Coupeville Sports

Amanda Fabrizi (3) and Breeanna Messner as seniors.

Junior year artistry.

True grit.

That is what has marked the high school basketball careers of Breeanna Messner and Amanda Fabrizi.

Highly-intelligent, super-friendly, easy-going young women off the court, they do not EVER back down from their opponents on the hardwood.

It is a trait that should be greatly respected and honored as the duo play for perhaps the final time in the CHS gym tonight.

There is a chance the Wolf girls’ hoops squad (8-10) will end up playing one or more of its playoff games at home, but that’s not a given.

So tonight’s Senior Night (JV 5 PM/varsity 6:45) against Granite Falls (1-17) is a must-attend if you want to pay tribute to two of the toughest to ever put on the uniform.

And when I say that Fab and Mess are tough, I mean it as a positive.

In my time watching them, I have seen the duo poked in the eye, slammed to the floor, clocked in the back of the head and all manner of roughed-up.

Boys’ high school hoops is a far, far daintier world these days — girls beat the crud out of each other, and, frankly, complain about it a lot less than their male counterparts do.

And that’s why the Wolf duo shine brightest.

When a rebound is extra tough to snare, when a ball is on the floor skittering away, when a charge needs to be taken, Breeanna and Amanda step up.

Every single time.

They sacrifice their bodies time and again. Floor burns, black eyes, even concussions, all overcome.

They are quiet leaders, not prone to screaming at their younger teammates or ridiculing them, as some seniors on visiting teams have done this year.

That makes them better captains, frankly.

They lead by example. They show the next group of girls what it takes to be tough, to not fear another team simply because of a private school name on the jersey.

As a junior, Messner got whacked in the face, hard, as she came up-court and crumpled.

There was considerable pain on her face, but she never left the court.

Instead, she got up, blinked 1,204 times to try and clear her vision and drilled back-to-back three-point bombs to seal a Coupeville win.

Both times, she went back down-court afterwards not pumping her fists in people’s faces, but with a small, quiet smile of steel gracing her face.

Mess with Mess, and she will make you a mess, and then tell you that you played a good game afterwards and really mean it. She is class, through and through.

Fabrizi is no less tough and just as much of a class act.

She is the one who will take a last-second shot without hesitation.

The one who, time and again, slashes hard to the hoop on breakaways, throwing down little hook-shot layins and drawing fouls, never blinking or pulling back, even when she fully knows she is about to be hammered.

My favorite snapshot of Fabrizi in action came when she was a junior.

A ball bounced free. Two opposing players started to tentatively reach out for it.

Then Amanda came crashing through, slamming into the floor, arms wrapping around the ball, biceps flexing like they were made out of steel, her feet going up in the air and inadvertently kicking one of the other players in the face.

That girl never reached out for a loose ball again. Possibly ever.

There was nothing dirty about the play. Just full-on commitment to playing the way you wish every player would handle their business.

Fabrizi may have done time as a cheerleader (the same as Messner), but she can, and will, kick your butt.

That play kept alive a hard-nosed tradition handed down from the days of legendary Wolf brawlers like Jennie (Cross) Prince, Sherry (Bonacci) Roberts and Jodi (Christensen) Crimmins to today’s rough-and-tumble stars like Messner, Fabrizi, Julia “Elbows” Myers and Madeline Strasburg.

Coupeville does not have to accept second-class citizenship on the court, regardless of how much bigger or richer the opposing school is.

The Wolves can, and should, go down fighting with every ounce of their strength, even when it sparks another round of crying from the King’s coach.

You do not intentionally hurt your opponent (as some other schools are prone to doing) but you DO NOT back down, EVER.

Amanda Fabrizi and Breeanna Messner have lived that every moment they have been on a basketball court.

They deserve your applause. They deserve your respect.

When #3 and #11 walk off the court for the last time — hopefully after a long playoff run — they will do so knowing they brought great honor to the uniforms they wore.

They will be missed, but they will be remembered.