Ten Wolves named to
all-star teams
The spring sports season is over for most of the teams in the Cascade Conference and all-star selections have been made by coaches from around the league.
Spring 2009 brought a number of honors to Copupeville High School and the major award went to soccer coach Paul Mendes, who was voted by his peers as the Cascade Conference Soccer Coach of the Year.
Mendes took over a program that had fallen on hard times three seasons ago, and this year the veteran soccer mentor directed the Wolves to an 11-10 overall record and a trip to the opening round of the Class 1A state playoffs. The year was a banner one for the school that had never won more than three games in any one season, and coach Mendes told the team after every victory that they were making history.
Good players are important to a good team, and Wolf Pack seniors Geoff Wacker and Sam Berggren were named first-team all-league performers.
Wacker, a forward, and Berggren, a fullback, are both veteran players who, like several others on the team, had struggled through disappointing seasons in years past. In 2009, both of them were team-leaders and were instrumental in motivating their teammates during the history-making season.
Joining the pair is senior captain Andre Martin, who was voted a second-team all-league player.
Soccer wasn’t the only sport where Coupeville players earned awards.
In softball, freshman Katie Smith was named a first-team all-league player for the Wolves who finished the season at a respectable 5-13 in the league and 6-15 overall with a young team and a new head coach.
Junior Megan Smith and senior Mandy Murdy were both voted second-team all-stars.
When a team graduates six starting players, which was the situation with coach Willie Smith’s Wolf Pack baseball team, the following season is usually a dismal one.
However, led by junior J.D. Wilcox who was voted a first-team all-league outfielder, and second-team all-star senior pitcher Jake Hill, Coupeville’s young guns finished the season 7-11 in league games and 7-14 overall, before losing 2-1 in eight innings to Lynden Christian in the district play-in game.
Finally, sophomore Tyler King was crowned Cascade Conference champion winning the 800 and 1,600-meter runs, and sophomore Kyra Ilyankoff battled back from a knee injury to win the conference title in the javelin throw.
