Feeds:
Posts
Comments

Brian Thompson flies from one end of the prairie to the other. (Julie Wheat photos)

She’s still got it.

Coupeville grad Julie Wheat, a legend from her own time as a Wolf athlete, is operating as a shutterbug these days, and the track and field photos you see above and below come to us courtesy her.

Enjoy a range of events and a look at some of Coupeville’s best and brightest repping the red and black.

Myra McDonald

Zach Blitch

Laken Simpson

Davin Houston

Mikayla Wagner

Sage Arends

Isa Mc Fetridge

Winner, winner, lemon dinner. (Photos courtesy Jerry Helm)

If you build it, they can drive it.

Coupeville grads Ben Russell, Jerry Helm, and Dan Russell were part of a team which hauled a 1978 Datsun pickup truck, otherwise known as “Rando the Unicorn,” to the 24 Hours of Lemons Race at Pacific Raceways in Kent this past weekend.

The calm before the storm.

While there the trio, aided by fellow drivers Sam Stanton and Dave Phillips, finished 7th in their class while piloting the only truck in the race, and brought home the highest honored award.

That would be the IOE Award, for “Index of Effluency,” which uses “a proprietary calculation of how bad a Lemons entry is versus how high it finished.”

Race organizers bestow the award on “only the most worthy teams. Winners of the I.O.E. enjoy the highest honors (a low bar, we know) of any Lemons trophy.”

Helm described “Rando the Unicorn” as a “tiny truck with an angry motor stuffed/swapped in,” and he and his fellow drivers thanked “a bunch of gasoline driven pit crew/support staff that helped build, maintain, and keep the car on the track.”

The 24 Hours of Lemons, described by organizers as “racing for real people,” includes track testing and tech hours and is known for its relaxed atmosphere.

Lookin’ smooth.

“I saw this on Dukes of Hazzard…”

Lookin’ not so smooth.

Will Smith

The affable man with an answer for every tech question is taking his impressive skill set on to new adventures.

Will Smith, Director of Technology for the Coupeville School District, has left his post after an 8+ year run.

The Brandman University grad first came to work in Coupeville in 2018 after finishing his career with the US Navy.

Smith served from 1996 to 2018, starting and ending his military run at NAS Whidbey.

Along with keeping every computer running, every school board meeting stream from fritzing out, and thousands of other tasks, he has been a man of many callings.

Smith has been a volunteer coach with the North Whidbey Soccer Club and was a candidate for the Oak Harbor School Board in 2023.

In a community newsletter released Monday night, Coupeville Schools Superintendent Shannon Leatherwood addressed Smith’s departure.

“Our Technology Director has stepped down,” she wrote.

“I have been taking the time needed to develop a thoughtful plan before communicating broadly because our community deserves a path forward, not just an announcement.

“That plan will be shared with you in the coming weeks.”

Landon Roberts is back in black.

Give them their moment, and they’ll deliver.

Coupeville grads Landon Roberts and Madison McMillan are part of deep diamond rosters at Walla Walla College and Edmonds College, respectively, so neither former Wolf is playing full-time as a freshman.

But they’re drawing notice when they get the call.

Roberts is part of a pitching staff which has used 14 hurlers this season, but he’s appeared in four games, which puts him in the thick of things for a squad where no mound man has more than nine games to their credit.

His best performance came recently against Wenatchee Valley, where he came on in relief and picked up his first collegiate strikeouts, whiffing two of the four hitters he faced.

Madison McMillan (left) is pounding the softball.

McMillan, meanwhile, is part of an Edmonds squad which is streaking at 27-2 after sweeping a doubleheader against Shoreline Sunday.

The power-hitting third baseman picked up four hits, three runs, and a walk as the Tritons came out on top 26-2 and 20-0 in games mercy-ruled after five innings.

On the season McMillan has racked up a .394 batting average across 19 games, with 12 runs, 13 hits, three doubles, three home runs, 18 RBI, and seven walks.

Unofficially, she should be sitting with five taters but has twice had umps wave off moonballs due to team base-running technicalities.

Lillian Ketterling gets airborne. (CHS Yearbook photo)

Every jump, every race changes something.

Or so it seems as the top performances statewide among 2B track and field athletes continue to ebb and flow as the spring plays out.

In the past week members of the Coupeville High School squad competed at two different meets in two different towns, and as we take a pause to scan the leader board, four Wolves are among the best of the best currently.

They aren’t the same four as a week ago, however, with sophomore Lillian Ketterling having moved back into the top 10 in the pole vault while freshman Cyrus Sparacio has, for the moment, been bumped out in the 1600.

Where things sit through April 20:

 

GIRLS:

Shot Put — Tamsin Ward (9th) 30-10

Pole Vault — Lillian Ketterling (7th-tie) 8-00

 

BOYS:

High Jump — Wyatt Fitch-Marron (5th-tie) 5-10; Davin Houston (5th-tie) 5-10