UPDATE — Jodi Cossell of Chimacum is alive in the intensive care unit at Harrison Medical Center in Bremerton.
This story has been updated to reflect that the report published today that she had died was erroneous.
Friday morning, Diane Good, Cossell’s aunt, read the Peninsula Daily News a statement from Cossell’s mother, Janice Bishop:
“Tuesday morning Jodi Cossell was rushed by the Jefferson County EMT team to Harrison Medical Center after suffering cardiac arrest, and received excellent care,” the statement said.
“She has been in the ICU unit at Harrison Memorial Hospital in critical condition, receiving their excellent care.”
___________________
PORT TOWNSEND — It was quite possibly a first:
A Port Townsend-Chimacum girls basketball playoff where just about everyone on the court wanted to be somewhere else.
With both teams playing for their playoff lives, it was the medical condition of one of the player’s mother which mattered most to many in Bruce Blevins Gymnasium on Thursday night.
Some in the auditorium believed that Jodi Cossell — the mother of Chimacum sophomore starter Mallori Cossell, who was not at the game — had died.
Others knew she was in grave condition.
The Port Townsend Redskins ended the Chimacum Cowboys’ season with a 47-28 victory in a loser-out pigtail playoff for a spot in the Class 1A Tri-District.
Yet it was both teams who cried and embraced each other at center court after the final horn blew, and a moment of silence was requested before the game by the Chimacum players.
The Peninsula Daily News erroneously reported today that Jodi Cossell had died.
Jodi Cossell is alive, the family said Friday. She is in critical condition in intensive care at Harrison Medical Center in Bremerton.
Jodi Cossell’s mother, Janice Bishop, issued a statement Friday through Diane Good, Jodi’s aunt:
“Tuesday morning Jodi Cossell was rushed by the Jefferson County EMT team to Harrison Medical Center after suffering cardiac arrest, and received excellent care,” the statement said.
“She has been in the ICU unit at Harrison Medical Center in critical condition, receiving their excellent care.”
Port Townsend girls basketball coach Randy Maag said Friday that he was told on Thursday night that she had died.
Jim Eldridge, Chimacum boys basketball coach, said Friday: “Everybody in the gym thought she was gone.”
Port Townsend Athletic Director Patrick Kane, who was not present for the girls game, said Friday that on Thursday night, he was under the impression that she was in grave condition.
On Thursday night, Port Townsend senior post Kerri Evalt, the game’s high scorer with 15 points and three assists, said: “It was hard because I knew what was going through their minds.”
“You just know the pain they are feeling. For them to come out and play is just an incredible thing that takes a lot of emotional strength.
“Their eyes were all red before the game started while we were warming up and you could tell they had just been crying.
“It was hard to see that.”
Just three days earlier, Mallori scored 45 points (possibly a Chimacum record) in a 62-47 win over Orting.
The next morning, her mother was taken to Harrison Medical Center.
Along with Mallori, two other Chimacum starters — Cydney Nelson and Olivia Baird — were unable to make the Cowboys’ game against Port Townsend.
Still, the Cowboys decided to play on; even issuing a team statement over the public address before the game that they were playing for Jodi.
“They were all serious, they were pretty aggressive,” Evalt said, “and you could just tell they were playing their hearts out for her.”
Indeed, emotions ran high throughout much of the game.
There were players taken off the court in tears on more than one occasion after injuries and there was also a halftime outburst from Chimacum head coach Brad Burlingame.
The Cowboys’ leader actually stormed into the Port Townsend locker room during the break and confronted a Redskin player for supposedly taunting his team.
It turned out to be a misunderstanding, and one that had Burlingame feeling like he had egg on his face after the game.
“This was my worst day ever as a coach,” said Burlingame. “I acted really out of line at halftime. I really screwed up.
“Now on top of the circumstance and the unpleasantness I have to make miles of apologies. So, bad day for me, bad day for everybody, worse day for the Cossells, though.”
Chimacum actually surged ahead of the Redskins in the first five minutes of the first quarter, racing out to a 10-5 lead thanks to a pair of Lauren Thacker 3-pointers.
Thacker finished with a team-high 12 points and eight rebounds.
Port Townsend then closed out the quarter on an 8-0 run punctuated by two Evalt baskets and a free throw that put the game at 13-10.
The Redskins would never trail again, outscoring Chimacum 15-5 in the second quarter and never looking back.
The win put Port Townsend (10-11 overall) into another loser-out pigtail at Cedar Park Christian on Saturday at 6 p.m.
The winner of that game moves on to the 1A Tri-District double-elimination bracket.
Port Townsend’s celebration was subdued, however, because of the somber mood that hovered over the night.
“I told the girls before the game that we had to be sensitive to the situation,” Port Townsend head coach Randy Maag said. “Our girls had a tough time. They really did.
“It wasn’t good. I’m glad it’s over. I’m glad nobody got hurt, and I just wish [Chimacum] the best. I don’t know what else to say.”
The Cowboys (7-14) will graduate two players (Lauren Graham and Cailey Snyder) from this year’s team.
Burlingame said he hopes to come back and coach them again next year.
“Mallori has become as precious to me as one of my own kids,” Burlingame said. “It’s like coaching [former Quilcene stars] Nate [Burlingame] or Erin [Burlingame] again.
“She’s bright, she’s always happy. I’m just dedicated to her, her friends and the Chimacum kids. I’ve just fallen in love with both of them.
“I feel like I let them down today. I wasn’t the coach they expected me to be, so I’ve got some work to do.”
Port Townsend 47, Chimacum 28
Chimacum 10 5 5 8 — 28
Port Townsend 13 15 17 2 — 47
Chimacum (28)
Ka. Castillo 3, Graham 2, Thacker 12, Snyder 2, Hathaway 6, Kr. Castillo 3.
Port Townsend (47)
Johnson 3, Whipple 2, Evalt 15, Maag 8, Dowdle 9, Fox 4, Hallinan 3, Hossack 1, Phillips 2.
Boys Basketball Coupeville 49, Port Townsend 41
PORT TOWNSEND — The Wolves didn’t just bring a big crowd to Thursday night’s loser-out 1A Tri-District playoff. They brought the Hammer, too.
Senior Hunter Hammer hit 4 of 4 shots in the fourth quarter, including three straight during an 8-0 run, to help Coupeville eliminate the Redskins from postseason play.
The 6-foot-7 post finished with a game-high 19 points and 11 rebounds, as he led the Wolves to a dramatic come-from-behind victory over Port Townsend (8-14).
“It’s tough to let that one slip away,” Port Townsend head coach Tom Webster said.
“We’re a heavy senior-laden team and this was their last game at home, and we certainly had opportunities.”
Indeed, Coupeville (10-12) had to rally from a 13-point third-quarter deficit to earn the win in front of their 200-strong fans Thursday night.
Employing a 2-3 zone late in the second quarter, the Wolves stymied a Port Townsend attack that had assisted on 8 of 11 baskets in the first half for a 23-15 edge.
Redskin posts Jacob DeBerry and Matt Juran — who combined for 18 first-half points — were no longer able to get many good looks inside against the packed-in zone.
And with Port Townsend unable to knock down many outside shots in the third quarter, the Wolves closed out the frame on a 15-0 run punctuated by an Ian Smith 3-pointer at the buzzer that gave them a 30-28 lead.
It was Coupeville’s first advantage since midway through the first quarter.
“We finally did get to their shooters and it kind of took them out of their offensive motion,” Coupeville coach Randy King said.
“We were having a lot of trouble with their kids popping off screens [on our man defense in the first half] and they really did a nice job stepping up and shooting. And we weren’t scoring, so we needed something to get some stops.
“It’s always a gamble [with the zone], you’re kind of hoping they miss, and fortunately for us it paid off tonight.”
After the lead changed hands three times to being the fourth, Hammer scored on a putback and back-to-back turnaround jumpers to put Coupeville ahead 42-38.
The Wolves scored on a long back-door inbounds play from Smith to Tyler King 45 seconds later, and the Redskins never recovered.
Five fourth-quarter turnovers and 1-of-4 shooting from beyond the arc during that time certainly didn’t help matters.
“I thought we executed pretty well against their man-to-man stuff,” Webster said. “But their zone . . . we did an OK job sometimes of getting it inside, but then we started shooting a lot of 3s, and we go pretty loose with the basketball at the very end when we were still in it.
“We had just some poor decisions with our passing game that led to ultimately empty trips even after timeouts and things like that. We’re usually pretty good that way, but tonight we weren’t.
“You have to give credit to their big guy. He did make some tough shots.”
DeBerry finished with a team-high 12 points and 10 rebounds, while Juran had 11 points and six boards. Seiji Thielk added eight points, while Habtamu Rubio had three points and five assists.
All four are seniors for the Redskins (8-13), who will graduate six players total from this year’s team.
“Our whole team put a lot of hard work in this year,” Webster said. “You don’t play man-to-man defense 99.9 percent of the time without putting a lot of hard work in.
“I was hoping our season would extend but I’m real proud of our season. We represented ourselves well in the Olympic League.”
Coupeville 49, Port Townsend 41
Coupeville 7 8 15 19 — 49
Port Townsend 8 15 5 13 — 41
Coupeville (49)
Miranda 3, Hayes 9, Smith 12, King 6, Hammer 19.
Port Townsend (41)
Rubio 3, Thielk 8, Solvik 5, Ristick 2, Juran 11, DeBerry 12.
