Coupeville Sports

   Hope “The Surgeon” Lodell, getting ready to carve up anyone who dares step to her. (John Fisken photo)

Lodell, at work and rest. (Fisken and Lodell family photos)

Like Heath Ledger in “A Knight’s Tale,” she will rock you. (Mike Lodell photo)

Put on your hip waders, because I’m about to gush.

There is no finer athlete at Coupeville High School right now than Hope Lodell, both in raw physical skill and character.

Miss Lodell, who turns 17 today, is the rare Wolf athlete who I have literally known since the moment they popped into the world.

I knew her parents, Mike and Rebecca, as well as her older brother, Noah, long before Hope showed up on Jan. 10, 2000, and I have been lucky enough to have seen her grow up into a truly remarkable young woman.

Toss out the sports (we’ll come back to them in a few moments) and this is an extraordinary human being, in every way.

Hope is a walking, talking ray of sunshine every day, one of the warmest, friendliest, most outgoing people you will ever know.

She shows compassion and love to all those around her, and it is returned.

Brainy, driven, a young woman with a laser focus who wants to become a surgeon one day, she excels in the classroom and out of it.

When I say she has extraordinary raw physical skills, it extends far beyond the playing field.

Lodell is the kind of person who will do a headstand and walk around on her hands for long periods of time, or fire off a string of pull-ups on the CHS softball dugout to pass the time during a rain delay.

Put her in a uniform and she is a fireball.

Personally, I miss watching her rampage around the basketball court, causing havoc, but she’s strong-willed and if she’s chosen volleyball and softball as her art forms these days, who am I argue?

On the diamond, she is a slap-hitting artiste who can also pull the bat back and unleash holy heck on opposing hurlers, blasting epic home runs with a flick of her mighty, mighty biceps.

A speed demon who runs the bases extremely well, she essentially plays all three outfield spots for Coupeville, even though she starts in center field.

More than once (like two or three hundred times) I’ve witnessed Hope chase down balls deep in left or right field — without breaking a sweat — or come crashing in to spear a ball over an infielder’s head.

Put her on a volleyball court, and she has worked her way into being a truly deadly weapon.

This fall, she was a crucial part of a Wolf squad that put together the program’s best season in a decade-plus, and Lodell attacked from all angles.

A big hitter up front, when played there, she teamed up with Valen Trujillo to anchor Coupeville’s serve return game, and when she served herself, it was (violent) poetry in motion.

Not only did she set a single-season record for aces, her mark eclipsed what had been the previous Wolf CAREER record.

Jumping, twisting, hopping, unleashing rockets that were rarely returned (and then generally straight into the net or out of play), Hope was like a gunfighter, stalking main street, every serve being put up at high noon.

As she celebrates her birthday today, Lodell is pure class, a young woman who lights up this world in her own unique fashion.

Hopey, you are as good as it gets, and everyone that has been blessed to know you and see your life unfold so far thinks the world of you.

I have no doubt this is but the very tip of all you will do with your skill and passion.

One day, after the entire world has come to realize just how truly awesome you are, as an athlete, as a braniac, as a kind, caring woman, those of us who were here at the start will just nod and say, “Yep, told you so.”

I hope you know how much we all think of you, how much we respect you, how thrilled we are to see you taking over the world.

Happy birthday to my favorite Wolf.

May you never stop finding new arenas to conquer, Hope.