Joltin’ Jae LeVine. (John Fisken photos)
“Flash” gets group-hugged during a volleyball match.
Her scholarly side rises to the top during a road trip.
“Coach, we’ll talk more later, but it’s time for me to go be awesome now.”
We’ve gotta let her in. Otherwise she’ll just knock the door down.
There is no obstacle too big for the Mighty Mite to crush, no challenge too high for JaeBird to fly over, no feat too daunting for Flash to zoom right past.
A young woman of many nicknames, and far more accomplishments, Jae LeVine is joy and giddiness, strength and passion, all wrapped around the biggest lil’ heart to ever stride across the prairie.
She is also, as of today, a certified member of the Coupeville Sports Hall o’ Fame.
As if there ever was a doubt.
Miss LeVine will now occupy a spot at the top of the blog, under the Legends tab, joining big sis Micky and dad Sean.
Somewhere off to the side multi-talented lil’ sis Izzy plots how long it will be before she too joins the pantheon.
“Soon, soon…”
But today is all about the irrepressible one, the bright, shining supernova who crashes through life, drum sticks in one hand, softball bat in the other, calculator stuck in her back pocket.
Jae “Flash” LeVine is a stellar scholar, a wild woman on the skins and an athlete who has never given less than her all.
Frankly, it’s remarkable that she is an athlete at all.
LeVine has dealt with a Ventricular Septal Defect (a large hole in the inner heart wall that required open heart surgery as a baby) and Aortic Stenosis since birth.
After a brief run as a basketball player, doctors made her quit her favorite sport, but she endured as a volleyball spiker and softball slugger.
Where there is a will, there is a way, and Jae has more will than the rest of us combined.
Instead of moping around, she has embraced each challenge, head held high, impish smile lighting up the galaxy around her.
Along the way, she’s dabbled in drama, been a student leader, kept things hoppin’ at Prairie Center and made the lives of everyone around her immeasurably better.
But this is an athletic hall, and when Jae retires her CHS uniforms, she will leave behind multiple memories which clinch her induction.
I will remember her final moments as a hoops star, before she had to leave the court.
Nailing a three-ball from somewhere out in the parking lot, LeVine put an appropriate cap on her middle school days by promptly dancing back up the court, arms above her head, “Rocky”-style.
As her fan section (which covered the entire bleachers) went bonkers, she alternated pumping her fists by pointing at one fan, then another, before exiting the game in a wave of her own giggles.
I will also remember the night she was playing libero part-time in a volleyball match, which meant she had to keep swapping out her uniform top.
LeVine would zig off the court, disappear for a moment, then reappear, each time acting if she was Superman flying onto the scene.
The final time, instead of merely dropping her discarded uniform top, she whipped it over her head, dropping it into dad Sean’s hands on a dime.
Then exited in a wave of her own giggles.
The softball diamond has been Jae’s refuge, the one sport where doctors have let her play out her dreams for her entire high school career, and she has blossomed out there.
A scrappy defender who sells out for every ball smacked her way at second base, she has become quite adept with her glove, while also developing a nice aggressive streak at the plate.
Through rain and sleet and snow (it’s spring sports … there is no sun), “Flash” is a ball o’ fire, with a little fist-pumping, a whole lot of teammate hugging and much roof-raising when she’s up to shenanigans in the dugout.
Every day, in every way, Jae LeVine proves, in school, in sports, in life, that you, and you alone, dictate the size of your heart and how much you will get out of this life.
She is my hero, and I am very happy to induct her into my Hall o’ Fame.
