Breeanna Messner (John Fisken photos)
Kind of excited after a big play.
It did not end the way she wanted it to.
If you know anything about Breeanna Messner, it is that the Coupeville High School senior — her school’s only four-sport athlete last year (cheer, volleyball, basketball, softball) — does not give up easily.
Whether wearing the red and black for the Wolves like mom Aimee Bishop did before her, or charging up flights of steps or across muddy fields or skipping through Disney Land dressed in a tutu during a race, Messner is a true competitor.
She never backs down, and, if you poke her in the eye like one basketball player did last year, she will get up and ruthlessly drill you with back-to-back-to-back three point bombs, a small smile never leaving her face.
So for her to come out of Tuesday night’s epic five-set volleyball match with Sultan and not make it back on the floor, you knew she had to be really sick.
Whether it’s the lingering aftereffects of taking a shot to the face in a select basketball game two days before, or a reaction to a recent flu shot, she reached a point of no return after the third set Tuesday.
Not that you would have known it by her stats, because she was 13 of 13 on serves and 27 of 27 on service returns when she departed.
Whatever the problem may be, everyone hopes for a fast recovery.
You would hope for that for any Wolf athlete, but Messner, in her unassuming way, has set the gold standard the last several years for what you would like to see in anyone who pulls on a Coupeville jersey.
Before games, she is an oasis of calm, usually quietly sitting next to fellow senior Amanda Fabrizi, head bent low over her schoolwork while also monitoring the play of her JV teammates, ready to yell out encouragement.
Then she’s sprinting to the door of the gym to pick up and squeeze the life out of her beloved little cousin.
Win or lose, she lays it all on the line and I have never seen her play at anything less than full-speed. Off the court, she carries herself with a sense of grace.
You are a class act, Ms. Messner. Wolf Nation is very proud you represent us, and we hope for a speedy recovery.
UPDATE: No concussion! A Wednesday AM visit to the doctor points to a combination of a reaction to the flu shot and her potassium getting out of whack for unknown reasons.
