Kim Meche (center) with her players.
The story I wrote in the Whidbey News-Times when Meche left Oak Harbor to take the Coupeville job.
Kim Meche was one of the nicest people I have ever met.
She was also one of the most talented, and, ultimately, one of the bravest.
Today is her birthday and that she is not here to celebrate it with her family, friends and the many young women she impacted on the volleyball court is truly sad.
Except, Kim was never one to embrace the sadness, even in her darkest moments. And we should remember that.
Her sense of humor, her compassion for others, her love, never faded, not in the fun times, when she was flying high as a player and coach, or in the lowest of times, when she relentlessly fought cancer to a standstill.
Cancer rarely loses, and the disease will claim that it took Kim.
Except it didn’t.
Through the pain, and the struggle, her smile was there, always. She loved her life, and she fought to hold on to it.
Her body lost the battle in 2013, but her spirit never faded. Not then and not now.
She fought like the Wildcat she was, like the Wolf she was, like the Bulldog she was.
Those three animals represent the three high schools Kim was associated with — Oak Harbor, Coupeville and Stevenson.
She was a superb athlete who became an even better coach, a rarity, and led two separate high schools to state tourneys.
The day she left Oak Harbor, her alma mater, to come to Coupeville, I was Sports Editor at the Whidbey News-Times and got to write the story about the move.
I had worked with her before, and worked with her afterwards, and the one thing which never changed was how she conducted herself.
She wasn’t coaching for the money, she was coaching for love.
I have seen a lot of coaches come and go, and a few just have that magic sparkle, an ability to reach in and touch lives with a few words.
Kim was one of the absolute best.
When she left Coupeville, to go to Stevenson a world away and become an administrator, she left the Coupeville program in the hands of her assistant, Toni Crebbin, and the Wolves never skipped a beat.
As word filtered in of her battles with cancer, everyone who knew her pulled for Kim, rejoiced when she got better, and crashed when she got worse.
The day she passed three communities mourned as one.
But here’s the thing.
Her impact goes on to this day, and it will go on for a very, very long time.
It filters down through every young woman who played for her and now passes on her wisdom to their own children.
It filters down through every person who coached with her, who taught with her, who worked with her.
It filters down through every one of us who talked to her, who listened to her, who remembers her.
Kim Meche was a rare gem in this world, and she will not be forgotten.
When I started my Coupeville Sports Hall o’ Fame, she was the first person I inducted. And really, there is no one else who I even considered other than her for that position.
Some set records. Some change worlds.
She did both.
From all of us who had the chance to know you, Kim, happy birthday. May your spirit burn brightly, today and every day.
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