Coupeville Sports

The Wolves listen to coach Amy King during a time out. (Robert Bishop photos)

Wynter Thorne sizes up a free-throw Tuesday night.

Sometimes the final score really doesn’t matter.

There was a small, barely-seen series of moments midway through Tuesday night’s JV girls’ basketball game between Coupeville and visiting King’s that captured exactly what high school sports are supposed to be about.

Teamwork. Friendship. A commitment to the people who suit up and go into battle with you.

It started when Wolf guard Wynter Thorne, who had been busting her rear all game, had to come to the bench.

Hyperventilating and in obvious pain, she slumped over on the bench and teammate Kacie Kiel wrapped her arms around Thorne and then, moving Thorne’s hair out of the way, gently blew on her neck to cool her down and calm her down.

Staying with her running mate until she had regained her equilibrium, Kiel talked quietly to Thorne and whatever was said remained between the two. Then, when things were better, Kiel, a wiry fireball, exploded off the bench and back into the game, where she went right back to ripping rebounds away from bigger girls.

Shortly thereafter, Thorne rejoined her on the floor and went back to kick-starting the offense, feeding Monica Vidoni inside, where the sophomore banged away for 20 points in the paint, making her the only Wolf, boy or girl, JV or varsity, to break that scoring barrier twice this season.

Meanwhile, back on the bench, Madeline Strasburg, out with a leg injury, was screaming her lungs out from the end of the bench, using her megaphone voice to personally congratulate each and every one of her teammates each and every time they did something she approved.

Which was often.

Bouncing up to slap hands and offer encouragement at every timeout, Strasburg stopped at one point, leaned over and gently patted Miranda Engle, one of several Wolves playing through illness, on top of the head.

Like Kiel comforting Thorne, Strasburg taking a moment to rally a fading Engle will loom far larger as the season, and their lives, go on, than the final score.

That score? 57-31 in favor of King’s. But, like I said, sometimes the final score really doesn’t matter.