Caleb Valko (top) joins fellow Hall o’ Fame inductees (l t r) Jon Chittim, Tyler King, Sean LeVine, Brad Sherman and Joe Kelley.
We have a shortage of testosterone.
As we induct people into the Coupeville Sports Hall o’ Fame each week, it goes in weird fits and bursts.
Sometimes I know who and what is going in well in advance.
Sometimes I’m making changes up to a few hours before the announcement, as all three people who deeply care hang on the edge of their sofas.
With this haphazard approach, the ladies have surged to an 11-5 lead with seven classes having entered these hallowed digital halls to be enshrined under the Legends tab at the top of the blog.
So, in a concentrated effort, we’re going to level the playing field a bit this week, with all of our inductees (five athletes and a coach) being of the male persuasion.
The eighth class?
Say hello to Brad Sherman, Caleb Valko, Jon Chittim, Joe Kelley, Sean LeVine and Tyler King.
It’s a class that features a tackling machine, a guy who did something no other guy ever did in Coupeville High School history, a record-setting quarterback, and so much more.
We kick it off with King, since he was usually at the front of the pack.
Two state titles in track were a start but a state title in cross country (where he won by an astonishing 31 seconds) was unique. Natasha Bamberger is the only other Wolf to accomplish that feat.
Oh, and he was also a pretty good basketball player, where he was part of one of the biggest plays in school history.
Racing the clock and fighting a suffocating South Whidbey defense Jan. 25, 2011, King somehow managed to get the ball to Ian Smith, who banked home a three-pointer at the buzzer for a stunning 42-41 dethroning of the first-place Falcons on their home court.
Grace under pressure was a strong trait for Chittim, as well.
A superb track sprinter, he capped the 2006 season with three state titles at the 1A meet, winning the 200 and 400, before joining Kyle King, Chris Hutchinson and Steven McDonald to capture the 4 x 400.
“Back in high school, winning meant a lot,” Chittim told me in an interview years later. “Not only because it’s something few Coupeville athletes get to experience, but also it meant I would have a much better chance of getting better scholarships.
“I have always had a competitive spirit, so of course winning still means a lot to me, but in a different way. Now it is more internal and not for my name to be up on a wall.”
Well, it’s a digital wall, so we should be OK.
Valko didn’t get the chance to win a state title like our first two inductees, but he was a strong leader who worked his rear off during his time at CHS, while still finding time to talk smack and entertain the masses.
A team captain in football and basketball, he also was a thrower in track and became the Page Hit King thanks to his willingness to let his emotion and sense of humor come out, but not overwhelm, his drive and determination.
Truly an athlete who could walk away at the end of his high school career and say he had left it all on the field.
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again — Mr. Valko was born to be a coach.
He’s gone down that path a bit, working with CMS football, and I hope it’s one he fully pursues at some point in his life, cause he’d be a natural.
Sherman and Kelley hit the stage next, since their careers as Wolf gridiron warriors overlap perfectly.
The 2002 grads were record busters whose exploits still tower.
Sherman is the career leader for passing yardage and touchdown passes (while also being a dominant athlete in other sports) and Kelley was the very definition of a game-changer for the CHS defense.
He’s on the record board with 103 tackles in 2000, but as I waded through a recently-uncovered treasure trove of stats, we documented he bested that in ’01, when he amassed 142 take-downs.
Kelley topped out with 20 tackles against Orcas, settling for “just” 19 in two other games that season.
Our sixth inductee fits today’s “trend,” of being male, though much of his work has come with female athletes. So LeVine is an equal opportunity legend.
A stellar soccer player in Oak Harbor during his high school days, LeVine has been a driving force in building girls’ soccer in Coupeville.
He’s done it both at the youth league level and as coach of various Whidbey Islanders select squads that have meshed players from Oak Harbor, South Whidbey and Cow Town.
Now that oldest daughter Micky “Two Fists” LeVine is off to college, he’s taking a momentary break from coaching the Islanders.
More time to focus on saving the world as an EMT and arguing with fellow Hall o’ Famer Chris Tumblin over who’s more stylish, but you know he’ll be back.
Coaches don’t retire. They just recharge the batteries.
And, like the other five inductees, LeVine’s battery always went off the charts.
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