Coupeville Sports

   Bree Daigneault, ready to rip up the tennis court (and make new friends while doing so.) (John Fisken photos)

Daigneault pushes the attack during a playoff game.

Bree Daigneault is a freakin’ ray of sunshine.

That’s the only description which really captures her personality and how she carries herself when playing soccer or tennis for Coupeville High School.

Daigneault, who will be a senior at CHS this fall, and also celebrates a birthday today, is happy, yes. But it’s more than that.

She is competitive, focused, feisty, fun-loving, vocal, incredibly smart, very caring and, this is sometimes rare in athletes, compassionate in a very public way.

There is little doubt Bree wants to win her matches on the court, or help her team to victory on the pitch, but she doesn’t want to do it in a way which embarrasses or demeans her opponents.

It’s especially evident on the tennis court, where, whether she’s winning or losing, she always finds ways to compliment the girl on the other side of the net.

Not in a grumbly, “Oh, nice shot…” way, but in a genuinely sincere, “I’m enjoying my time out here and I hope you are too,” way.

It’s easy to be friendly with your close companions (such as her real world partners in crime, May Rose and Ally Roberts) and teammates, people you know.

It’s not always as easy with someone you may have just met for the first time 20 minutes ago, a person who is now making you run side-to-side and trying to ruin your afternoon.

Daigneault’s tennis matches this spring were master classes in grace and sportsmanship, and she brought out the best in her rivals.

Win or lose (and, like everyone, it’s clear she enjoys winning more), Bree seems to treat sports as an important part of her life, but just one part.

She is a talented actress, a pretty brilliant student and an irrepressible young woman who once, at the counter in front of me at People’s Bank, grabbed her mothers’ money and flicked it back at her, bill by bill, while singing out “dollar, dollar, bills y’all.”

We have another year of her infectious spirit and positive attitude here in Coupeville, and then, one would assume, she will take over the entire world, spreading the gospel of Bree far and wide.

That she will be a success in whatever path she chooses is a slam-dunk.

It’s pretty hard to be this smart and this genuinely likable and outgoing and not do well.

So happy birthday Miss Daigneault, and thank you for blazing your own memorable path.

You’re a true original and Wolf fans are lucky to be experiencing a part of your brilliant journey.