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Posts Tagged ‘YouTube’

If I keep the blog going, the nephews still have incentive to one day ditch the South Whidbey gear for proper Coupeville gear. (Sarah Kirkconnell photo)

It didn’t work.

I’ve been writing Coupeville Sports for almost six years and 6,200 articles, and twice I hit momentary bumps in the road where I thought about doing something else.

The first time, I held out for 10 days.

This time I went (almost) a month.

And both times I reached a point where I came to a realization that by not writing every day, I am fighting against my very nature.

I’ve had a lot of jobs.

Loved some (video store life 4EVER), hated some, and yet the one that is most me is the one where I’m pretty sure I’ll never, ever make any money.

And that doesn’t matter.

The one thing which has always come easily to me is writing. It’s what I should be doing every day.

When I’m not, I get grumpy, I get listless, I seriously drift and I freak out the cats by spending too much time yelling at my computer about the depressing realities of the real world.

And, truth be told, my boss in the video store biz for 12+ years, Miriam Meyer, was right —  I’m like an old church lady who can’t live without their daily gossip.

Running a blog keeps me in the ever-churning world of high school and middle school sports rumors, and, without that, is life truly life???

This doesn’t mean that I’m not going to write “A Year on the Prairie” over this next year. That’s still happening.

But I’ve also come to realize if I don’t write on a regular basis, I might as well be back washing dishes.

And none of my fingers want that…

There is no reason I can’t blog AND write a book at the same time, as opposed to watching 17 straight YouTube videos of celebrities clashing with paparazzi.

Anyway, I’ve already published two books during my blogging days, and my sister has pumped out like 202, and she has three kids. Probably time for me to pick up my writing game, and not look for a break.

Plus, I just realized it was only four months ago I paid WordPress for another year of hosting Coupeville Sports.

Throwing away eight (sorta) free months makes the Ebeneezer Scrooge inside me break out in a cold sweat.

So, basically, a love of gossip, an effort to short-circuit a crippling YouTube addiction and penny-pinching thumbs has morphed me into mid-career Al Pacino.

“Just when I thought I was out, they pull me back in.”

Hooah, indeed.

 

PS — No pay walls, ever.

Coupeville Sports has been free to read since its inception in 2012 and will remain that way. If you like what I do, and want to support independent journalism, you can always pop over to:

paypal.me/DavidSvien

If you do, you’re a saint. If not, keep reading, you lil’ socialist, you.

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Ginny Vracin

Working for 12+ years at Videoville, I came in contact with a lot of customers.

One of the nicest was Ginny Vracin, who always had a smile and a nice word for me, even when the movie I recommended wasn’t her cup of tea.

Mrs. Vracin, who passed away Mar. 26 at the age of 72, was a wonderful woman and she and her husband, Dr. Wylie Vracin, were always a welcome sight in my video store days.

All four of their children — Emily, Nicholas, Damon and Danielle — have grown up to be talented, outgoing and deeply caring, very much like their parents.

There was a service for Ginny last Friday, but I just wanted to share two things here.

A video tribute, which you can see below, and the words her family offered.

In lieu of flowers, they instead asked, “Please welcome all who cross your path, smile incessantly, frequent garage sales, reuse everything imaginable, volunteer your time and passions and pick up trash on walks in memory of our sweet Ginny.”

 

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   Robin Cedillo: “You want me to watch a 13-minute video?!?! Let me get my toast on first, son.” (John Fisken photo)

The Class of 2017 has officially left its mark.

One of the annual rites of passage for seniors at Coupeville High School is the hand-off of the torch to the junior class, and immortalizing that transfer of power with a video.

Every graduating class thinks their cinematic creation is the best ever made, so I’m sure the ’17ers would get loud ‘n proud right about now if the subject came up.

Take a gander at their well-crafted vid below (and, if you’re a completist, you can track the rest of them down on YouTube in your spare time):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hc5YhgB57WI&sns=fb

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Steven Cope lines up a free throw during an early practice. (John Fisken photo)

Steven Cope lines up a free throw during an early practice. (John Fisken photo)

He’s back.

After spending the last two years in Spokane, Steven Cope has returned to Coupeville High School, and the timing couldn’t be better for the Wolf boys’ basketball squad.

With only two returning varsity players, competition for playing time is wide open, and Cope, a senior, is solidly in the mix.

The move back to the Island reunites him with his grandparents, among others, while offering him a chance to play alongside former teammates such as Gabe Wynn and Hunter Downes.

As a middle school hoops player, Cope was a demon on the defensive end, once blocking three straight shots against Northshore.

That continued over to high school, where he played football for the Wolves as a freshman.

In a JV game against Granite Falls that year, Cope picked off a pass and brought it back 75 yards for a game-busting touchdown.

Now that he’s back in Coupeville for his senior year, he’s back in the school band and plans to follow basketball up with a stint on the Wolf track team as a javelin thrower.

First up, though, is a chance for Cope, a post player who first picked up basketball in the fifth grade, to help his on-court buddies.

“I want to help this team make something out of it,” he said. “The boys basketball team hasn’t really been a definite force in a long time and I hope while I’m here I can either set the tone for what we need to do to win, or be that team to win.”

Cope is looking forward to working both with former teammates and new playing partners.

One of the reasons he enjoy the sport is “the diversity you can have with basketball players and how you can come together with all these playing styles and make a strong foundation of a team.”

He hails his height and “my work ethic to constantly get better” as strengths, while continuing to fine-tune his skill-set.

“I would love to get better dribbling with my right hand more, along with building a strong jump shot,” Cope said.

Away from the court, he’s a regular Dungeons and Dragons player, and enjoys splitting time between working out and watching YouTube, often at the same time.

Even though he was gone for two years, Cope has deep roots in Coupeville and is thankful for the support he gets from his relatives.

“My family, they really hold me to my own responsibility and to be a respectable human being.”

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Risen Johnson, floatin' like a butterfly, stingin' like a bee. (John Fisken photo)

Risen Johnson, floatin’ like a butterfly, stingin’ like a bee. (John Fisken photo)

So, you find yourself here, on a Thursday afternoon, desperately looking for a way to make it through the day.

As long as your job doesn’t prevent you from accessing YouTube (mine doesn’t, but Coupeville Sports World Headquarters is my house…), I have a quick answer.

Go spend the next seven minutes and 18 seconds basking in some of the best plays thrown down last season by Risen Johnson.

The electrifying one, who graduated this spring from CHS, gave us two years of basketball good times, and enough spectacular moments to fuel a highlight reel.

Obviously.

One of the classiest guys I’ve covered, and one of the most entertaining to watch, Risen was a thriller and a killer.

He’ll be missed, but we’ll have the memories, and now, thanks to Trent Diamanti, a reel of Risen slicin’ ‘n dicin’ which will live on the internet for all eternity.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=euWQHkJc93w

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