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A whole new game!!

Posted in Tennis, tagged , , , , on October 6, 2017| Leave a Comment »

   Coupeville’s days as a tennis power will likely take a hit when the Olympic League combines 1A and 2A programs in the sport next school year. (Photo by JohnsPhotos.net)

The path to an Olympic League tennis title has always gone through Coupeville.

Starting next school year, however, that path is going to get a lot rockier.

The Wolf boys have won two crowns in four seasons since joining the newly-created 1A division of the league in 2014, while the CHS girls are a perfect 3-for-3 heading into next spring.

In fact, the Coupeville girls have never lost a match to rivals Klahowya and Chimacum/Port Townsend, and will carry a 15-0 mark in league tilts onto the court in 2018.

While the pursuit of title #4 will remain the same, the chase for title #5 may take a substantial detour.

When the 2018-2019 school year arrives, the 1A division of the Olympic League will merge with the 2A side of things for tennis, creating a 10-team conference for the sport.

That means just one league champ, and not the current two.

The new format only covers the regular season, as 1A and 2A schools will go their own way once the postseason arrives.

All other sports will remain separated between 1A and 2A.

While Coupeville has been playing most of the Olympic League’s 2A schools in non-conference tennis matches, the new format means they would have to upend much-larger schools to retain their title-winning ways.

Instead of just thumping on the Eagles and Cowboys, the Wolves will have to also vie with North Kitsap, Sequim, North Mason, Olympic, Kingston, Bremerton and Port Angeles.

Those schools have student bodies of 527-876 students, which means Coupeville (227 in the last classification count) will experience some deja vu, harkening back to its former days competing in the 1A/2A Cascade Conference.

In the new format North Kitsap (810 students) will overwhelmingly be the team to beat.

On the boys side the Vikings are currently operating on a 41-match winning streak, dating back to a loss to Sequim in Oct. 2014.

The NK girls have lost more recently, but that’s not a common occurrence, as they are still a very-tidy 51-3 over the past four seasons.

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New netter finds success, kinship!!

Posted in Boys Tennis, tagged , , , , on October 6, 2017| Leave a Comment »

   Harris Sinclair is in his first season as a member of the CHS boys tennis squad. (Photo by JohnsPhotos.net)

“I’m sort of just here to have a good time.”

Coupeville High School junior Harris Sinclair is deep into his first season with the Wolf boys tennis team (“I’ve played for about 50 days”) and the laid-back, brainy netter has shown growth and improvement every step of the way.

But, while he’d like to play varsity as a senior, enjoying his time on the courts is more important than any transient success.

“I just want to have fun this year,” Sinclair said. “I started playing tennis because I don’t spend a lot of time talking to people normally, and this gives good human interaction.”

Before Thursday’s match against Klahowya, he gently razzed teammate Jakobi Baumann, then later moved court-to-court, rooting for his teammates.

When he’s on the court himself, the one-on-one battle (or two-on-two, in a doubles match) intrigues him.

“As much as I enjoy the team aspect, I like the silent respect and struggle between myself and my opponents,” Sinclair said.

With more matches under his belt, the net ace is fine-tuning his strengths and discovering areas he wants to work on with every new day.

“I’m much more comfortable in the front of the court towards the net,” Sinclair said. “It’s fun to play in the back, but it’s very easy to hit it out.

“My current goal is to improve my serves,” he added. “As they don’t always go where I want them to.”

Away from the hard-court, Sinclair is equally busy, with stints in Science Olympiad, pep/marching band and National Honor Society.

He favors sci-fi films and has an eye on a career in the video game biz.

“I want to go into game design,” Sinclair said. “It’s something that I have a passion for and am good at.”

With his film interests, he needs some reality mixed in with his fantasy.

“As far as favorite movie, that’s a difficult one,” Sinclair said. “The closest I can get is science fiction, especially the grittier-feeling ones like Star Wars, Serenity and Aliens, because they feel more authentic.”

Whether he’s mixing lobs with backhands, working on a science project or wailing away in band, there’s one person who looms large for the young Wolf, someone who is always there to give him support.

“My dad, definitely. We don’t always see eye-to-eye, however, I’ve always looked up to him and valued his advice.”

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One day, two matches, all the emotions!!

Posted in Boys Tennis, tagged , , , , , on October 5, 2017| Leave a Comment »

   Jaschon Baumann pulled off “the win of the season” to keep Coupeville’s hopes of repeating as league champs alive for an extra hour. (Photo by JohnsPhotos.net)

Coupeville High School boys tennis coach Ken Stange has been doing this gig for a long time — 25 seasons over 13 years — but Thursday afternoon he rode the roller-coaster of feelings in a way rarely seen.

One second, he was bouncing with joy, high-fiving his players as he sprinted by.

The next, he was hunched over, trying to mentally will his netters through every gut-wrenching point.

Flashes of irritation tempered by another explosion of fist-pumping ecstasy.

And, finally, hard-earned acceptance, as Coupeville’s run at a third-straight Olympic League title ended by the narrowest of margins.

Even then, though, a flush of pride on his cheeks as  the last two players on the court, young guns Zach Ginnings and Drake Borden, rallied to pull out a final win even after the day’s second team match, and the title, were lost.

“We did not go down easy!,” Stange softly muttered, and then he wryly smiled and went off to finally have some dinner after one of the longest, and most action-packed days, in CHS tennis history.

Thanks to an earlier match being rained out, the Wolves and visiting Klahowya played two matches in one day Thursday (using pro sets instead of the normal best two-of-three-sets format), and the stakes couldn’t have been higher.

Lose both, or split, and Coupeville’s two-year run as the big dog was over.

Sweep the day and, barring a complete collapse against league doormat Chimacum in the coming days and the Wolves would howl one more time.

With action hopping on four courts at once, both coaches juggling their lineups (and Stange giving his own impassioned version of a “Win one for the Gipper” speech at the start), things got wild.

In the opening match, junior Jaschon Baumann played his heart out at #3 singles, tipping the scales in favor of Coupeville and cinching a 4-3 win.

“The win of the day! The win of the year! The win of your life!!,” thundered a jubilant Stange as he came dangerously close to grabbing Baumann and carrying him over his head, Rocky-style, through the parking lot.

With that victory, the Wolves joined 2A North Kitsap, an undefeated juggernaut, as the only schools to knock off Klahowya in 12 matches this season.

It also ramped up the stakes on the day’s second match, and the two squads went at it in a pitched battle, as fans, including Coupeville football players stopping by after practice to root for their classmates, bounced from court to court.

In the end, Klahowya’s depth — it features last year’s fourth-place finisher at the state tourney and a pair of brothers who spent the past four years honing their tennis game in England — was too much.

A win at #2 doubles, which came down to a nerve-wracking tiebreaker, carried the day as the Eagles rebounded for their own 4-3 win.

With the split, KSS (4-1 in league play, 11-2 overall) recaptures the conference title it last won in 2014.

Coupeville, which sits at 2-2, 3-6, has four matches left, including two league tilts with Chimacum, then will host the conference tourney Oct. 21.

Complete Thursday results:

Match 1:

1st Singles — Tiger Johnson lost to Taylor Fite 8-0

2nd Singles — Nile Lockwood lost to Jacob Kraft 8-0

3rd Singles — Jaschon Baumann beat Drew Kraft 8-4

1st Doubles — William Nelson/Joey Lippo beat Morgan Seidel/William Stewart 8-0

2nd Doubles — Nick Etzell/Mason Grove lost to Joe Bowman/Nick Hytinen 8-6

3rd Doubles — Jakobi Baumann/Pedro Gamorra beat Parker Short/Carson Short 8-5

4th Doubles — Drake Borden/Zach Ginnings beat Dominic Westland/Cameron Johnson 8-4

 

Match 2:

1st Singles — T. Johnson lost to Fite 8-0

2nd Singles — Lockwood lost to J. Kraft 8-2

3rd Singles — Jas. Baumann lost to D. Kraft 8-1

1st Doubles — Lippo/Etzell lost to Seidel/Stewart 9-8(9-7)

2nd Doubles — Nelson/Grove beat Bowman/Hytinen 9-7

3rd Doubles — Jak. Baumann/Gamorra beat P. Short/C. Short 8-4

4th Doubles — Ginnings/Borden beat Westland/C. Johnson 8-6

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Forward progress!!

Posted in standings, tagged , , , , , on October 1, 2017| Leave a Comment »

   Mikayla Elfrank pounds home a spike for the first-place Wolf volleyball squad. (Photos by JohnsPhotos.net)

Tiger Johnson and his fellow netters are fighting for another league title.

   After a last-second win over Port Townsend, Coupeville soccer sits at 3-1 in Olympic League play.

   CHS football has already tied last year’s win total, with half a season left to play. (David Stern photo)

It was a good week to be a Wolf.

Plowing into the heart of league play, Coupeville High School varsity teams won five of six contests, with volleyball, football and boys tennis emerging undefeated from the week.

Exiting Sept., the Wolves are a combined 15-12 overall this school year, 8-3 in league play.

Toss in the undefeated JV and C-Team volleyball squads and the numbers get even glossier, with all of Coupeville’s fall teams combining to go 22-12 (a .647 winning percentage) and 12-3.

In the race for varsity supremacy, the Wolves have tightened their annual race with Klahowya, closing the early gap in total team wins to 9-8.

Coupeville edged the Eagles 51-48 during the 2016-2017 school year.

In the 3+ year history of the 1A Olympic League, the schools with the biggest size disparity (Klahowya is the second-biggest 1A school in the state, Coupeville the sixth-smallest) have dominated.

Varsity league wins (2014-2017):

Klahowya – 154
Coupeville – 141
Chimacum – 75
Port Townsend – 73

And current league standings through Oct. 1:

Olympic/Nisqually League football:

School League Overall
Cascade Christian 2-0 4-1
Charles Wright 2-0 4-1
Port Townsend 2-0 2-3
COUPEVILLE 1-1 3-2
Klahowya 1-1 1-4
Bellevue Christian 0-2 0-5
Chimacum 0-2 2-3
Vashon Island 0-2 0-5

Olympic League volleyball:

School League Overall
COUPEVILLE 3-0 5-1
Klahowya 2-1 3-4
Chimacum 1-2 1-4
Port Townsend 0-3 1-5

Olympic League girls soccer:

School League Overall
Klahowya 4-0 8-0
COUPEVILLE 3-1 5-4
Port Townsend 1-3 2-6
Chimacum 0-4 0-5

Olympic League boys tennis:

School League Overall
Klahowya 2-0 7-1
COUPEVILLE 1-1 2-5
Chimacum 0-2 0-5

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Toasty temps, sizzlin’ snaps!!

Posted in Boys Tennis, tagged , , , , , on September 27, 2017| Leave a Comment »

Koby Schreiber wields a deadly racket. (Photos by JohnsPhotos.net)

   That moment when William Nelson starts to wonder why he didn’t pack a pair of sunglasses.

Braving the sun, Zach Ginnings prepares to launch the ball skyward for a serve.

“I am Thane Peterson! Feel my fury!!”

With a flick of his wrist, Mason Grove ruins a rival player’s afternoon.

And then Nick Etzell went all Incredible Hulk on everyone.

Can this really be the fall tennis season?

Seven matches into the campaign and not only hasn’t a single match come anywhere remotely close to being rained out, but it felt like summer Wednesday afternoon.

Taking advantage of the sun ‘n fun, the Wolf netters thrashed visiting Chimacum, while roving camera clicker John Fisken busied himself snapping for hours.

The pics above are courtesy him, and you can see tons more (Fisken finished in the triple digits) by popping over to the link below.

And remember, when you buy, you help finance college scholarships for CHS student/athletes.

Something to keep in mind.

http://www.johnsphotos.net/Sports/2017-2018-Coupeville-Tennis/2017-09-27-vs-Chimacum/

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