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Posts Tagged ‘volleyball’

Artwork by Jaimee Masters

With Washington state schools closed down for at least six weeks due to the spread of coronavirus, we’re offering all Coupeville students a chance to be heard and stay connected.

Jaimee Masters, who created the artwork seen in this story, is a junior at CHS who plays volleyball and tennis.

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Start playing volleyball young, and you might be as good as Raven Vick when you hit high school. (Photo by JohnsPhotos.net)

Love volleyball and are currently a 4th, 5th, or 6th grader in the Coupeville School District?

Then do I have a deal for you!

Coupeville High School coaches and players are bringing back the ultra-popular Wolf Pup Volleyball program for a third go-round this spring, and they want you to join them in the gym.

The event runs across six weeks, with two-a-week practices for young athletes looking to have fun and learn the fastest-growing sport in town.

Cost is $50 per player, with payment due on the first day of practice, which breaks down to a hair over $4 a pop if you hit every day.

Though CHS varsity volleyball coach Cory Whitmore is quick to stress the number of practices each athlete attends is completely optional.

If your child is involved in other activities or sports, volleyball is flexible.

“If they’re only available for one of the two days a week, that’s perfectly fine,” Whitmore said. “We are just looking to introduce eager young players hoping to learn and play the game!”

Practices run Tuesdays and Thursdays from 4-6 PM in the Coupeville Middle School gym.

Planned sessions are April 14, 16, 21, 23, 28, and 30, as well as May 5, 7, 12, 14, 19, and 21.

Each day will feature drills to teach the players various skills, followed by fun and competitive games at the end of each session.

All money raised by Wolf Pups goes to enhance the CHS volleyball program.

Players need to be registered by April 7, which you can do by popping over to https://bit.ly/3adpIuo

For any questions, contact Whitmore at cwhitmore@coupeville.k12.wa.us or (509) 347-6301.

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Scout Smith, beatin’ the crud out of your best pitches. (Photos by JohnsPhotos.net)

A coach’s daughter, who took the lessons delivered by parents Charlotte and Chris to heart.

My respect for her grows each time I see her play.

Scout Smith is not the tallest, the strongest, the fastest, or the most physically-gifted athlete I have ever written about, and I mean her no disrespect when I say that.

But she doesn’t need to be.

I have watched Scout play volleyball, basketball, and softball for six years now, through middle school days and almost all of her high school experience, and I know this for a stone-cold fact — no one can match her heart.

She is the daughter of coaches, and she paid attention when parents Chris and Charlotte imparted lessons on the field and the court, in the dugouts and on drives home.

Scout is one of the smartest athletes I have witnessed in person, and like older brothers CJ and Hunter, she combines her big brain with a resilient spirit.

She does not quit. Ever.

She will find a way to beat you, and, if that way doesn’t work, she will lose with grace.

It will hurt, it will drive her on to greater heights, but she will honor her opponents and the game itself. Always.

Epic black eye developing after slamming face-first into the volleyball court in pursuit of a ball, she will quietly tell her dad to sit his fanny back down on the bench, because she’s not coming out of the game with her season, and prep career, on the line.

And she will dance around the bases, feet barely touching the bags as she floats through the air, after knifing Cedar Park Christian with a walk-off grand-slam home run which jumped over the fence like a laser.

She deeply loves her brothers, of that I have no doubt, and she has spent her days chasing them athletically.

In that moment, though, she does something neither one of them accomplished during their own halcyon high school careers.

And she will never, ever, EVERRRRRR let them forget that.

Under the deceptively calm exterior Scout projects to the world, burns a heart which is like 10 million active volcanoes exploding all at once.

It’s why she’s helped take Wolf volleyball and softball teams to state, and it’s why she will live large in the memories of Coupeville fans for a very long time after she leaves the prairie.

The youngest Smith, who still has one final softball season left to play before graduation, may go on to play college sports like her brothers, who are in their second year as baseball stars at Green River College.

I hope she does.

I hope Scout finds the right fit, at the right school, at whatever level, and in whichever of her sports brings her the greatest joy.

If she does, she will make a school, and a coach, or coaches (who says she can’t play more than one sport?) very happy.

But I also hope she makes the jump to collegiate sports only if it’s something SHE truly wants.

Whatever she does, wherever she goes, whatever path she follows, whether it’s sports-related or not, Scout will knock it out of the park.

She’s too smart, and has too much heart, and is too committed, to not be excellent.

There was a moment when I, like all the other Wolf fans, had no clue she even existed.

Then, one day, she and her family made the move to Coupeville, and now Scout is so interwoven into our world, it seems inconceivable there was ever a moment when she wasn’t here.

I hope she knows how deeply respected she is, by coaches, fellow athletes — both teammates and rivals — and those who have watched her rise and take her rightful place among the best to ever pull on a CHS uniform.

Scout is the one you hope all young athletes model themselves on as they follow their own path to success.

Be graceful, be kind, play with a burning intensity, let your actions speak louder than your words, work your tail off, be there, front and center, every game, every practice, when we see you, and when we don’t.

Let your heart be a volcano.

Do that, and like Scout, it will carry you far.

For Miss Smith, today it carries her into the Coupeville Sports Hall o’ Fame, where she joins her brothers, three truly superb human beings, on and off the various courts and fields they have owned.

After this, you’ll find the trio up at the top of the blog, under the Legends tab.

How did Scout get there? She earned it, every step of the way.

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Maya Toomey-Stout unleashes the fury. (Brian Vick photo)

Sean Toomey-Stout rumbles. (Photos by JohnsPhotos.net)

The wonder twins and their wonder moms — Beth Stout (left) and Lisa Toomey.

They came into the world together, born to be stars.

When we have the conversation about the best athletes I have written about, not just today, but all-time, Maya and Sean Toomey-Stout are among the first names I would raise.

The wonder twins, “The Gazelle” and “The Torpedo,” they are up there with Makana Stone, Hunter Smith, Madeline Strasburg, Nick Streubel, Breeanna Messner, and a few others.

So, while I normally wait until after graduation to induct Wolf athletes into the Coupeville Sports Hall o’ Fame, what’s going to change in 3-4 months?

The Toomey-Stout’s are golden now, and they’ll be golden in June, so why prolong the inevitable?

Throw open the doors to our hallowed digital world o’ wonder, and let Maya and Sean join older brother Cameron in the Hall.

It’s time.

From this moment on, when you look at the Legends tab at the top of the blog, you’ll see all three Toomey-Stout siblings in residence.

While both Maya and Sean still have a final track and field season to go, a swan song hopefully full of record-busting and state title-chasing, the duo have already established themselves as the gold standard.

As athletes, and as people.

Moms Beth Stout and Lisa Toomey have raised three of the finest kids to grace Coupeville, and I would regard them that way even if none of the trio had been athletes.

But dang, they have been, and their impact is undeniable.

Maya’s eye-popping power on the volleyball court, Sean’s electric, game-changing plays on the football field and basketball court, their complete and utter command of any event they compete in during track season.

And that’s just the start.

Maya was a very good hoops player herself until she let the game go to focus on volleyball, and her skills as a base thief during her little league softball days were truly uncanny.

I really believe she and her twin brother would be among the best to ever wear a CHS uniform in any sport.

Toss a tennis racket their way, say, or a soccer ball, give them a couple of practices, and be amazed.

Great genes help, yes, but what sets Sean and Maya apart from almost everyone else on their campus is their work ethic.

To find another recent Wolf athlete who worked as hard, in season and out, as the Toomey-Stout twins, you’d have to look around until you spotted … Camtastic.

Cameron set the pace for the family, and his younger siblings have lived up to his legacy.

Scan the photos from off-season training sessions in the CHS weight room and the same three faces pop up in 99.2% of the photos.

Other Wolf athletes come and go, with some reappearing on a fairly-steady basis, but the Toomey-Stouts were there EVERY DANG DAY.

They took nothing for granted, they prepared for everything, and they played their hearts out from the first day of their middle school adventure to the final days of their high school journey.

It’s Sean, his arm injured, sneaking back on to the field late in the final game of his football career, intent on anchoring his defensive unit to the end, regardless of the score or the pain.

When CHS coach Marcus Carr noticed “The Torpedo” ready to blow up the Interlake QB, and intent on accomplishing the feat with only one good arm, the Wolf gridiron guru shook his head softly, then went to retrieve his wrecking ball, a look of pride and concern mingling on his face.

It’s Maya, pushed to the limit in the final moments of her prep volleyball career, physically exhausted, mentally drained, after back-to-back epic matches, yet still finding a way to elevate and abuse the ball, until there were no more shots to make.

“The Gazelle” would have played all night, if need be. Like her brothers, she has no quit button.

That the Toomey-Stouts are great athletes is a start.

That they are top-notch students intent on using their brains, and not their brawn, to get ahead in life after their high school days, is more.

That they are kind, and caring, that they treat those around them with compassion, that they greet life with a joy which radiates outwards and touches all those they meet, is the most.

When Beth Stout and Lisa Toomey, two of the loveliest human beings I know, brought their children into the world, they made that world a better place.

And now, Cameron, Maya, and Sean continue the work of their moms, spreading love, joy, and general awesomeness.

We, as a town, as Wolf fans, have been blessed to be a part of their story, and putting them in my lil’ Hall o’ Fame is one of the easiest decisions I’ve ever made.

So why wait?

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Softball has the most-recent state tourney team win among Coupeville High School sports programs, thanks to the play of Mollie Bailey and friends. (Karen Carlson photo)

It’s been awhile.

The last time a Coupeville High School boys team won a game at the state tournament, in any sport, Ronald Reagan was the President of the United States.

The day was May 23, 1987 and the Wolf baseball team beat White Swan 2-0 as it wound its way to a 3rd place showing.

Since then, nada.

After beating White Swan, the ’87 CHS diamond men fell 14-7 to Morton, beginning what now sits at a 33-year streak without a team win in a state tourney game for Coupeville’s male athletes.

And I stress the word TEAM, as CHS sports programs where the athletes compete as individuals, have produced big success in that time, topped off by state champs in track and cross country.

Take a look at sports where success hinges on a team, however, and Wolf boys are in a long dry spell.

Wolf baseball (0-5), football (0-2), basketball (0-2), and soccer (0-2) have made it to the big dance multiple times in the past three decades, but none have won since ’87.

That has given the CHS girls a chance to play catch-up, and they have in a big way.

The ’87 baseball win was the fourth state tourney triumph by a Wolf boys team, while the Coupeville girls have now won 16 times.

The first victory came courtesy of the girls basketball squad in 2000, with the most recent W captured by the 2019 softball sluggers.

As we approach the 50th anniversary of the first CHS team to make it to state, in any sport, the 1970 boys basketball team, it’s well past time for modern-day Wolf boys to recapture past glory.

Until they do, the stat sheet speaks for itself, and it tells us this — CHS girls rule the school.

 

State tourney history for CHS team sports (compiled by WIAA):

 

Baseball:

First trip: 1973
Most-recent trip: 2014
Total trips: 9
State tourney wins: 2
Schools beaten: Kittitas, White Swan
Best finish: 3rd in 1987

 

Boys Basketball:

First trip: 1970
Most-recent trip: 1988
Total trips: 5
State tourney wins: 2
Schools beaten: Columbia (Burbank), Montesano
Best finish: No trophies

 

Boys Soccer:

First trip: 2009
Most-recent trip: 2010
Total trips: 2
State tourney wins: None
Schools beaten: None
Best finish: No trophies

 

Football:

First trip: 1974
Most-recent trip: 1990
Total trips: 4
State tourney wins: None
Schools beaten: None
Best finish: No trophies

 

Girls Basketball:

First trip: 1998
Most-recent trip: 2016
Total trips: 7
State tourney wins: 7
Schools beaten: Freeman, Onalaska, Overlake, Winlock, River View, Cascade Christian, Zillah
Best finish: 6th in 2002

 

Softball:

First trip: 2002
Most-recent trip: 2019
Total trips: 3
State tourney wins: 5
Schools beaten: Cle Elum, Royal, Okanogan, Napavine, Deer Park
Best finish: 3rd in 2002

 

Volleyball:

First trip: 2001
Most-recent trip: 2017
Total trips: 5
State tourney wins: 4
Schools beaten: King’s, Freeman, Toutle Lake, Zillah
Best finish: No trophies

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