Madeline “Mad Dog” Strasburg. (John Fisken photo)
Aaron Curtin (left) and Josh Bayne during legion ball last summer. (Shelli Trumbull photos)
Anthony Bergeron.
Jake Tumblin (left) and Morgan Payne celebrating McConaughey-style. “Alright, alright, alright.”
Monday was a transition day.
The Coupeville High School boys’ basketball team met with coaches Anthony Smith and Dustin Van Velkinburgh for the final time as a unit, a season’s worth of uniforms, shorts and socks strewn across the gym floor as team manager CJ “Butters” Roberts tried to find enough boxes to stuff it all into.
Later, Coach V would find a final, lonely practice jersey stuck in the corner of a nearby classroom. How long it had been there went unanswered, though Butters accepted the balled-up reject with a shrug and went off in pursuit of more industrial-sized garbage bags with which to stuff full a seasons-worth of sweat, blood and tears.
Caleb Valko, having played his final hoops as a Wolf and now just a spring track season away from heading off to college, lofted jumpers from one side of the key, while Anthony Bergeron, a junior who had just wrapped his first season of organized basketball, drilled soft fade-aways from the other side.
Down at the far end of the court, sophomore Madeline Strasburg started drifting further and further outside, draining three-point bomb after three-point bomb. Then, finally, almost in the bleachers, she missed the basket completely and waved her hands in the air, inviting catcalls from her friends.
Moments later, she was driving hard to the basket in a two-on-two game with Katie Kiel, Danny Savalza and Korbin Korzan, bouncing and hopping, energy blazing, the embodiment of the future of Wolf girls’ basketball in one fun-loving, fiery package.
And then, after Smith had delivered a few final words to his boys’ squad in the sanctity of the locker room, a wave of players emerged, basketball gear forgotten and baseball mitts and bats in their arms.
Getting a jump on the official start of practice, which was still two weeks away, Morgan Payne and Drew Chan and Ben Etzell charged out the gym door, heading towards the baseball diamond they intend to rule this spring. Aaron Curtin and Aaron Trumbull followed, and then, a huge grin on his face as he hefted a bat, Brian Norris.
As they went, the quiet Bergeron and the boisterous Strasburg, at different ends of the court, continued to pop-pop-pop their shots.
Spring beckoned, between the rain drops that fell outside, while the thunk-thunk-swish of basketballs still echoed through the gym. Strasburg hit a runner in the key and whooped, while Bergeron drained a long-range jumper and softly smiled to himself.
The seasons change, but the thrill remains.
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