Coupeville Sports

Skyler Lawrence’s basketball future is so bright, she needs shades.

Lawrence triggers the play. (John Fisken photo)

It is a sound like a steel trap closing, and it is glorious.

When Coupeville High School freshman Skyler Lawrence gets her hands on a rebound — and she snares just about everything she’s even remotely close to — she latches on to the ball the way every coach dreams of players doing.

The next time a rival player tips a ball out of her fingers will be the first.

But don’t think she’s a one-dimensional player. Far from it.

Lawrence is consistently one of the first girls down the floor on nearly every play — rare for a post player charged with rebounding duty — and she’s developing a deadly outside shot to complement her interior game.

A young woman following in the footsteps of her mother, Patrice, (“I started basketball because it sounded fun and I heard my mom talk about it”), she’s in her seventh season, having first picked up the game in third grade.

“My family would play basketball outside, then I started to play more basketball with them,” Lawrence said. “As I started to get older, I started to get in to it more and played more and it was a blast.”

A three-sport threat (she also has played volleyball and plans to make the jump from middle school to high school track this spring), Lawrence enjoys horror movies and her wood shop class.

On the court, she intends to keep fine-tuning her game.

“My strength is rebounding the basketball after the other team has shot the ball,” she said. “Controlling the ball after rebounding it with other players on me.

“The area I can work on more is taking a player that goes left when they are a post player.”

Win or lose, and her Wolf JV squad has been very successful this season, twice holding opposing teams scoreless for an entire half, Lawrence loves her time on the hardwood.

“I enjoy basketball,” she said. “I get to be on the court with my friends and show the other team what we can do as one.”