Teagan Calkins, prairie immortal. (David Somes photo)
Prairie legends aren’t built in a single day.
Oh sure, one game, one epic performance in crunch-time, may seal the deal, may catapult some from the middle of the pack to the pantheon.
But the true all-timers, the ones whose stories live on for decades, reach their status by doing it day after day.
The few who truly stand apart have one thing in common — their excellence — but often live different lives, have different traits, often radically different personalities.
Some are quiet and self-contained, while others have personalities which can’t, and shouldn’t, be restrained.
You can see it when you look back at the athletic wonders who have dominated the pages of Coupeville Sports over the past 14 years.
Lathom Kelley literally ran up and bounced off of walls, while Makana Stone’s photo is forever lodged in the dictionary right next to the word “serene.”
Jae LeVine, her heart three times the size of her body, was pluckiness made human.
Meanwhile Sean Toomey-Stout’s unmatched work ethic impressed even the local wildlife, as evidenced by a skittish deer once leading him to the end zone, then nodding in approval before surrendering the spotlight.
This spring, as every spring, a group of Coupeville athletes played their final games, then accepted their diplomas and stepped away, off to create new magic elsewhere.
Some will be remembered, some will likely fade from memory (it happens), and one will stand forever.
If there is a top 1% for Wolf athletes, Teagan Calkins, AKA “The Red Dragon,” is on that very short list.
Sports or academics, she was always top of her class.
In the words of Frank Sinatra, and a whole lot of cover artists over the years, she did it her way, a true one-of-a-kind athlete, student, and human being from the first moment she repped the red and black until the end.
Valedictorian and CHS Athlete of the Year winner as a senior, the rare person to pull off the feat.
And, as of today, a member of the Coupeville Sports Hall o’ Fame, destined to forever see her name listed under the Legends tab up at the top of the blog.
Or at least as long as I pay my domain bill.
When it came to her school days, I am sure Teagan worked extremely hard on the education side of things — or maybe is just the second coming of Albert Einstein — but I wasn’t there in the classroom to see her flexin’ her big brain.
I was there, however, in person for much of her athletic career, sitting on rock hard bleachers or hunched over as waves of nasty prairie breeze slammed acres of infield dirt straight up our noses.
From little league through middle school and then high school, she started as a precocious lil’ sprout and finished as a strong, feisty young woman, rarely a moment when Teagan wasn’t at the center of things. And rightfully so.
“I will strike down upon thee with great vengeance and furious anger!” (Jackie Saia photos)
We can talk about stats, sure, because she piled them up on the volleyball court, on the basketball hardwood, and, most of all, on the softball diamond.
Teagan smacked laser-like kills which rearranged a few knees, she splashed home three-balls from every angle, and she piled up home runs, both of the over-the-fence variety and of the lash-a-liner-to-deep-left-field-and-run-like-a-wild-woman type.
She was the anchor for all her teams, both as a young gun playing alongside an older pack of girls for most of her career, and then as the unofficial mom to her heirs — the young women who will fill the lineup over the next several seasons.
Need a big play? Teagan was there. Time and again.
The calm, “glue” player who held things together through big wins and painful losses, or the shining superstar asking for the game to be put on her shoulders, she could do it all and fit her game to match the needs of her teammates and coaches.
Time and again, I watched as she overcame injury and illness, strapped herself into whatever gear was needed to hold all the body parts together, and stayed in the heart of the action, because she wouldn’t leave her teammates high and dry. Ever.
The bionic woman, ready for battle.
Leaders come in all sizes and shapes, with all different kinds of attitudes.
Some scream and holler. Others buckle down, close their mouths, and let their actions speak for themselves.
Whatever works best for you.
Teagan? She had her own style, as always.
She could chatter with the best of them, especially as a catcher on the softball field, where she kept up a line of dialogue humming with the pitcher she was warming up, with the coach watching the warmup, with her dad adjusting his phone to stream her game, and with each passing human (or pooch).
Teagan knew who to calm down, who to pump up, who to praise, who to (gently) kick in the butt, and she made it seem as effortless as any I have seen in three decades of watching some very-talented CHS backstops.
And then there is a subtle thing which speaks to the depth of her heart, the thing which elevates her that last step from being a great to truly being a prairie legend.
I have been writing about Coupeville sports, on and off, but mostly on, since 1990, and I have personally witnessed two times in which a teenage athlete, deep in their own preparation for a game, stopped what they were doing to thank a younger teammate for doing the hard behind-the-scenes work.
The first was Makana Stone, the finest athlete/human being of my writing career.
The other was Teagan Calkins, and the care she showed in that moment for a girl hauling equipment from the dugout to the storage shed is why she reaches a different level.
“How you doin’??”
There will be more seasons of softball on the prairie. More big moments. More top-level performances.
Haylee Armstrong and Ava Lucero and the Van Dyke sisters and little girls currently killin’ it as 3rd graders and so many more will step up to carry on the tradition of excellence set by the program.
When they do, they will keep alive what “The Red Dragon” nurtured and honored and built with her bat, with her howitzer arm, and, most of all, with her heart and personality.
The names will change, the wins will keep on coming, and when the fans are able to keep their eyes open against the howling winds, they will swear they can still see the shadows left behind by the trailblazers.
Jae LeVine hopping up and down on second base after slaying Klahowya.
Sarah Wright threatening to eat a worm. More than once.
Mia Farris catching a fly on a dead sprint in center seconds before flipping up and over the temporary fence, while never losing control of the ball.
And Teagan?
She’ll be there, one more time popping up from behind home, arm snapping off a laser right onto the glove of the incoming shortstop to nail a would-be thief by three steps.
Followed by her high-fiving everyone in a three-mile radius, before ambling over to the dugout, picking up her treasured bat and gently whispering to it, “Time to go wreck some fools.”
Some athletes are here for a bit. Some for longer.
Teagan? Teagan is eternal.
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