Megan Meyer (right) is joined by fellow Hall o’ Fame inductees (top to bottom) Bob Barker, Arik Garthwaite, Corinne Gaddis and Noah Roehl.
Old school and new school meet.
The five-person group headed into the Coupeville Sports Hall o’ Fame today, the 37th class inducted into these hallowed digital walls, is a mix of different generations.
But one thing links the three men and two women who, after this, will be found at the top of the blog under the Legends tab.
They all had a sizable impact on AND off the field. And continue to do so.
So, with that, we formally welcome Corinne Gaddis, Noah Roehl, Arik Garthwaite, Megan Meyer and Bob Barker.
We kick things off with Garthwaite, who is being honored for his play on the hardwood.
One of the most dominant scoring machines CHS has ever seen, he was a four-year varsity player, topping 100+ points in every season, capped by an eye-popping 423 as a senior.
That’s the second-best single-season mark put up by a Wolf boy in the past 25 years, and, by the time he was done, Garthwaite had scorched the nets for 867 points in his stellar career.
Not bad for a guy who actually focused more on the other side of the court.
“Defense and yelling at the refs were my strong suits,” he once told me with a laugh.
As a junior he helped the Wolves get off to a 12-0 start, then delivered even more fireworks a year later.
During Garthwaite’s senior season in 1997-1998, he blitzed Mount Vernon Christian for 32 and helped Coupeville upend powerhouse King’s in an upset he still treasures.
A gym rat during his days as a Wolf — “Pete (Petrov) had a key to the gym and he and I would play there at night quite a bit. The janitor was pretty cool about it.” — he still remembers what it was like to make the joint rock.
“That gym was electric when we played and always packed,” he said. “I talked to a few guys on each team that we played against and that was always the first thing they mentioned. It was just SO loud, they would say.”
Our second inductee, Roehl, is being honored for his play — he was a standout football and basketball player who took home a CHS Male Athlete of the Year award — but also for the work he has done since graduation.
Keeping alive the memory and work of his father, the late Tom Roehl, Noah has been the driving force behind his family’s charity work.
Through their popular football and basketball alumni games, the family has raised funds for college scholarships year after year and kept a great man’s legacy rolling.
While everyone in the Roehl family chips in, it is Noah who is the face of the franchise and makes things hum.
His dad would be very proud.
Up next are Gaddis and Meyer, two highly accomplished, supremely sweet-natured young women who continue to wow the world every day.
Injuries were the only thing which could slow the fleet-footed Gaddis down (she still finished 8th at the 1A state meet in the long jump and 6th in the 4 x 100 as a sophomore), but they also gave her a larger purpose.
Once she left Cow Town for that other rural chunk of land, Pullman, she aced her way through her days at Wazzu, becoming an athletic trainer and being chosen as a highlighted student during commencement.
These days, she’s helping athletes of all ages and talents, spreading the gospel of Gaddis everywhere she goes, epic grin greeting everyone she meets — perfect proof you can be awesome in high school and somehow find a way to still ramp it up afterwards.
Her path is sort of similar to Meyer, who, for me at least, will always be the little girl who we used to stick in the rolling cart that we parked under the drop slot at Videoville.
And yes, she would grab people’s hands as they dropped their movie in the slot, and yes, it was glorious.
Once she hit high school, Meggie Moo was a tennis player and a cheerleader, and it’s the latter, where she was a captain when CHS was a competition cheer squad, that earns her entry to the hall.
After high school, however, is where the stupendous Miss Meyer has shone most brightly, though, bopping around the globe, a world traveler who has spent most of her time abroad helping others.
I worked at Videoville for 12+ years, from Megan’s first day of preschool until her sophomore year of high school, and there has never been a moment, then or now, when she was not one of my favorite people in the universe.
She is one of the most genuinely lovable people I have ever known. Her mere presence causes the heavens to open, the sun to shine and small animals to dance with little children.
Seriously.
That’s sort of the reaction most of Barker’s former athletes have when you bring him up.
During his time at CHS, he put in 31+ years, working as a teacher, coach (boys and girls basketball and baseball) and athletic director.
Along the way he guided the 1969-1970 Wolf boys to the first district title ever won by a Whidbey Island hoops team, then took that team to state, another first in program history.
He coached some of the most talented athletes in school history — Jeff Stone, Corey Cross, Marlene Grasser, Sherry Bonacci and Jennie Cross just to name a few — but is revered for treating all of his players equally.
And more so, for being the kind of coach who truly impacted lives far beyond the athletic stage.
Bonacci, who grew up to marry fellow Athlete of the Year Jon Roberts and produce a daughter (Lindsey) who is right on track to duplicate her parents feat, speaks for many of Barker’s former students and players.
“He is AMAZING!! ️Neatest man ever … all-around amazing! LOVE HIM!!,” Sherry Roberts said. “He is truly one of those three or four people in my life who have had the greatest impact on me.
“I would truly not be who I am today without his help and guidance and belief in me. What a wonderful man!!”
Sounds like a Hall of Famer to me.
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