Winter sports underway at South Whidbey

By NATHAN WHALEN

South Whidbey’s basketball players and wrestlers are counting the days when they can play home games at the high school gym.

The high school gym has been out of commission since August when a water line burst and damaged the floor and the bleachers.

“I expect us to be competing in the gym after winter break,” said John Sommer, South Whidbey athletic director and coach of the Falcon’s wrestling program.

In the meantime, home basketball games will take place at the South Whidbey Community Center while the wrestling team is on the road until the high school gym is complete. Sommer said the wrestling mats can’t be moved to the community center.

Jason Wood, coach of the girls basketball team, said the community center offers a smaller and noisier place to play a game.

When the gym is complete, students will enjoy competing on a new floor and spectators will watch from new bleachers.

The winter sports season got underway in early December. The first week of the season saw the Falcon’s boys basketball season enjoy wins against former Emerald Sound Conference rival Sultan and island rival Coupeville.

The girls basketball team finished the week with several losses while the boys and girls wrestling teams traveled to tournaments in the Bellingham area. They competed in the Trojan Takedown at Meridian and the George Yonlick Tournament at Bellingham High School.

South Whidbey’s winter sports coaches offered insight son their teams and the upcoming season.

Wrestling

South Whidbey’s boys and girls wrestling teams graduated a total of nine seniors from the previous season squads.

“We graduated a lot of talent and leadership,” Sommer said. “It’s been kind of fun seeing some up-and-coming wrestlers fill those spots.”

Returning to the Falcons is senior Kaylie Baker who was the runner-up at 145 in the 2024 state tournament last season.

“Kaylie brings in a lot of experience of going to a lot of tournaments,” Sommer said. He highlighted her work ethic and her willingness to try new things. She will be competing at 155 pounds.

The team will benefit from the leadership of senior Liam Abadow, who will wrestle at 190 pounds and junior Landon Thomas, who will wrestle at 144 pounds, Sommer said. Expectations are also high for sophomore Nathan Welever at 132 pounds and sophomore Owen Walker at heavyweight. Walker is coming off a football season where he was named first-team all-defense in the Emerald Sound Conference. Second-year wrestler Jasper Worth rounds out South Whidbey’s contingent of seniors.

“We’re a young team. We’re laying the foundation for a real successful program,” Sommer said.

The Falcons have 35 wrestlers on the boys team and seven on the girls team.

South Whidbey has a tournament-heavy schedule throughout the season. Competing in the Emerald Sound Conference, they are one of two teams, the other being Granite Falls, that have wrestling programs.

There were four teams in the conference that offered wrestling last season. Two of those teams – Seattle Academy and Sultan – moved up to 2A and out of the 1A Emerald Sound Conference.

South Whidbey has two home matches on the books for the season. The Falcons host Sultan Jan. 7 and then a double dual Jan. 15 against Concrete, Darrington and Friday Harbor.

Boys basketball

South Whidbey’s boys basketball team had a busy off-season building experience in preparation for the season.

“We got in 40 games in off-season spring and fall leagues in Mount Vernon,” coach Josh Coleman, who is starting his second year as coach, said. The Falcons also participated in a team camp over the summer at Western Washington University.

Their hard work seems to have paid off. South Whidbey started the first week of the 2024-2025 season with an overall record of 2-0, which is halfway to the win total the Falcons posed in 2023-2024 when they finished 4-17.

“We have good commitment. We’re just young,” Coleman said.

The Falcons have one returning senior, Sage Northrup, who has played four years started a lot last year, Coleman said.

South Whidbey will also benefit from three seniors who are accomplished athletes but haven’t played on the basketball team. Senior Grady Davis is a pitcher who will play baseball at Bellevue College next school year, and Cody Redford was the Falcons quarterback on the football team. The third new senior is Arthur Donham.

“We got good senior leadership and good, young talent,” Coleman said. “They’re all key for us. They’re all equally important.”

Sophomores Robbie Sullivan and Coltan Smith played a lot of varsity minutes as freshman.

Coleman said he expects to compete with the teams in the Emerald Sound Conference. He notes that six of the games last season were lost by five points or less.

The Falcons started the season with a win against Sultan. While currently a 2A team, Sultan competed last season in the 1A state tournament. They played Bush School Dec. 10 after press time.

Girls basketball

With a girls basketball team that lost two seniors, South Whidbey’s girls basketball team will look to their veteran players to help a the seven freshman who are new to the program.

“Most of my starting group has been together for a while,” girls basketball coach Jason Wood, who is in his second year as coach, said. “We had a lot of good competitive games.”

He added the leadership of senior Juliette Wood and Jane Haines will help the freshman learn plays and get on the same page as the veteran players.

South Whidbey finished last season with an overall record of 3-17 and had a first-round loss in the Emerald Sound Conference 1A basketball tournament.

They started the 2024-2025 season with three losses. Wood said the team was a little rusty in the opening game against Sultan and went into overtime against Bear Creek. “We jumped out quickly. We just couldn’t hang on for the stretch.”

The Falcons also came up short against Coupeville to close out the first week of the season.

Wood said he sees the girls will continue to progress throughout the season. “We’re going to get better as a unit and try to improve,” Wood said.

They are competing in a competitive Emerald Sound Conference, which is a 1A league with teams from Snohomish and King counties. The league saw some changes this year as Seattle Academy and Sultan switched to 2A.

Their first game of the season at South Whidbey High School is scheduled for Jan. 9 when the Falcons host Sultan.

Swimming

Four South Whidbey High School students and one Coupeville High School student travel to Mukilteo and compete with Kamiak’s swim team.

Senior Tyson Prendergast competes in the breaststroke, butterfly and individual medley, junior Jack Hempel competes in sprint freestyle events, junior Rowan competes in distance freestyle and sophomore Caleb Lewis competes in backstroke and freestyle, Kamiak swimming coach Chris Erickson said. Coupeville’s Finn Price competes in middle-distance freestyle.

The quartet swims for Kamiak during the season and are labeled as Kamiak EX to make it easier to track and maintain their times, Erickson said in an email. During the post season, they will compete in the District 2 meet.