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Posts Tagged ‘SWHS Falcons’

Where everyone (sorta) knows your name!!

Posted in Everything changes, tagged , , , , , , on July 2, 2018| Leave a Comment »

Gaze upon the logo for Coupeville’s new league. (Photo courtesy Scott Sifferman)

We’re going home again. In a way.

After four years in the 1A Olympic League, Coupeville High School is reuniting with four old rivals (and one new one) to launch the 1A North Sound Conference when the 2018-2019 school year begins this fall.

The new league is comprised of refugees from the imploded 1A/2A Cascade Conference, where the Wolves spent eight years from 2006-2007 to 2013-2014.

Gone are the 2A schools (Archbishop Thomas Murphy, Lakewood and Cedarcrest), so on with the (slightly) more-balanced party.

Coupeville reunites with South Whidbey, King’s, Sultan and Granite Falls, while coming face-to-face with the school which replaced it in the Cascade Conference, Cedar Park Christian-Bothell.

But, since no current Wolf athlete ever played in a Cascade Conference game, it might be a good idea to offer a refresher on just who Coupeville’s new league mates will be.

The new league:

http://www.nscathletics.com/index.php?pid=0.60.0.0.200

 

Cedar Park Christian-Bothell

Location: Um … Bothell

Public or private: Private

Student body count (2016 WIAA counts): 249.38

Established: 1982

Mascot: Eagles

Colors: Blue and gold, purple, yellow

Team state titles: Girls Soccer – 2001, 2002, 2003; Softball – 2003

Fast facts: The main campus for a private Christian school (preschool-12th grade) which also has sites in Everett, Mountlake Terrace, Lynnwood and Mill Creek; affiliated with the Assembly of God church; one-year tuition for high school student – $9,992; hired former Bellevue football coach Butch Goncharoff, who won 11 state titles before a Seattle Times investigation forced WIAA to (very briefly) punish Bellevue for numerous alleged improprieties.

 

King’s:

Location: Shoreline

Public or private: Private

Student body count (2016 WIAA counts): 354.38

Established: 1950

Mascot: Knights

Colors: White, red

Team state titles: 51 spread across multiple sports. I’m not listing them all.

Fast facts: Before turning to education, site housed a tuberculosis sanitarium; rumors abound that “some of the damp tunnels connecting buildings are still haunted by the ghosts of TB victims;” was known as King’s Garden until ’79; one-year tuition for high school student – $15,950; 98% of its students go on to higher education, while other 2% are no longer welcome home for Thanksgiving.

 

Granite Falls:

Location: Um … Granite Falls

Public or private: Public

Student body count (2018 WIAA appeal): 367.25

Established: 1896

Mascot: Tigers

Colors: Black, orange

Team state titles: Baseball – 2006

Fast facts: Known as “The Gateway to the Mountain Loop;” originally used by Native Americans to portage their canoes between fishing grounds; had a gold rush in 1889; had runs as both a mining and logging town; celebrates Railroad Days first Saturday in Oct.; former Coupeville assistant Alex Heilig coached GF football for one season in 2015, went 1-9.

 

South Whidbey:

Location: Langley

Public or private: Public

Student body count (2016 WIAA counts): 358.38

Established: 1981 (*previously Langley High School)

Mascot: Falcons

Colors: Blue and white

Team state titles: Boys Cross Country – 2000; Girls Golf – 2016

Fast facts: Has lost four of last six football games to Coupeville, with one former Falcon coach (a two-time loser) purposefully denting The Bucket, the trophy which is held by the winner; the snarky chant “Drive home safely,” directed at rival fans after South Whidbey wins, is both kind of annoying and kind of funny; the part of the Island where all the weird murders happen (seriously, go do a Google search); admittedly, a pretty nice school, with several athletes and coaches who have been very generous to me — Maia Sparkman, Oliana Stange, Kody and Hayley Newman, Tom Fallon, Mark Hodson, Mary Zisette and Lewis Pope to name a few.

 

Sultan:

Location: Um … Sultan

Public or private: Public

Student body count (2016 WIAA counts): 347.13

Established: 1888

Mascot: Turks

Colors: Navy, white, Columbia blue

Team state titles: Girls Soccer – 2002

Fast facts: Town named (sorta) for Snohomish Indian chief Tseultd, whose name was changed to Sultan John by white settlers; hosted the Sky River Rock Fest and Lighter Than Air Fair in 1968, which brought Richard Pryor, The Grateful Dead, Santana and “20,000-plus hippies” to town; former Turk basketball player Cooper Beucherie, he of the white boy dreadlocks, once kicked a chair into about the 12th row of the stands after being ejected from a basketball game at Coupeville. I miss the dude – he was entertaining.

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Rivalry rout!!

Posted in Softball, tagged , , , , on April 27, 2018| Leave a Comment »

   Lauren Rose reached base three times Friday as Coupeville hammered South Whidbey 10-0. (Photo by JohnsPhotos.net)

They love to hit the flame-throwers.

The Coupeville High School softball squad is a flawless 4-0 this season against pitchers who have D-1 scholarships signed, sealed and delivered.

Friday offered the Wolves a chance to hit against one of those top hurlers, South Whidbey ace Mackenzee Collins, and, after a few slow innings, they capitalized.

Putting together a 14-batter fourth-inning, CHS smacked eight hits in the frame, plated nine and were well on their way to a 10-0 romp.

The non-conference home win lifts the Wolves to 10-4 on the season and gives them a season sweep of Collins and South Whidbey.

The Falcons went to state in 2017, while Coupeville fell a single strike short while competing in a different district.

Jump forward to 2018 and the Wolves have dominated, outscoring their Island neighbors 22-0 in two games.

In fact, during Kevin McGranahan’s three-year run as Coupeville coach, his squad is a perfect 4-0 against South Whidbey.

With the two schools reuniting as league rivals next year, when the North Sound Conference debuts, that’s something to file away under “things that make you say alright, alright, alright.”

This time around, it was a scoreless pitcher’s duel between Collins and Wolf chucker Katrina McGranahan until the bottom of the fourth inning.

Coupeville had runners on in each of the first three innings — a single from Killer Kat in the first, a lead-off double by Sarah Wright in the second and a Lauren Rose walk in the third — but couldn’t drop the knockout punch.

That changed, and in a hurry, in the fourth.

Katrina McGranahan and Wright started things off with back-to-back base-knocks, before fab frosh Chelsea Prescott dropped a picture-perfect bunt and beat the throw.

“She had a great bunt and run, good to see, exactly the way we practiced it,” Kevin McGranahan said.

After Veronica Crownover reached on an error, the wheels really fell off for South Whidbey.

Coupeville still had five more base-hits to deliver in the inning, ranging from a single for Mackenzie Davis to a gargantuan triple from Wright.

With so many batters coming to the plate in the inning, Katrina McGranahan and Crownover both came back around and delivered base-knocks in their second trip.

Having gone from a nail-biter to a blow-out in a matter of minutes, the Wolves kept the pressure on, almost ending the game early in the fifth.

CHS had the bases loaded thanks to a Rose single and a pair of walks, but South Whidbey escaped unscathed.

For just a moment, however, as the Wolves found the 10th run necessary to end the game early in the sixth.

Mollie Bailey singled, moved around on a passed ball and two walks, then scampered home when fellow freshman Coral Caveness spanked a walk-off RBI single.

For the game, Coupeville spread its offense out, with nine hitters (including two off the bench) combining to rack up 12 base-knocks.

Wright paced the offense with a single, double and triple, getting 75% of the way to hitting for the cycle.

Katrina McGranahan, who scattered four hits and whiffed four in the complete-game shutout, added a pair of singles.

Meanwhile, Rose, Scout Smith, Prescott, Crownover, Davis, Caveness and Bailey all put good metal on the ball.

“She (Collins) is a good pitcher,” Kevin McGranahan said. “But once we got dialed in, we hit well through the line, top to the bottom of the order.”

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Let’s get intense!!

Posted in Girls Tennis, tagged , , , , , on April 26, 2018| Leave a Comment »

   Jillian Mayne is not putting up with any of your shenanigans. (Photos by JohnsPhotos.net)

Kameryn St Onge rips winners, every dang day.

   A South Whidbey player on Coupeville Sports???? In this case, it’s the brilliant Oliana Stange, so we’ll make an exception.

Fab frosh Genna Wright lashes a scorching winner.

   Zara Bradley goes low to destroy the heart, soul and psyche of her foes with a wicked, unexpected shot.

You want intensity, hit the tennis courts.

While the young women who swing the rackets are generally some of the most easy-going, polite people you will find, put them between the lines and they become cold-blooded assassins.

That’s shown in the pics above, which were shot Wednesday by local paparazzi John Fisken.

To see everything he snapped, pop over to:

https://www.johnsphotos.net/Sports/2017-2018-Coupeville-Tennis/2018-04-25-girls-vs-South-Whidbey/

And, when you head that way, remember, purchases help fund college scholarships for CHS student/athletes (plus they make grandma happy).

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Don’t stop til you drop!!

Posted in Girls Tennis, tagged , , , , , on April 25, 2018| Leave a Comment »

   Elaira Nicolle teamed with Genna Wright Wednesday to win a match against South Whidbey. (Photo by JohnsPhotos.net)

Play until the sun goes down.

That seemed to be the objective Wednesday for the final two varsity doubles teams on the court as Coupeville and South Whidbey clashed.

By the time Wolves Kameryn St Onge and Maggie Crimmins finished their epic battle with Falcons Oliana Stange and Ally Lynch, every other court was empty.

And, even though the result of their bout wouldn’t change the outcome of the team match (South Whidbey eventually won 4-1), the duos raged on against the dying sun.

One second-set game went to 24,507 deuces (give or take a few) as all four players took turns whacking crowd-pleasing winners.

Then, at the end, as Crimmins and St Onge tried to pull out a second-set tiebreaker (and force another, match-deciding tie breaker) things got downright bloody.

St Onge, who had been cranking wicked left-handed winners that skidded through the alleys, ripped open a finger and had to make a bee-line for a first-aid kit.

“We’re never going home, are we?”, said Jon Crimmins, Maggie’s proud papa, chuckling as he gazed at a marsh occupying the space where the CHS baseball diamond of his youth once sat.

And, while Stange and Lynch pulled out the win a few points later thanks to a couple of sweet winners, it was a fairly-perfect cap for all involved.

While the final team score was the same as the first time these teams met back in mid-March, the scrappy underdog Wolves (4-8 on the season) showed marked improvement against the Falcons (7-1).

Sophomore sluggers Tia Wurzrainer and Avalon Renninger battled back from a set down to win Wednesday, while freshman Genna Wright won six more games in her second go-around with battle-hardened Ashley Ricketts.

The strong play continued to the JV matches, where Coupeville won twice and Emily Fiedler and Jaimee Masters, in particular, laid down some brilliant shots.

If nothing else, the non-conference match was a good tune-up for Thursday’s ultra-important match-and-a-half at Silverdale.

The Wolves (2-1 in Olympic League play) will wrap a rain-delayed match (it’s sitting at 2-2 with three bouts still undecided), then play their regularly-scheduled tilt with Klahowya (0-3).

Win both and CHS vaults a half game ahead of Chimacum (3-1) and guarantees it will play for a fourth-straight league title.

Complete Wednesday results:

Varsity:

1st Singles — Claire Mietus lost to Robynn Maciel 6-0, 6-2

2nd Singles — Genna Wright lost to Ashley Ricketts 6-3, 6-3

1st Doubles — Payton Aparicio/Sage Renninger lost to Mary Zisette/Alison Papritz 6-2, 6-2

2nd Doubles — Avalon Renninger/Tia Wurzrainer beat Farriss Jokinen/Ainsley Nelson 2-6, 6-3, 10-6

3rd Doubles — Kameryn St Onge/Maggie Crimmins lost to Ally Lynch/Oliana Stange 7-5, 7-6(7-5)

JV:

4th Doubles — Jillian Mayne/Zara Bradley lost to Erin Brewer/McKenna Kelley 8-5

5th Doubles — Megan Behan/Nanci Melendrez lost to Elizabeth Simmons/Lynda Moran 6-4

6th Doubles — Jaimee Masters/Emily Fiedler beat Jenna Pfeiffer/Capri Pierce 8-4

7th Doubles — Bradley/Mayne played Sadie Wilson/Joanie Welever No score recorded

8th Doubles — Elaira Nicolle/Wright beat Mira Harvey/Denise Breton 6-2

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All the pics, all the wins!!

Posted in Baseball, Softball, tagged , , , , on March 17, 2018| Leave a Comment »

Matt Hilborn is locked ‘n loaded. (Photos by JohnsPhotos.net)

Katrina McGranahan comes in hot for one of her four runs on the afternoon.

   South Whidbey baseball coach Tom Fallon (left) and Wolf hardball headman Chris Smith exchange pleasantries.

CHS first-baseman Veronica Crownover gets low to snag a hot grounder.

   Hunter Smith was flinging nothing but the high, hard cheese, whiffing 13 rivals on his way to a 1-hit shutout.

   Off the field, Lauren Rose is a truly gentle soul. On the diamond, however, she will cut you off at the knees and laugh as you bleed out.

Let the beatins’, and the photos, commence.

Coupeville enjoyed a very pleasant Saturday jaunt to Langley, shredding the Falcon softball and baseball squads 12-0 and 10-0, respectively.

Wanderin’ photo bug John Fisken stopped by the ball fields on his way home, and captured the pics seen above.

To marinate in everything he shot, pop over to:

Softball — https://www.johnsphotos.net/Sports/Coupeville-Softball-2017-2018/2018-03-17-at-South-Whidbey/

Baseball — http://www.johnsphotos.net/Sports/Coupeville-Baseball-2017-2018/2018-03-17-at-South-Whidbey/

And, when you do, remember, purchases help fund college scholarships for CHS student/athletes.

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