Female Athlete Of The Year / Celeste Quitiquit, Kennedy -- Three- Sport Star A Double Winner -- `Once-In-Lifetime' Student-Athlete Repeats Honor

BURIEN - Volleyballs banged off the floor and walls, rolling into various nooks and crannies of the gym.

Most of the players ignored the scattered balls, until a coach ordered their retrieval. One freshman, though, didn't wait. She shagged one after another, eager to keep the drills going.

"Usually you have to punish a player in order to get them to shag balls. But here was this scrawny freshman always chasing down balls because she wanted to play so much," Kennedy Coach Tom Muckerheide recalled recently. "That's when I knew we might have something special in that person."

Little did he know just how special Celeste Quitiquit would be.

Quitiquit quickly became a three-sport star for the Lancers. She leaves with 11 letters in volleyball, basketball and track, and this year was voted the Seamount League's most valuable player in volleyball and basketball.

She capped her track career at the Class 3A state meet last weekend with a third-place finish in the 800 meters, an event she won as a freshman and junior, and medals in two relays - second in the 1,600 and fifth in the 400.

"She's one of those kids you never replace, one who comes along once in a lifetime," said the Rev. Mike Batterberry, Kennedy's campus minister the past 20 years.

For the second year in a row, Quitiquit is The Seattle Times South End Female Prep Athlete of the Year.

Quitiquit (pronounced KIT-ah-kit), who will attend Gonzaga on a full basketball scholarship, is as gifted academically as she is athletically - a 4.0 student who is Kennedy's co-salutatorian. And she is genuinely nice, respected by teammates and opponents alike.

"It's hard to believe she's real, but she is," Batterberry said. "That's who she is."

Someone who cares more about her reputation off the court than on it.

"I consider myself a person before I consider myself an athlete," said Quitiquit, a Eucharistic minister. "I'm off the court more than I'm on it. That is just the way I've been brought up at home and at Kennedy. It's just natural to be caring about other people."

The caring doesn't go unnoticed.

"I've never met a more balanced, all-around student-athlete in my 25 years of coaching," said Bob Bourgette, Kennedy's athletic director and head football coach. "She is loved by every student, every teacher, every coach. We're going to miss her."

Quitiquit is the queen of hustle, willing to do whatever it takes to get the job done.

"She has a will to win," said John Ruffo, a longtime teacher and statistician at the school. "Every boys sport wishes they have someone like Celeste.

"And as good as she is, she's that nice."

Don Hoffman, her basketball coach, said: "She's a rare find. I'll be lucky to coach another girl like her the rest of my life."

Quitiquit's mother, Marian, learned early that her second child would be different from other kids - Celeste didn't even let the doctor get into the room before her delivery.

"She wasn't waiting for anybody even then," Marian said. "She's always been very active. She can't sit still. She's always got to be doing something."

It isn't always easy living with a perfectionist.

"Even when she comes out first, she always finds something she could have done better, which is frustrating as a parent," her mom said. "That's what makes people who do these things do so well, because they're never satisfied."

Quitiquit leaves everything she has on the court, or on the track. At the finish of the 800 Saturday, for example, she collapsed and blacked out.

"That was scary," she said. "I don't even remember getting to the finish line."

Her mom remembers vividly.

"I don't know how she crossed that finish line," Marian said. "I saw her, and she was dead with 25 feet to go. I don't know how she got herself to cross the line, but that's the way she's always done things."

The only way she knows how. A couple of hours later, Quitiquit ran a gutsy anchor leg on the 1,600 relay, bringing the Lancers from back in the pack to second.

"The thing about Celeste is she really cares about excellence in every part of her life," Principal Jack Schuster said.

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Celeste Quitiquit / bio

High school - Kennedy (Burien).

Sports - Volleyball, basketball, track and field.

Year - Senior.

Honors/highlights - Voted the Seamount League's most valuable player in both volleyball and basketball this school year, leading her teams to the 3A state tournaments. She's a three-year starter in both sports as well as a two-time state champion in the 800 (freshman and junior years), placing third this year and fourth as a sophomore. Quitiquit has been part of six championship relays (two as a sophomore, when she also placed fifth in the open 400, and three last year) and helped the Lancers place second in the 1,600 and fifth in the 400 this spring. She leaves Kennedy with 11 athletic letters - four each in volleyball and track and three in basketball.

Academics - A 4.0 student named co-salutatorian of her class and recipient of numerous scholarship awards.

Hobbies - Enjoys being active, usually spending free time shooting baskets at a local park; also likes to spend time with her family, going for walks with her mom, and listening to music.

Personal - Parents are Marian and Gregory Quitiquit; sister Anastasia, 21, and brother Greg, 16, a junior at Kennedy.

College - Gonzaga, basketball scholarship.

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Female athletes of year

City - Nadja Morgan, Blanchet, senior - volleyball, basketball, track.

Eastside - Sara Best, Inglemoor, junior - soccer, basketball, track.

North End - Heather Reichmann, King's, senior - swimming, basketball, track.

South End - Celeste Quitiquit, Kennedy, senior - volleyball, basketball, track.

Tomorrow: Male athletes of the year.