On the heels of the Coupeville High School girls basketball team’s trip to the state tournament, a group of six and seventh grade Coupeville boys have earned their own state berth this weekend.

The Coupeville middle schoolers finished fourth in the 15-team SWISH (Skagit, Whatcom, Island, Snohomish Hoops) League Tournament Saturday and Sunday to qualify for state.

The state tournament for the top middle school and AAU teams is March 11-13 in Spokane.

Coupeville will play a minimum of fourth games, beginning Friday evening, according to coach Pat Kelley.

Over 350 teams of fourth through eighth graders will take part in the state tournament. Coupeville will play in the silver (small school) seventh-grade division.

Teams from Oak Harbor and South Whidbey also qualified.

Coupeville went into the SWISH Tournament as the No. 2 seed with a 6-2 record, Kelley said.

“We could have easily won every regular season game but we focused on development and playing time,” Kelley said.

Sharing playing time will also be Kelley’s philosophy in the state tournament.

“Half of our team is sixth graders,” Kelley said. “To do so well against teams of all seventh graders is something special.”

The team includes seventh graders Jake Mitten, Matthew Kelley, Daniel Olson, Dakota Eck, Alex Jimenez and Michael Laska; and sixth graders Connor Barton, Danny Barajas, Caleb Meyer, Hawthorne Wolfe and Logan Martin.

Mitten leads the team with 105 points and 98 rebounds. Matthew Kelley is next with 75 points and 84 boards even though he has been playing with a broken finger since the third week of the season.

(Matthew Kelley, top, and Connor Barton, below, take the ball to the hoop for Coupeville. Photos by John Fisken.)