Feeds:
Posts
Comments

Posts Tagged ‘Whidbey News-Times’

You are the wind beneath my wings

Posted in Not sports? Tough!, tagged , , , , on December 8, 2020| Leave a Comment »

A duck, drawn by my youngest nephew. This is the kind of quality content you support when you support Coupeville Sports. 

How did I get here?

There are days when I ask myself that, and many more when those around me either ask, or at least think the thought, I am sure.

If we believe my birth certificate, and the date on it — April 30, 1971 — I sit 144 days away from turning 50.

I started working, really working, before I was 10, as my dad firmly believed I should learn the family business early — window washing and carpet cleaning — while giving him the chance to pay me less than a real employee.

As in, “You’re helping the family,” so maybe, probably, don’t expect a paycheck…

I think my first “real” job, one where an employer gave a chunk of my money to the state, was when I was a dishwasher at a rest home.

Or maybe it was when I slung beans all over the back room walls at a Taco Time.

You turn on the power mixer BEFORE the blade is down in the beans one time…

I’ve had stellar jobs — most of my years in the video store biz were sublime — and ones that were less so.

Mussel harvesting was one epically stinky, four-month slice of watery horror.

And I survived not one, but two stints, separated by decades, at a local inn where, when you touched the walls, your hand started to sink into the wood.

Through it all, the one job I have held the longest, sort of, is being some version of a journalist.

My first freelance story — a game piece on an Oak Harbor vs. Shelton boys basketball game — hit the Whidbey News-Times in January, 1990.

Since then, I’ve pounded out hundreds of thousands of words, covering sports and non-sports.

I became the Sports Editor at the WNT, and stayed for two years before moving to the mussel rafts (cause, I’m an idiot), then returned to freelancing for decades.

My movie column ran 15 years, and I never missed an issue during that run.

Then, back in 2012, I said farewell to any further connection with corporate papers, and launched this blog in mid-August.

Jump forward to today and I am 15 articles away from publishing #8,000.

I also have a second blog, having returned to my movie review days — Flat Butt Film Fest – One movie, 100 words — where I already sit at 507 articles in less than four months.

My writing isn’t making me rich, that’s for certain.

I like to say, it’s not an official non-profit, I just don’t make a profit.

Which is fine, as I’ve somehow managed, often by the slimmest of margins, to survive on my writing without a “real” job to suck my time away for the past five years.

How long can this go on?

That’s really up to you, the reader.

Being obstinate, I am choosing to remain on the outside looking in, writing for myself and not for other, better-funded, publications.

It’s probably not the smartest choice. But, it is a choice, and the one I’m making.

At this point in time, as I hover ever-closer to being the guy who goes and lives in the woods away from society, it’s what works best for me.

So, Coupeville Sports and Flat Butt Film Fest will continue to be here, free to read. No pay wall, ever.

To those who have supported me financially as I type away at 2 AM, you have no idea how important you have been, and continue to be.

You are the difference between me writing these blogs from my Penn Cove duplex, and me (attempting to) write them from the back seat of my 2000 Nissan Xterra.

Your donations are the lifeblood of this irrational dream, and give me the ink — so to speak — to keep telling prairie tales.

Thank you.

 

To support the cause, there’s this link:

https://paypal.me/DavidSvien?locale.x=en_US

 

I can also be reached at:

David Svien
165 Sherman
Coupeville, WA 98239

Read Full Post »

Dean of Whidbey sports journalism retiring

Posted in In Memorium, tagged , , , , on December 4, 2020| Leave a Comment »

Coupeville High School girls hoops coach Scott Fox (back) swaps tales with Whidbey News-Times Sports Editor Jim Waller. (Photos by JohnsPhotos.net)

Waller discusses strategy with Wolf hoops guru David King.

The elder statesman of Whidbey Island sports journalism is leaving the building.

And the state.

Jim Waller, my Oak Harbor High School journalism teacher, and the man most responsible for my writing “career,” retires in two weeks.

His last day at the Whidbey News-Times is December 18.

After that, the lifelong Whidbey resident and his wife are moving to North Carolina to be closer to their sons and their families.

Waller has been at the core of Whidbey Island sports since his birth, as a player, teacher, coach, and writer.

He was born into the life, one of the sons of revered local coach Mert Waller, who led four Coupeville High School sports programs (football, basketball, baseball, and track), before moving to similar positions in Oak Harbor.

Jim Waller was a standout prep athlete at OHHS, who returned to teach and coach multiple sports at his alma mater.

Of the two people actively writing about sports on Whidbey, he is the only one to be a member of a real Hall of Fame, honored in 2001 by the Washington State Baseball Coaches Association Hall of Fame.

Waller led the OHHS baseball program for 30 years, taking the Wildcats to the Class 3A state title game.

A graduate of the University of Washington, he was in his second go-round with Whidbey’s newspapers.

Waller first wrote for the News-Times as a youngster, then returned to the post after retiring from the Oak Harbor School District.

As he prepares to depart, several Coupeville coaches, past and present, offered their thoughts on the easy-going legend.

 

Mike Etzell:

He is quality, character, with a twinkle in his eye, and one of the constants on fields/courts across Whidbey.

 

Scott Fox:

I was fortunate to meet Jim this past year as it was my first year as a head coach and little did I know it would be his last as a sports writer. 

The one word that comes to mind when I think of Jim is dedication. Jim is the guy who loved what he did and it showed.

We had some great conversations about Coupeville sports and how they have evolved throughout the years.

His enthusiasm for local sports and working with kids really comes through starting with his coaching for many years to now covering them as a newspaper journalist.

He always approached his job as a sports writer with the utmost professionalism and I really enjoyed our post game conversations.

We are losing a local legend in the sports world but at the same time I am happy for him in retirement and being able to spend more time with his family.

He is a great guy and will be truly missed!

 

David King:

I’ve known Jim since 1982 or 1983 when he was teaching and coaching at Oak Harbor. At the time I was just finishing high school.

Sadly I didn’t play baseball for him.

I really got to know Jim on the basketball court.

Back in the ’80s and into the ’90s the teachers from Oak Harbor would get together on Sunday evenings and play. I was lucky enough to have an invite and played.

Back then on the basketball court, Jim wasn’t flashy, but he seemed to always make the right plays or be in the right spot.

What I should have realized then, but came to realize later in life, Jim was a student of the game.

That goes for basketball, baseball and softball. I’m sure other sports as well.

Fast forward to my time coaching softball and basketball. During this time Jim was the sports guy for the Whidbey News-Times.

Many times after a home game, we would talk stats and sports article material that he could use.

Then he and I would talk the in-depth details.

I could sit and talk these details with Jim any day of the week. The X’s and O’s.

He was able to see things a normal fan or parent may not recognize.

Early on, he wouldn’t push his thoughts, but asked questions based off of what he saw during the games.

As the years went on, the conversations evolved, more open and we actually would talk strategies and Jim would share his experiences and still ask why certain things happened like they did.

Because he is a student of the game and a successful coach, these conversations helped me as a coach.

I believe he and I would see the same things, his experiences I could relate to.

And I feel like I was doing the right things as a coach and for the teams based off of our conversations.

After Amy and I got out of coaching I found I missed the conversations and interaction with Jim.

He is someone I respect and I’m grateful for the friendship that evolved over time.

 

Brad Sherman:

I’ve always really enjoyed getting to chat with Jim after games. 

He knows the game well, knows our athletes, and is really skilled in the way he recaps games.

I think the sports community in Coupeville is very lucky to have had Jim covering our teams. 

Over the years he’s taken the time to spotlight certain kids who have worked extremely hard to get where they are, or community members that have given so much to our programs.

He truly is a class act. We will certainly miss him!

With that said, I wish him the best in his well-deserved retirement, and hope to still see him up in the stands at a few games in the future.  

 

Willie Smith:

Personally, as a baseball coach, there were few coaches that I ever really strived to have a “Your program is going in the right direction or your kids really seem to understand the game and play hard every single day” type of a comment from, and, along with Stan Taloff, Jim was always one of those guys.

His knowledge of the game and his willingness to share, first while he was coaching, then as a reporter, was always welcomed by me.

It was great listening to his stories and experiences in his 30+ years career and I certainly appreciated the moments that he and I just got to visit about everything around athletics.

I was also very fortunate to have him open up the summer baseball program to the Coupeville kids, which, for me, was a bit of an arrival moment for me in the world of coaching.

Both of my sons got to play for Jim and they had such a positive, fun experience with him and his players (and I got to just sit back and just watch them play, which was really fun!).

Jim has always been a man of high integrity, has had great insight, truly loved coaching and being around the players and I would hope that when I retire, I can be half of what Jim has been!

Read Full Post »

Whidbey papers back in the sports biz

Posted in A freakin' American hero, tagged , , , , , on July 7, 2020| Leave a Comment »

Whidbey News-Times Sports Editor Jim Waller (right) shares a chat with CHS girls basketball coach David King. (Photo by JohnsPhotos.net)

The adults are back.

After three months-plus with no sports coverage, the Whidbey News-Times and South Whidbey Record have returned the dean of local sportswriting to his desk.

Longtime Sports Editor Jim Waller was one of several employees who accepted a furlough back in March as the COVID-19 pandemic threw the newspaper industry into turmoil.

His last stories, a profile of Coupeville three-sport star Scout Smith and a piece on South Whidbey soccer announcer Crispin Roberts, posted to the internet March 24.

After that, my former high school journalism teacher lived the home life of “honey to-do lists”, leaving Whidbey sports fans with only my hyperventilating to get by on.

That changed as of Monday.

Waller has been at the core of Whidbey Island sports since his birth, as a player, teacher, coach, and writer.

He was born into the life, one of the sons of revered local coach Mert Waller, who led all four Coupeville High School programs (football, basketball, baseball, and track), before moving into similar positions in Oak Harbor.

Jim Waller was a standout athlete who went on to teach and coach multiple sports at OHHS.

Of the two people writing about sports on Whidbey, he is the only one to be a member of a real Hall of Fame, honored in 2001 by the Washington State Baseball Coaches Association Hall of Fame.

Waller led the OHHS baseball program for 30 years, taking the Wildcats to the Class 3A state title game.

A graduate of the University of Washington, he is in his second go-round with Whidbey’s newspapers.

Waller first wrote for the News-Times as a youngster, then returned to the post after retiring from the Oak Harbor School District.

Read Full Post »

Whidbey News-Times returns to Oak Harbor

Posted in Everything changes, tagged , , , , , on June 2, 2020| Leave a Comment »

After a ten-year absence, the Whidbey News-Times is moving back to its old stomping grounds in Oak Harbor. (Photo property Garage of Blessings)

You can go home again.

A decade after taking up residence in Coupeville, the Whidbey News-Times is moving its base of operations back to Oak Harbor.

And when the newspaper returns to the Island’s biggest city, it’s landing back in the building from where it came.

The News-Times will occupy the top floor at 800 SE Barrington Drive, right next to the Oak Harbor police station, but this time around reporters and ad salespeople will share the residence.

Back in olden days, like when I was Sports Editor for a hot moment from 1992-1994, the WNT used the entire building, with printing presses camped out in the back half of the ground floor.

The downstairs is now occupied by Garage of Blessings, a non-profit thrift store which relocated there in 2018.

Sound Publishing, the parent company which owns the News-Times, also owns the Barrington building, and has chosen to move the newspaper staff back to Oak Harbor.

The WNT moved its base of operations to Coupeville in early 2010, and has been the anchor of the Coupe’s Village development on S. Main Street ever since.

At first, the News-Times shared office space with its sister paper, the South Whidbey Record, though later the Record returned to its own roots, opening an office on the South end of the Island.

After Sound Publishing purchased the previously-independent Coupeville Examiner, that newspaper also operated out of the S. Main Street location until the paper was discontinued.

Later, after a change in staffing, the Record returned to the building as well.

With the COVID-19 pandemic shutting down most Washington state businesses, and throwing the brakes on print advertising, Sound Publishing combined the News-Times and Record into one paper, which still publishes twice a week.

It’s expected the papers will return to operating as separate publications at some point down the road.

Read Full Post »

Blink and it’s 1993 one more time

Posted in history, tagged , , , , , on May 11, 2020| Leave a Comment »

Eileen Kennedy, seen here during cross country, was one of Coupeville’s top track and field athletes in May 1993. (David Svien photo)

Big hits, fast times, big arguments.

There was a lot going on in the world of Coupeville sports 27 years ago, as we ambled through the month of May, 1993.

I was in the middle part of my run as possibly the youngest Sports Editor in Whidbey News-Times history, a bumpy ride which began in ’92, when I was a 21-year-old who refused to go to college, and wrapped up in ’94.

My departure from the ranks of the ink-stained wretches was followed by an epically stupid decision to go toil on the mussel rafts in Penn Cove, then sweet respite with a 12-year run behind the counter at Videoville.

Oh, and that exit from the WNT?

It came mere seconds before Zenovia Barron and Willie Smith arrived at CHS, ready to revolutionize girls basketball on the prairie.

So, yeah … timed that especially well, David, you idiot.

But I was still in place at the newspaper in mid-1993, and I have the old sports sections to prove it.

Leafing through them the other day, I was taken back to a time when the biggest story was the ongoing dispute over Coupeville students being allowed to play soccer at Oak Harbor High School.

CHS didn’t have its own pitch programs back then, and wouldn’t for awhile.

So, with daughter Marnie headed to high school, Ernie and Carol Bartelson, who were, respectively, the Coupeville Superintendent and the OHHS girls soccer coach, applied for the creation of a unified program.

Something Wildcat Athletic Director Joyce Foxx fought every step of the way.

There were arguments, counter arguments, appeals, reversals, and then, finally — as May 1993 crested on the horizon — the Oak Harbor school board overruled their AD and approved the program.

A year-and-a-half later, with Marnie Bartelson leading the team in scoring, and CHS newcomer Amanda Allmer a one-season wonder at goalie, the Oak Harbor/Coupeville squad claimed 4th place at the 4A state tourney, best finish in program history.

Not that I was around to see it happen live, as I spent November 1994 celebrating my one-month anniversary in the video store biz, trying to keep the store popcorn machine from catching on fire, while also shooing the occasional pesky squirrel back out into the parking lot.

But, back in 1993, I was still trying to balance coverage of Oak Harbor and Coupeville sports in the pages of the WNT, much to the delight of Oak Harbor fans.

I kid.

Back before email, when people were ticked off at the Sports Editor, they had to go old-school and write me a letter.

Which they did. Often.

In their minds, Oak Harbor, as the bigger burg, ruled, and I drooled when I dared to treat Coupeville as an equal.

And here we are, 27 years later, and I still haven’t listened. I’m a slow learner, apparently.

In ’93, CHS fielded softball, baseball, track, and girls tennis teams in the spring (remember, no soccer at that time), with the diamond queens leading the way.

The Wolf softball sluggers, led by senior Joli Smith and freshman Courtney White, finished 12-8 for coach Tom Eller, while playing at Rhododendron Park.

Coupeville narrowly missed the playoffs, but found a superstar in White, who pounded out nine triples and seven doubles.

She was backed up by a solid senior class of Smith, Kari Iverson, Susie Mathis, Gina Dozier, and Jenni Hays, as well as fast-rising younger stars like Natalie Slater, Mika Hosek, Sara Griggs, and Mimi Iverson.

The defining May moment came against Bellevue Christian on the 12th, when Smith tallied four RBI, including a go-ahead two-run home run in the top of the seventh in an 8-4 victory.

A three-sport star who also played volleyball and basketball for the Wolves, the future Coupeville Sports Hall o’ Famer had a talent for coming up big in crucial moments, and remains, to this day, one of the best I have ever covered.

Meanwhile, out on the tennis court, the Wolves sent singles players Lupine Wutzke and Kiersten Yager and the doubles duos of Megan Gale/Cheng Kang and Jenni Biller/Iris Binnewies to districts.

Wutzke claimed third place, just missing out on a trip to state, but Chet Baker’s squad had its best May moment back on the 4th, when it bounced Blaine in a wild affair.

Storming from behind, the Wolves rode a win at third doubles from Kang and Jee Hae Lee to snatch away a 3-2 win at home.

While Coupeville’s baseball team didn’t have the same success as the softball squad, finishing just 5-15 for coach Mike Rice, the Wolf diamond men did have their moments.

Especially when they faced Bellevue Christian.

Coupeville’s final two wins of the season came against the Vikings, and both featured big-time performances from Wolf pitchers.

On April 28, Keith Currier whiffed eight batters en route to a 9-0 win, the only shutout earned by a CHS hurler in the ’93 season.

The lanky senior fireball chucker also racked up a pair of hits at the plate, with Keith Dunnagan and Jon Crimmins each adding two base-knocks to the cause.

But wait. That happened in April, and we’re talking about May in this story.

Well, the story ran in the May 1, 1993 edition of the News-Times, so I say it counts.

And it’s my blog anyway. What are you going to do? Write a letter to the editor?

Anyways … Coupeville followed that up with a much-closer 8-7 win over BC on … sweet sassy molassy … April 30.

OK, that was my 22nd birthday, and hey, the CHS baseball season ended May 3, so we don’t have a lot of May to work with here, and the story ran in the May 5 paper.

We’re good.

In that final win Cody Lowe was the man of the moment, saving his seventh and final strikeout of the afternoon for the exclamation point.

Clinging to a one-run lead, the bases loaded with two outs in the bottom of the seventh inning, the Wolf hurler was behind 3-1 on the count.

Not a problem, as Lowe reared back and whipped back-to-back perfect pitches, ending the game on a called third strike.

“On the last pitch everything stood still for a moment,” Rice said afterwards. “Then the umpire went ‘strike three!’ and everybody started celebrating.

“It was nice to pull one out like that.”

While every CHS spring sport enjoyed some degree of success in ’93, it was track, with the smallest roster, which probably stood tallest.

The Wolves, coached by Julie Klapperich and Kirk Sherill, featured just six girls and 11 boys that season, with five Coupeville athletes advancing to districts, and two to state.

Kit Manzanares and Suzanne Steele made the trip to Eastern Washington for the 1A championships, with Manzanares bringing home 8th place finishes in the 100 and long jump.

Steele, who led the CHS girls by earning 137 points during the regular season (Marissa Slater and Eileen Kennedy followed with 85 and 76, respectively), competed in the high jump, but didn’t medal.

Other Wolves who shone brightly that spring included Virgil Roehl, Ryan McManigle, Maricar Salimbangon, Ray Shelly, and Elke Kegler.

And then, in the final edition of the News-Times in May 1993, a paper which hit doorsteps on Saturday the 29th, there’s a small story about the Coupeville Middle School track team.

These days, I write about 7th and 8th graders all the time here on Coupeville Sports. Back then, with two high schools to (sort of) balance, not so much.

But there it is, with future Hall o’ Famer Jerry Helm, then a brash 7th grader, claiming 2nd in the hurdles, along with 3rd in both the high jump and 200.

Right below that, it says Novi Barron (long jump, 1st).

So I did type her name at least once in my newspaper days.

I never saw her play in person, but have been told many times by those who played, coached, or cheered her, that Novi was the best athlete to ever walk the hallways at CHS.

If I knew then what I know now, would I have hung on longer at the News-Times, like a semi-responsible adult?

Just as she began to singe the net as a Wolf freshman basketball player, I sank into the world of VHS tapes in need of rewinding, gumball machines in need of stocking, and Reese’s Pieces in need of eating.

I missed the show, and, by the time I came back around to writing about sports, Novi was gone.

What could of been, in a different life.

Read Full Post »

« Newer Posts - Older Posts »