Izzy LeVine, queen of the wrestling mat. (Photos courtesy Sean LeVine)
You can take the LeVine family out of Washington state, but you can’t stop them from being awesome athletes.
A 14-year stint in Coupeville, with both parents working for the local hospital while two of three daughters graduated from CHS, made for an impressive run.
I used to sometimes refer to big sis Micky as “Two Fists,” after she once offered to punch any fool from Tacoma who was dumb enough to try and rough up her Whidbey Islanders soccer teammates on the pitch.
And middle (wild) child Jae, who danced down court after hitting three-balls as a young hoops star, then KO’d big, bad Klahowya on the high school softball diamond, has the biggest heart of any athlete I’ve ever written about.
They, along with paramedic dad Sean, a soccer guru who led Whidbey Island girls teams which routinely walloped big city squads, are all in the Coupeville Sports Hall o’ Fame.
Meanwhile, mom Joline is a shining supernova in the medical world, and one of the nicest people in the world.
Or, more appropriately, the entire universe.
A family move to Arizona a while back deprived Wolf Nation of ever inheriting Micky and Jae’s lil’ sis, the irrepressible Izzy.
She’s the one who once gave me a rock at a softball game when she was in elementary school, then told me I should write about her, and not worry about her sisters.
So, here we go.
And while Izzy won’t rep the red and black like her siblings, the youngest LeVine is making so much noise at her new home that it has echoed all the way back to Whidbey.
Hanging out with one of her biggest fans, dad Sean.
A strong soccer player when she lived on The Rock, Izzy also now throws down on the wrestling mat, beating both boys and girls.
Saturday, the Casteel Junior High School 8th grader hit the big time, winning the 115-pound weight class at the Arizona Junior High & Middle School State Championships.
Wrestling in Queen Creek, Izzy opened with a bye, thanks to her strong record in previous tournaments, then closed with a pair of wins by pin over female grapplers.
After toppling her first foe in the second round, she blitzed her rival in the championship match in a brisk 46 seconds.
Izzy is the first girl in CJHS history to win a state title for the school.
Her title continues a trend of mat dominance, as both the Casteel Junior High and High School wrestling teams are 88-0 in regular season matches since the schools opened in 2015.
Saturday’s tourney drew a large field, with a combined 57 schools and wrestling clubs participating.
Next up for Izzy, who has primarily been thumping boys during the eight tourneys she’s grappled in over the past six months, is her school’s regular season.
That’s co-ed, and LeVine, who will wrestle at 111 pounds, is on the Casteel varsity, having beaten all the boys in her weight class.
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