Emma Mathusek, serene superstar. (Photo by JohnsPhotos.net)
Emma Mathusek was a quiet superstar.
I’m not talking about her personality — she has always been outgoing, full of rah-rah spirit, and an exuberant, entertaining presence — but how she approached her sports.
Whether it was volleyball or softball, or basketball back in her younger days, Emma was the kind of athlete every coach wants and hopes will land on their team.
She had skills for days, but always seemed content to fit her strengths into whatever her teammates and coaches needed.
Others chafe if they’re not looked at as the star.
Emma, who is straight laid-back chill, bopped along to a different rhythm than most, always seeming far more interested in team success than piling up personal stats.
Already ready to rule the world. (Photo courtesy Erin Martin)
You saw it on the volleyball court, where she anchored the Wolves while playing libero, sacrificing her body to scrape balls off the floor, time and again, and then some more.
The big hitters up front get the gaudy stats, and a lot of the buzz, but they never get the chance to go airborne if Emma isn’t holding down the last line of defense.
I don’t know as much about volleyball as some, but I’ve watched enough matches to appreciate an unsung warrior when I see one.
And that’s what Emma has been for the past six years – a warrior.
She sold out every dang time, every play, every moment she was on the floor, and very few balls got past her during that time.
The harder other teams hit, the harder she played.
Her team might win — and she was part of a very-successful run by the Wolf spikers in recent years — or they might lose, but Emma played with the same conviction, the same intensity, regardless of whether her team was two sets up or two sets down.
I always thought it was too bad she gave up basketball midway through her prep career, but that could be because it’s my favorite sport, and she was my favorite kind of player – a fighter and a scrapper.
But, you have to do what makes you happy, and know the fans will survive either way. If she was happier not playing, so be it.
And anyway, we still had her for one more sport, and she sparkled on the softball field.
A dynamic softball player from the very beginning. (Photos by JohnsPhotos.net)
Put Emma on the diamond, and she gave you speed, a soft glove, a slammin’ bat, and, once again, the willingness to adapt to whatever role she was asked to play.
She patrolled centerfield in her prime, and frankly, at times, there was little need for Coupeville coaches to put players in right and left, as she sprinted from foul line to foul line to snag rapidly-falling balls.
At the plate, Emma was a contact hitter who sprayed the ball in all directions, while often showing a surprising amount of pop.
While it wasn’t unexpected that homer-happy teammates like Veronica Crownover and Sarah Wright terrorized opposing pitchers with frequent round-trippers, Emma rocked one of the most-impressive home runs I have seen a Wolf hit.
The tater was delivered May 1, 2019, and it will live in Wolf lore for a long time, for how far away it sailed, when it was hit, and what it meant.
Emma’s shot, which cleared the fence like a 747 taking off, was a game-tying two-run blast which fueled what would turn into a wild, come-from-behind, 20-18 win over visiting Granite Falls.
The Tigers had come to Cow Town struttin’ and full of swagger, seemingly on the brink of clinching the North Sound Conference title.
Then Emma, with some help from her teammates, knocked Granite Falls to the canvas – she also had a long two-run single to go with her home run – and dared the Tigers to get back up.
They did not. Ever.
Jacked up after delivering a KO, one in which freshman hurler Izzy Wells whiffed the most-dangerous hitter in the league to slam the door shut, Coupeville stormed all the way back to win the league title.
After that came a great postseason run in which the Wolves finished 2nd at districts, advanced to state for the third time in program history, then drilled big baddie Deer Park while there.
Granite? They never made it out of districts, the back half of their tail-spinning season including a second loss to Coupeville, this one a killer in the playoffs.
The Wolves, however, made it to the premier event for Washington state high school softball sluggers, and it was Emma – the unsung star – who ruled the big stage.
Playing three games in one day in Richland, she ripped off six hits, including three doubles, putting a remarkable cap on her junior season.
While the COVID-19 pandemic stole her senior softball campaign, the legend Emma quietly built can’t be diminished.
You can talk about stats. You can talk about big hits and big catches on the diamond, or big dives and big hustle plays on the court.
Or you can just stand back and appreciate a young woman who every single moment she was in a Wolf uniform looked like she was having the time of her life.
She played her heart out, and her joy, the way she embraced her teammates and sacrificed for them, won’t be forgotten.
Today we induct Emma Mathusek into the Coupeville Sports Hall o’ Fame, and, after this, she’ll live up at the top of the blog, under the Legends tab.
Want to find her? She’ll be the one high-fiving all the other inductees, a perfect teammate to the end.
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