Coupeville Sports

Kacie Kiel: Legend. (John Fisken photos)

A shot to the ribs and she’s still smiling.

Well played, Miss Kiel. Well played.

First impressions are often wrong.

Case in point, one Miss Kacie Kiel, Coupeville High School senior, basketball and volleyball star and owner of a smile that could light the world by itself, who hits the big 1-8 today.

The first time I saw her,  I believe, was during a JV basketball game a few years back.

She was swimming in her uniform, a skinny lil’ thing who looked like she’d be blown over if the door opened and a slight (very slight) breeze came through the gym.

I expected her to get knocked around by bigger, stronger players, to be timid, to hang in the back of the action.

Good lord, was I a complete and utter idiot.

On the first play, Kacie went flying through the paint, bouncing off six or seven players and ripping a rebound right out of the grasp of a player twice her size.

While grinning the entire time.

While anyone could see her outward appearance, you had to see Kiel play to fully realize the size of her heart.

It is epic.

I have covered high school sports on and off for 25 years on Whidbey Island, seen a lot of athletes in a lot of sports, some very talented, others not so much and I have rarely seen a player show the heart that Kacie does on a daily basis.

She is a fearless young woman, and, even though she still weighs about 12 pounds as a senior, she fears no elbow, embraces every bruise, truly lives and dies on the court, regardless of the sport.

Plus, there’s the smile.

Now, a lot of people smile. Some light up a room.

But Kacie, she’s special.

I have never seen a player smile so often in the heat of competition.

She’ll be bringing the ball up the floor, under considerable pressure, using her elbows to clear space, and the smile pops out.

She scraps in the paint, ends up on the floor, tangled under a pile of bodies, her fingers dug so deeply into the ball she’s left permanent fingerprints on it, and she’ll look up at the concerned ref and grin.

Through the big moments — hitting a three-pointer at the buzzer to cap a comeback for the ages against Sequim — and the little moments — she has yet to meet a camera she can’t pose for — Kacie has been a godsend for Coupeville Sports.

As she heads down the back stretch of her final high school hoops season, we can hope she gives in and picks up a spring sport (track sprinter? softball slugger? tennis ace?) to keep the fun going.

Or not.

Kacie deserves to do whatever makes her happy, and she should have every opportunity to enjoy her final months as a Wolf any way she wants.

Even if that denies me the chance to write about her during the spring.

And then, after graduation, she’ll be on to other great things.

I have no doubt whatsoever that she will accomplish much more in her life, in and out of the sports spotlight.

Kacie’s future is as bright as you can imagine, and then so much more beyond even that.

Athletes come. Athletes go. Some fade away, some are remembered.

Then there are a few who go up on the Mount Rushmore of our collective memories here in Cow Town.

Kacie, you were as good as it gets.

Other athletes will take your place on the court, inherit your jersey, but they will never replace you.

There will never be another Kacie Kiel, because the original version can’t, won’t, ever be matched.

From all of us, your fans, your friends, thank you.

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