Oak Harbor, Coupeville grads continue athletic careers in college

Here’s the latest look at how Oak Harbor and Coupeville high-school grads fared on the collegiate fields and courts this fall.

Here’s the latest look at how Oak Harbor and Coupeville high-school grads fared on the collegiate fields and courts this fall.

College seniors and Oak Harbor graduates Carson McKole (Central Washington University soccer) and Rodrick Rumble (Idaho State University football) each recently completed record-breaking careers. A detailed story about their efforts will appear in next week’s issue of the News-Times.

Soccer

Former Oak Harbor High School teammates senior Kevin Flavin and junior Greg Wolfe helped Evergreen State University (Olympia) qualify for the Cascade College Conference playoffs for the first time since 2005. In the semifinals, Flavin recorded an assist and a goal as the Geoduck’s won 4-1 over Pacific Warner for the school’s first playoff win since 2004. Evergreen then dropped the championship match 2-1 to Concordia. Flavin assisted on the Geoduck goal. The Geoducks finished the year 13-6 and Flavin and Wolfe appeared in all 19 matches with Flavin starting 10 and Wolfe six. Flavin finished second on the team with five goals and first with five assists.

Oak Harbor’s Golf Brooks, a junior at George Fox University (Newberg, Ore.), started two matches and played in 14 for the Bruins.

Coupeville’s Evan Ameluxen-Coleman was a reserve goal keeper for Pacific Lutheran University (Tacoma) as the Lutes finished third (10-7-2) in the Northwest Conference.

Volleyball

Oak Harbor’s Jenny Jansen completed her volleyball career at Northwestern College (Orange City, Iowa) this fall by earning honorable mention in the Great Plains Athletic Conference. The 21-10 Crusaders reached the quarterfinals in the GPAC tournament. Jansen finished third in blocks (64), fifth in kills (125) and seventh in assists (10).

Megan Thierstein, a junior from Coupeville, started for Oak Hills Christian College (Bemidji, Minn.) this fall. Athletic Director Dan Hovestol said, “Megan has been a huge asset to not only our volleyball team but also to our campus as a whole. We would take a team full of Megan Thiersteins.”

Cross Country

Coupeville’s Kyle King, a transfer from Eastern Washington University, wrapped up his college career this season at the University of Oklahoma where he placed 36th in the Big 12 championship meet Oct. 27. His top finish was 15th at the Virginia Invitational Sept. 22.

King’s brother, Tyler, is a red-shirt freshman at the University of Washington, and the two competed against each other at the 44-team Wisconsin Invitational where Kyle finished 114th, 17 seconds faster than Tyler in 179th.

Tyler placed 22nd, and second among UW runners, in the Pac-12 championships Oct. 27 and 40th in the Division I Western Regional Nov 9. His highest finish of the year was seventh in the Sundodger Invitational Sept. 17.

Oak Harbor’s Krissy McGill, a senior, and Bri Petersen, a sophomore, were members of the Central Washington University cross country team that finished sixth in the Great Northwest Athletic Conference meet, the best finish by the Wildcats since 2006. Their best individual efforts came in the CWU Invitational won by the Wildcats when Petersen finished 30th and McGill 35th.

Oak Harbor’s Adrianna Royal, a sophomore at Sacramento State University, finished 71st in the Big Sky Conference meet Oct. 27. Her best finish of the year was 15th in the Nevada Chase Race Nov. 5.

Allison Duvenez, a sophomore from Oak Harbor, finished 14th, and third among her teammates, at the Cascade Collegiate Conference meet while helping Northwest Christian University to third place. Her best showing of the season came when she placed fifth in a dual meet with Oregon Tech Sept. 15. The Beacons are ranked 15th in the national NAIA poll.

Oak Harbor’s Matt Reith, a freshman at the University of North Carolina-Pembroke, finished 21st at the 10-team Peach Belt Conference meet Oct. 20 and 59th  in the 26-team  regional meet Nov. 3. His best finish came Oct. 11 at the four-team Wingate Pre-SAC Invitational where he placed seventh and first among UNCP runners.

Oak Harbor freshmen Joshua Schrum (Everett Community College) and Hannah Bressler (Willamette University, Salem, Ore.) also ran college cross country this fall.

Football

Oak Harbor’s Jake Rouser was a senior starting defensive end for Idaho State University where he recorded 38 tackles this year. His sophomore brother Nick, also a defensive lineman, started two games for Central Washington’s league-championship squad and collected five tackles.

Rashaad Smith, a junior reserve defensive back from Oak Harbor, had 11 tackles for Menlo College (Atherton, Calif.).

Oak Harbor’s Brent Ryan, a reserve freshman fullback at Lincoln University (Jefferson, Mo.), carried the ball twice this season, one for a touchdown.

Oak Harbor’s Aaron Boesch red-shirted at San Diego State University; and three Coupeville grads, Dalton Engle, Mitch Pelroy and Tim Walstad, red-shirted at Montana Western (Dillon).

Coaching

Travis Connell, a 1991 graduate of Oak Harbor High School, is the winningest men’s and women’s soccer coach in Western Washington University history.

For the men he has 125 wins in 14 seasons and was named conference coach of the year in 2002, 2007 and 2008. On the women’s side, he has 121 wins in 10 seasons and was twice named coach of the year (2006 and 2008). He was also named National Soccer Coaches Association of America Division II Far West Region Women’s Coach of the Year in 2008.

This season the 23rd-ranked Viking women went 19-4 and won back-to-back overtime matches in the Western Regional, including a victory over 10th-ranked and the region’s No. 1 seed Sonoma State. Western, the fifth seed, lost to No. 2-seeded and fifth-ranked UC San Diego in overtime Friday for the regional title and a spot in the national tournament.

Oak Harbor’s Bryan Fakkema finished his second year as an assistant soccer coach at Northwest University (Kirkland); the Eagles were 9-9-1.

Fakkema graduated from the University of Redlands in California were he was a four-time, first-team all-league (Southern California Intercollegiate Conference) player and three-time NCAA Division III All-American.

Oak Harbor’s Jared Sliger just completed his eighth season as the head volleyball coach at Northwest Nazarene University (Nampa, Idaho) where he led the Crusaders to a 13-14 record this fall.

Clair Thiel, an Oak Harbor and Concordia University (Portland) grad, is a club volleyball coach for the Northwest Reign in Vancouver.

In high-school coaching this season, Oak Harbor grad Tawnya (Richards) Brewer led Burlington-Edison to a sixth-place finish in state 2A volleyball tournament.

Coupeville’s Kirsty Croghan is an assistant volleyball coach at La Conner where the Braves won the Northwest 1B/2B/1A League title and qualified for the state tournament.

A handful of Oak Harbor grads began assistant football coaching duties this year. Marshall Lobbestael, Edmundo Corrales and Gerry Oliver joined former Oak Harbor coach Dave Ward’s staff in Sedro-Woolley; Josh Higbee and Andy Haag assisted in Coupeville; and Bryce Waller helped Kittitas to a league title.

(If you know of someone who should be added to this list, please email jwaller@whidbeynewsgroup.com.)