A vibrant star on the soccer pitch and basketball court, Mia Littlejohn is our newest inductee into the Coupeville Sports Hall o’ Fame. (Photos by JohnsPhotos.net)
You bought a ticket, she put on a show.
Across two years of middle school athletics, and three years of high school action in Coupeville, with heapin’ helpins’ of travel ball tossed in, Mia Littlejohn never failed to entertain.
She was feisty, she played at times like she had a chip on her shoulder and at other times like she had wandered in off of a playground in Jersey, and she brought the heat to all of her sports.
On the soccer field, she was a goal-scoring dervish who also could step back and set up her teammates with precision passes.
On the basketball hardwood, she was a run ‘n gun floor leader, a point guard who slashed away, charging right at the heart of the defense.
Come up on her, and she’d wheal and deal, peppering passes to all directions.
Back off, even for a split second, and Mia would turn her defender’s legs into jelly, putting some shake and bake on her moves as she filled the basket up herself.
She has an older brother, Zepher Loesch, who played with the same wild abandon, and a lil’ sis, Kalia Littlejohn, who often matched her in making the flashbulbs pop with electrifying play.
Mia never finished her run in Coupeville, opting to transfer to Oak Harbor for her senior year, where she graduated in purple and gold, instead of red and black.
But, while the move denied her the chance to add to her CHS stats, wandering up the Island should do nothing to diminish the impact she had while playing for the Wolves.
It’s why we welcome her today to the Coupeville Sports Hall o’ Fame, acknowledging Mia’s skill, her passion, and her style of play – a freewheeling, pedal-through-the-metal flow which few have matched.
After this, if you look up at the top of the blog, under the Legends tab, you’ll find Miss Littlejohn rightfully perched where she should be.
Mia was already drawing “oohs” and “ahs” long before she hit the hallways of CHS.
She grabbed attention for her exploits as a middle school hoops sensation, a travel ball soccer ace, and, for a hot moment, as a key player on a Central Whidbey Little League softball squad which went undefeated and advanced to the state tourney.
Once in high school, she never slowed down, landing on the varsity soccer and basketball squads from day one.
On the pitch, she spent her freshman and sophomore seasons as a pass-first player, rolling up assists in great gobs, while still finding time to hammer home eight goals across the two campaigns.
Mia holds the single-season and career CHS girls soccer scoring records.
Mia’s junior season was something else, though, as she went on a goal-scoring blitz like none ever seen at CHS.
By the time she was done, and off packing ice on her scoring leg to get it to cool down at least a little, she had found the back of the net an astonishing 27 times.
That stands as the school single-season record, girl or boy, and is 12 more goals than any other Wolf girl has ever notched during a single year.
Selected as the Olympic League co-MVP, Mia finished her junior season with 35 career goals, a total which endures as the CHS girls top mark.
As good as she could be on the soccer pitch, I personally think basketball was her best sport.
On the hardwood, she always played with a little something extra.
Some will say it’s because basketball is my favorite sport, while soccer … isn’t.
But put her on the hardwood and Mia could be truly special at times.
She ran the point with precision, while also scoring a fair amount, finishing with 317 points in three seasons, putting her #35 on the Wolf girls all-time career scoring chart.
Not bad, considering Mia’s prep career coincided with those of the program’s #3 (Makana Stone), #19 (Lindsey Roberts) and #30 (Kailey Kellner) scorers, putting a premium on getting buckets.
Mia got her points in a variety of ways, spinning and popping jumpers while on the move, dashing into the paint to dare the big girls to try and catch her, or converting breakaways.
She was an opportunistic defender, and lived to bat balls away, to slide up behind a rival and pick their pocket, or just to jump down their throat as they came up-court, arms waving, screaming like a banshee.
That was where the Jersey in her game came to the forefront, as she made rival players crack, then danced away, big grin on her face.
Mia was always talented, but, most of all, she was entertaining, all day, every day.
When you pulled up a seat to watch her play, in any sport, there was never a doubt you were going to get your money’s worth.
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