Coupeville Sports

   Maddy Hilkey lines up a free throw during basketball practice. (John Fisken photo)

   Hilkey hangs out with volleyball buddies (l to r) Emma Smith, Kailey Kellner and Ashley Menges. (Konni Smith photo)

Huggin’ it out with Lindsey Roberts. (Fisken photo)

You can tell a lot about a person by how they treat their friends.

In my time covering her middle school and high school sports events, Maddy Hilkey’s actions have spoken loudly.

She has a tight-knit bunch of super-close friends, another couple of layers of really good friends, and a bunch of other people she interacts with while playing volleyball and basketball for the Wolves.

To those of us in the stands, Maddy has always come across as a genuinely warm, likable young woman, and that is evident every day in how she treats those friends.

I have rarely seen a photo (and she pops up in a lot of sports photos) where she is not smiling, especially when she is interacting with her teammates.

Hilkey is a talented athlete, a very strong volleyball player who will be a key for CHS the next two years, and a scrappy ball-hawk on the hard court who delights her coaches with every new bruise she proudly wears.

But it is Maddy the person, the strong, smart, confident young woman who treats her friends with kindness and love, that is ultimately more important than Maddy the athlete.

We pull for her more, cheer for her accomplishments more, feel greater happiness for her successes because she is a wonderful young woman in every aspect of her life.

Her parents, Emrie and Travis, should be very proud of who she is, and who she is becoming.

A great older sister, a strong student, and someone who brightens the day of those both in her inner circle and those out on the edge.

Maddy is celebrating her 16th birthday tonight by playing in a basketball game.

It would be nice to say it was a home game, but the Coupeville girls are enduring the schedule from Hell, and she will, instead, be at North Mason as the Wolves play their eighth straight road game.

While that’s not ideal, knowing her coaches, they will do something for Maddy.

And that will be kind of fitting, celebrating her arrival in the world with her teammates and friends.

As she does so, we all want to say happy birthday, Miss Hilkey.

May your special day be as amazing as you are.