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Posts Tagged ‘surgery’

Fox leaves the hardwood

Posted in Girls Basketball, tagged , , , , on June 16, 2021| Leave a Comment »

Scott Fox is stepping down after two years as Coupeville High School girls basketball head coach. (Photo by JohnsPhotos.net)

“It’s been a great ride!”

After two seasons at the helm of the Coupeville High School girls basketball program, head coach Scott Fox is stepping down.

He made the news official Wednesday, a day after the Wolves closed their latest campaign with a 54-18 win over Darrington.

The decision is a health-based one, as Fox is facing “a major back surgery later on this summer, with a long recovery time.”

“I found out in May that L3, 4, and 5 (vertebra) are loose and degenerating,” he said. “After 50 years of basketball and a 30-year firefighting career, I have to focus on my health at this point.”

With a young roster — this year’s team had no seniors and featured two 8th graders, one of whom was a starter — Fox sees a bright future ahead for the CHS girls program.

It will just have to develop without him on the bench.

“I was looking forward to grooming these young kids through the next couple of years,” Fox said. “But I physically can’t do the job anymore.

“I would like to thank (Coupeville Athletic Director) Willie (Smith) and the school for the opportunity.”

After jumping over from being a CHS boys hoops assistant coach to succeed David King as girls head coach, he had two eventful seasons, marked by big wins and dealing with the pandemic.

In his first season, Fox guided the Wolves to a 12-7 record, with Coupeville going 6-3 in league play during the final season of the 1A North Sound Conference.

Year #2 brought a move to 2B, a transition to the Northwest 2B/1B League, and Covid.

Basketball was bumped to the spring, and the schedule was compressed, with Coupeville finishing 5-7.

As he looks back on his two-year run with the girls program, Fox is philosophical.

“Last year we tied the record for best start, and this year we brought in 8th graders, so I’d like to think we left a mark on the program,” he said.

“This isn’t the way I wanted to script the ending of our season, but that’s sports and life.”

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WhidbeyHealth restarts full surgical services

Posted in coronavirus updates, tagged , , , , on October 8, 2020| Leave a Comment »

WhidbeyHealth has completed contract tracing and reports no transmission to other staff or patients after a member of the Surgical Service team tested positive last month for COVID-19.

The original case was reported on September 27, and it was believed the employee contracted the virus outside of work.

After reporting symptoms which developed at work, the team member went into self-quarantine.

At the time, WhidbeyHealth postponed elective surgeries and non-urgent visits to its surgery, obstetrics and orthopedic clinics.

Thursday the hospital issued the following statement:

Repeated testing of providers and staff has been completed.

Everyone has been released from quarantine, and surgical services have returned to normal operations.

This includes elective procedures and related clinical visits.

Everyone who works in the WhidbeyHealth team are deeply grateful for the unanimous concern and support we received from the community.

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Lauren, you are loved

Posted in Whidbey's Best, tagged , , , , on May 11, 2020| 1 Comment »

Lauren Grove

Lauren Grove always impressed me.

Go back, before she set records, before she was one of the few Wolves to play a sport in every one of their 12 high school seasons, and there was a young girl just entering high school.

Standing behind me in the entrance to the Coupeville High School gym, Lauren pointed over my shoulder at the CHS track and field record board.

“I’m going to be up there. I promise you.”

Then she smiled and walked away.

And you know what? Lauren didn’t lie.

By the time she graduated in 2017, sure enough, her name was up on the big board, multiple times.

She also had four state track meet medals, one of just seven Wolf girls to reach that number in school history.

Along the way, Lauren was also an accomplished volleyball, soccer, and basketball athlete, a strong student, a great big sister, and a much-loved baby sitter.

Three years later, she faces the biggest challenge of her life, and I hope she knows how much support she has.

Lauren suffered severe burns this weekend in a grease fire, and is at Harborview Medical Center in Seattle.

She had extensive surgery Monday, and a second surgery is scheduled for Friday.

Lauren’s mother, Mindy, is posting updates on an online journal, which you can find here:

https://www.caringbridge.org/visit/laurengrove

If you have a moment, consider leaving a message for Lauren, or for her family.

This is a rough situation, made worse by the ongoing pandemic restricting access for loved ones at hospitals.

Miss Grove, know that you are not alone. Ever.

You have a (Wolf) Nation behind you, and we are here for you, in mind and spirit.

I have seen the intensity in your eyes, and witnessed your accomplishments. I know the size of your heart.

Ask me what I believe in, and the answer is simple – I believe in you, Lauren.

Always.

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Brian Casey? He’s a righteous dude

Posted in Football, tagged , , , , on September 15, 2019| Leave a Comment »

Brian Casey, a warrior on the football field, and a quality guy off of it. (Photo by JohnsPhotos.net)

Don’t let the photo above fool you.

The first rule of football picture day is you can’t smile. Been that way since the days of wearing leather helmets.

But, every other time I’ve seen him, Brian Casey has been smiling.

And not just a little smile, but a big, world-encircling kind of one.

One example, Friday’s football game at Vashon Island.

Casey was on the sidelines, unable to play, as he battles through an injury, but the Wolf sophomore was an exuberant presence.

Running back and forth, never standing still, he was among the first to congratulate any of his teammates as they came off the field.

Screaming, thumping people on the back, high-fiving, grabbing running back Andrew Martin and bellowing, “My boy! My boy!!,” Casey showed, in a small moment, why he’s the kind of player every gridiron program wants to see.

On the field, he’s a coach’s son through and through, charging in to the scrum with a scream, ready to lay fools out.

But, it tells you a lot about what kind of person a player is by how he acts when he can’t play.

Some players sulk, or stand off to the side, zoned out from what’s going on.

Some don’t show up for the game at all.

Brian Casey is not those kind of players. He is there for his teammates every step of the way.

And it sucks he will lose his entire sophomore season, a time when he would have been a two-way starter for the Wolves.

Casey has a torn ACL and meniscus, an injury which he suffered during summer camp. Reality has intruded, and he will have to undergo surgery in early October.

It’s not fair, and you hate to see a quality kid have to go through this.

But go back to that word – quality.

Brian Casey, in everything I’ve seen and heard, is a quality player, a quality teammate, and a quality person.

He will be back, and hopefully get to rip up the joint as a junior and senior, playing with the toughness and love of the game handed down to him by dad Brett, a CHS assistant football coach, teacher, and owner of a truly legendary beard.

But before he pulls that uniform back on for his own playing days, Brian will be there for his teammates. Of that I have no doubt.

On the sideline. In the locker room. On the bus. In the weight room and at the practice field.

Words are one thing. Actions are something more.

The way Brian carries himself, the way he conducts his business, the way he chooses to lift up his teammates, instead of wallowing in self-pity, are all signs of a young man going places.

He has earned the respect of Wolf fans, and we wish him a speedy, painless recovery.

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Million Dollar Arm put on layaway!!

Posted in Girls Basketball, Softball, Volleyball, tagged , , , , on September 18, 2014| Leave a Comment »

McKayla Bailey

McKayla Bailey

Rumors that Bailey went on to photo-bomb the surgery team -- while knocked out -- are unsubstantiated ... but very, very believable. (Donna Bailey photo)

Rumors Bailey went on to photo-bomb the surgery team — while knocked out by anesthesia — are unsubstantiated, but very, very believable. (Donna Bailey photo)

Six months.

That’s how long Coupeville High School senior softball sensation McKayla Bailey is expected to be out after shoulder surgery Tuesday.

She’ll be in a sling for six weeks to start off the healing process.

Bailey will miss the rest of volleyball season and all of basketball season, with the hope of being healthy in time for her #1 sport, softball, in the spring.

The problems with her shoulder began after a long junior softball season, in which she was a one-woman pitching staff who carried CHS to its first state appearance in more than a decade.

Once the high school season was done, she tried to jump right into playing with her select traveling squad, but arm pain shut her down.

Bailey was originally diagnosed with two small tears in her pitching shoulder. One was in her rotator cuff, the other a “SLAP tear” in her super labrum.

The hope had been that the surgery would be minor, but doctors ran into bigger issues when they began to work.

“It went well but not as well as we hoped,” Bailey said. “There was more damage than we thought. They had to anchor down the tendon.

“No more volleyball and no basketball for me. It was really hard to hear,” she added. “But I know that in the future I’ll be glad I did this.”

Her mom, Donna Bailey, said her daughter’s natural sunniness never faded, even during the arduous hospital visit.

“She survived the anesthesia and I must say she was very polite to the nurses,” she said. “She thanked them for everything from taking her blood pressure to getting her saltine crackers. Pretty funny!”

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