Mikayla Elfrank, destroyer of softballs. (Jordan Ford photo)
Elfrank, powered by her snazzy socks, flies in for another bucket on the hardwood. (Photos by JohnsPhotos.net)
You can run, but she’ll still pound the ball off your face.
It’s not how much time you have, it’s what you do with that time.
Mikayla Elfrank didn’t get the full tour as a Coupeville High School athlete, as she started off down South in Falcon territory, not joining the Wolves until midway through her sophomore year.
Now, at the tail end of her prep career, an ankle injury has stolen part of her basketball season and is denying her a chance to play a spring sport.
Doesn’t matter.
Elfrank accomplished more than enough in her limited run, reaching electrifying heights rarely touched, making her a slam-dunk pick for induction into the Coupeville Sports Hall o’ Fame.
Off the field and court, the three-sport star is a whip-smart, well-spoken young woman who I have no doubt will be a great success in life.
Spend any time speaking to Elfrank and you can’t help but come away impressed with her.
She exudes a quiet confidence mixed with a genuine warmth, and is the rare athlete, young or old, able to look at their career and assess it honestly and straight-forward.
If she has a slight weakness, it may be that she is a little too modest about her own talent.
I’ve seen you play three sports across three years, Mikayla, and I can say this — you have been one of the most entertaining athletes I have ever covered.
It’s not because she’s big on personal celebration or chest-thumping, but it’s because she possesses a big-game explosiveness rarely seen in these parts.
If Hunter Smith is the cool rider, the Wolf who hums along, day after day, game after game, always hitting the high notes, Elfrank is like a roller coaster turned into a human.
When she is on the volleyball or basketball court, or stalking the softball field, she has an uncanny ability to bounce back at a moment’s notice, turning what might be a bad game for her team around in a split second.
When Elfrank strikes, it is with a white-hot intensity.
A spike that ricochets off of a rival’s face with enough force to almost come back over the net.
A coast-to-coast breakaway in which she shreds three backpedaling defenders before slapping the ball high off the backboard for a game-busting layup.
A home run to dead center field that not only clears the fence in Sequim, but puts a dent in a carnival ride being set up in the great beyond, scattering workers who jump like a bomb has dropped on their heads.
In her time as a Wolf, Elfrank has been the queen of the big moment, giving Coupeville fans a jolt of electricity and making opposing coaches throw their hands up in frustration.
They can’t stop her, they can’t contain her, and they know it.
A lot of athletes have come and gone here in Cow Town, and a very select few stand apart for being able to genuinely channel a mix of excitement and danger in every game they play.
Elfrank, like Madeline Strasburg or Lathom Kelley before her, rises above being talented and sits in that pantheon of Wolves who make you feel like you got your money’s worth every night, win or loss.
She and her teammates had some big moments, winning Olympic League titles in volleyball and basketball, going to state as spikers and narrowly missing on the diamond. They also had some tough defeats.
Win or lose, Elfrank never backed down from a challenge, never stopped fighting until the final buzzer, and repped the Wolf uniform with class and skill.
It would have been nice to have a full four years of her in red and black, with no injuries, but what we got to witness will stand the test of time.
An extraordinary young woman, on and off the competitive field, Mikayla will live on at the top of this blog, enshrined under the Legends tab.
Cause that’s what she is, today and forever.
Through every spike, every bucket, every laser throw from the hole at short, she was building a legacy, whether she knew it or not.
Thank you, Miss Elfrank, for making every game an adventure.
