Coupeville High School/Middle School Athletic Director Willie Smith strides into a new school year. (Photo by JohnsPhotos.net)
A new school year approaches in Coupeville, and the word of the day is optimism.
Back in his office after tearing up the golf course over the summer break, Wolf Athletic Director Willie Smith likes what he sees.
A few thoughts from the head man himself as we roll into the future:
I’m pretty excited!
We begin our second year in the North Sound Conference, and, after last year, I just feel like we are on the cusp of making some significant strides throughout our entire athletic program.
We went into last year with some trepidation, not really knowing how we’d fare against a group of schools that, traditionally, were stronger across the board from our prior league, the Olympic League.
We had a new football coach, a rekindled cross country program, a new superintendent, and quite honestly, a lot of questions within our programs and athletes.
Could we compete, at a high level, each week?
How do we deal with the adversity that a stronger league presents?
Can our struggling programs grow or will the competition be too great and we regress?
I can honestly answer that we not only rose to the challenge of our new league, but in many instances, we shone.
We won a league championship in softball (and went to state), had two coaches of the year, 20+ first or second team All-League players, a multiple state champion in track, and qualified for district tournament play in all but two team sports.
Every varsity/JV sport but one earned a 3.0 or higher team GPA, and our athletes put on a sports clinic for the elementary school that was attended by grades 3-5, and they did the coaching, planning and implementation!
So did we make a mark last year? Yes we did.
As we begin fall practice this week with high school football kicking off Wednesday and the remaining high school sports starting Monday, August 26, I’ve been asked by quite a few members of our community, what can we expect this year?
Our football team is playing an independent schedule, we have new head coaches in cross country (Luke Samford) and girls basketball (Scott Fox), we’ve lost our middle school football program, but have gained a middle school boys soccer program.
So, where are we at?
First off, we had an amazing summer turnout with our athletes and coaches.
We had programs that went to camps and tournaments (boys and girls basketball, volleyball, football, and cheer), youth clinics hosted by our coaches and athletes, team weight room sessions that were well attended, and our football program volunteered to paint the Boys and Girls Club thanks to the efforts of coach Bobby Carr.
Our football program that is struggling?
It had 11-12 freshmen turn out this summer, and 20-25 kids attending camps and weight room sessions.
Head Coach Marcus Carr did a national podcast extolling the work ethic, pride, and sense of community that is Coupeville.
Where are we? Well I don’t know where you’re at, but I’m pretty dang excited!
I really feel like we have made some pretty incredible strides over the last two years.
Our coaching staff is great; they are committed, knowledgeable, enthusiastic, and very high character men and women.
Our athletes have shown a renewed commitment and I couldn’t be more proud of our leaders who paved the way for our teams this summer, both by example and in dedication.
Without a doubt, there are challenges, always are, but I really feel like our athletic program, from top to bottom, is in a place that we haven’t been in for a long time.
It is about character, competing, respect, responsibility and commitment, and regardless of the outcome, our kids will come out way ahead of others because they are embracing all of those.
So yes, I’m excited about that!
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