Jodi Crimmins, literature connoisseur.
Jodi (right) in her early days, hanging out with siblings Jenny and Billy.
Jodi, daughter Maggie, son Aiden and her square-jawed, matinee idol husband, Jon.
The smile was deceptive. She lived to rip arms off.
No one is flawless.
That being said, Jodi (Christensen) Crimmins comes pretty dang close.
The legend of her as a basketball player still echoes down the hallways at Coupeville High School.
They say when the wind blows off of the prairie, shoots through a window at CHS and creates an eerie sound, that it’s actually the long-repressed wail of one of her former basketball teammates.
The doomed girl wanders the hallways, still looking for the arm they lost that time they tried to reach for a loose ball at the same time Jodi, a one-woman Wolf wrecking crew, latched on to it.
She was a beast. A beast, I say.
If the basketball was anywhere in play during those days, Jodi was a split-second away from snatching it, elbows flying like Ginsu knives, nostrils flarin’, eyes rollin’ in the back of her head.
There are grown women who still cry, to this day, when they try to explain the terror she made blossom in their hearts.
And that’s just her teammates who had to go up against her in rebounding drills… (ooh, rim shot).
Which is amazing, because, off the court, you will never find a more genuinely sweet, caring, lovely, wonderful woman.
My mom, who worked with Jodi in the kitchen at Camp Casey when Mrs. Crimmins was a young lass, adored her.
Rarely did a day go by when she didn’t gush about Jodi, and rightfully so.
Over the years, from the time I wrote a feature article about her for The Whidbey News-Times during her basketball glory days, to the time period where we worked together at Videoville and Miriam’s Espresso, to today, when she spreads joy and learning as an elementary school teacher, she remains the same.
Oh, she’s gotten married, had two children, and made a lot of other people gush about her along the way.
But Jodi, who celebrates her birthday today, remains that bright, shining light in the sky to everyone who has been blessed to know her.
All you need to know is my mom adored her, and my mom was a very good judge of character.
Coupeville Sports 