Through highs, lows, and a t-shirt — 11 years later the blog is still going.
Somehow, it keeps rolling along.
I’ve tried to quit a few times, gone through stretches where I was angry at the world, and other stretches where I was singing kumbaya.
And here we are at the crack o’ dawn on Aug. 15, 2023, a full 11 years since Coupeville Sports first appeared on the internet.
This is story #10,355, while story #1, published Aug. 15, 2012, was titled “Hark! Fall sports approach!!!”
Four exclamation points in the headline, no photo on the story, and names were not yet in bold.
Little did I know at the time that the Wolf freshmen just beginning their first high school practices would turn out to form one of the most-successful classes in the history of this blog.
The CHS Class of 2016, with Makana Stone, Lathom Kelley, Sylvia Hurlburt, Wiley Hesselgrave, and many more, can stand with any, and came of age as Coupeville Sports “matured.”
What began as an angry response to the Coupeville Examiner being sold to the Evil Empire (and hundreds of my bylined stories vanishing) over time became something more positive.
Most days.
I am proud that Coupeville Sports played a major role in the creation of the Wall of Fame in the CHS gym and sparked the 101-year anniversary for CHS boys’ basketball, which brought countless hoops legends back to their hometown.
Beloved coach Bob Barker stepping through the door, clad in the clothes he wore while guiding the Wolves to the program’s biggest success in the early ’70s, is my “Elvis is in the building” moment.
But I’ve also stumbled more than once.
One which bothers me to this day was when CHS soccer coach Gary Manker unexpectedly passed away.
I rushed to get the news out, and, in doing so, stepped on the feelings of his family, taking away their chance to deal with the loss in private.
As someone who spent one summer attending back-to-back-to-back funerals for his dad, grandmother, and great aunt, I should have been more considerate.
While I have been blessed to be able to use photos from countless camera clicking members of Wolf Nation, Coupeville Sports is essentially a one-man operation.
I write it, I edit it, I choose what to run, and what not to run.
Sometimes I’m right, and sometimes I’m wrong. Every day is a new chance to soar, or to screw it all up.
There are more photos these days, and less exclamation points, than in the early moments of the blog, though the background layout largely remains the same in 2023 as it was in 2012.
That’s because I think my theme, while probably a bit outdated — WordPress retired it years ago, but I’m nothing if not stubborn — is fairly clean.
It offers an easy-to-read look with no pop-up ads cluttering things, which I detest.
And, 11 years and 10,355 articles later, it’s as free to read today as it was in its infancy.
Web sites which have pay walls can bite my pale white rump.
Of course, not charging a fee is a big part of why I don’t have an indoor/outdoor swimming pool with a waterfall in the middle connecting the two halves.
But I get by, thanks to the goodwill of the community.
If you want to support me typing on the shores of Penn Cove at 2:00 AM on a computer powered by a hamster running on a treadmill, there are several ways.
You can use PayPal:
https://paypal.me/DavidSvien?country.x=US&locale.x=en_US
You can Venmo me under @David-Svien at:
https://account.venmo.com/
You can snail mail me at 165 Sherman, Coupeville, WA, 98239 or cram money (or blueberries) into my hands, mobster-style, at a Wolf game.
Hopefully the blueberries are still inside a plastic container, and not just a hot mess of sticky sort-of jam…
Or you can just keep reading for free, for as long as this thing keeps going.
You do you, and I’ll keep pounding away on the keyboard. It’s (mostly) worked so far.
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