The bumper sticker displayed by Karissa Bragg’s father.
I am not a fan of Archbishop Thomas Murphy High School.
They are a college posing as a high school, recruiting the cream of the crop in every sport, than competing against rural high schools who take any local players who can tie both their shoes without falling down and field a team.
The Everett-based private school exudes arrogance, subtly masked by saintliness. It takes a lot to make King’s look like only the second-most entitled school in the Cascade Conference, and ATM (or is it ABM, or AMHS or the U of ATM?) does it well.
Plus, they will forever bear a mark for shame for forcing out former Oak Harbor High School football coach Dave Ward, who merely took ATM to back-to-back state title games while busting the chops of overly-entitled “lifers” stuck to the program like barnacles.
But tonight, when the Wildcat boys’ basketball squads travel to Coupeville (JV tips at 5:15, varsity at 7), I will have to take a momentary breather from my favorite pastime of ATM poking. Because, what they’re doing tonight shows a touch of genuine class.
Sitting on their bench, with the finest players scholarships can bring in (but I digress…) will be Karissa Bragg, a 2009 ATM grad and cousin of Wildcat Adam Rasmussen. She will be an honorary coach as the two schools play under the banner of Coaches vs. Cancer.
The website for ATM basketball had the following to say about Ms. Bragg:
2 years ago, Karissa had a growth in her throat that blocked 80% of her airway. Surgery left her with a large hole in her throat and a diagnosis of a rare form of bone cancer called Ewing Sarcoma.
Karissa spent the next year enduring 17 in-patient chemo treatments and 5 1/2 weeks of daily radiation which made her weak and she had difficulty swallowing. Although she is now cancer free, she still must go in every three months to be scanned for cancer.
Weeks after her last treatment, Karissa formed a Relay for Life team. She is determined to do what ever she can to find a cure for cancer.
That makes you sit back and take a deep breath and realize, I write an often-stupid blog (or, at least that’s what my fan mail from ATM and Sultan lovers would have me believe.)
This young woman stared down her own mortality and KO’d one of the scariest things anyone can ever deal with.
One of my aunts battled cancer for 40 years, and the disease is a bitch, plain and simple.
I can’t do anything but cheer for Karissa, regardless of what school colors she wears. She is a winner and, while we here in Coupeville may not appreciate her school all that much, we will cheer for HER tonight.
I have never met Ms. Bragg, but I know the world is a better place for her still being here. Tonight, I honor her fight, her spirit, her will to live.
Tomorrow? Tomorrow the stick likely comes back out and the ATM pokin’ begins all over again. I ain’t perfect and it’s just how we roll here in Poopville.
Coupeville Sports 