country (thanks to Iris Ryckaert), second only to the USA in terms of readership. Suck on that, Canada and Britain.

No one knows anything. Several times I watched stories I expected to be big die a hard death, while stories I had no hopes for turned into blockbusters.

And last, but not least. Always, always write about women. Always.

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Makana Stone is netting nine a night so far. (John Fisken photos)

Makana Stone is netting nine a night so far. (John Fisken photos)

Amanda Fabrizi, trying to ignore the awe-inspiring glory

Amanda Fabrizi waits to trigger a play in her team’s thumping of arch-rival South Whidbey.

They are the pride of the Island.

Seriously. There’s no contest, whatsoever.

If you take a look at hoops on Whidbey Island so far in the 2013-2014 season, there is one good team and five whose records make you say “yikes.”

The Coupeville High School girls’ basketball squad, with balanced scoring and a ball-hawking defense, is 3-2 and perched in a tie with Archbishop Thomas Murphy for second place in the Cascade Conference at 2-1.

The other five varsity squads — the Coupeville boys, Oak Harbor boys and girls and South Whidbey boys and girls, are a combined 2-27.

And one of those wins came locally, as the Falcon boys nipped the Wolf boys in an inter-Island duel.

Already this season the Oak Harbor girls have lost 75-16 and the South Whidbey girls were stomped 55-4.

But then there are the Wolf girls, with a dominating win over 2A Lakewood and slap-downs to Meridian and South Whidbey.

They had a very close loss to Cedar Park Christian and have only stumbled badly once, when they ran into a brick wall in highly-ranked 2A power Cedarcrest.

With all six Island teams on hiatus right now for winter break, there’s the hope they will find that missing key to success during a stretch of practices. That they will come roaring back in the new year and make a trip to Whidbey something other schools dread.

But for now, there’s only one local squad already there, in the winning groove.

They wear red and black, and while their roster may be dotted with cheerleaders, they are tough to the core. They are Wolves and they are howlin’.

Unofficial scoring stats:

Madeline Strasburg (46)
Makana Stone
(45)
Amanda Fabrizi
(26)
Hailey Hammer (26)
Breeanna Messner
(16)
Kacie Kiel
(13)
Julia Myers
(8)
Monica Vidoni
(6)
Wynter Thorne
(3)
McKayla Bailey

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