Alice Wood made bus rides seem shorter.

She would saunter aboard the bus in a faux leopard skin coat and movie-star glasses. She would get a favorite song in her head, like one by Madonna or Sixpence None the Richer, and play it a dozen times or more in a single trip. She would make up songs and cheers and games until the miles had melted effortlessly by.

When Wood died at age 20 last week, teammates, coaches and friends remembered someone who pursued rebounds, ground balls and life with equal enthusiasm.

“I think of her as ‘Miss Spirit,’” said Mari McKinstry, who joined Wood on the basketball court and fastpitch field. “On the court, she was always pumped, always trying to get people excited for the game.”

Wood may have prodded her teammates toward excitement, but she never needed such self-motivation. Once, North Kitsap Head Basketball Coach Dan Weedin recalls, Wood checked herself out of “The Big 10,” a grueling set of wind sprints that forced players to cross the gym five times. Wood had asthma, and needed to use her inhaler.

After practice had ended, Weedin was surprised to see Wood flying across the gym floor, completing the set of sprints she had promised to finish.

“I had forgotten about it,” Weedin said. “I wouldn’t have forced her to do it. But that was her work ethic.”

Wood was the leading rebounder for the Vikings and an intimidating defender, despite her relatively short (5-foot-7) height. She would throw herself after loose balls as if they were life preservers, and she would bring that enthusiasm to several sports.

She was a key member of North Kitsap’s competitive volleyball and fastpitch teams.

She was the school’s salutatorian in 2001.

She was also the female recipient of the Joe Shandera award, which is given to the top scholar-athlete in the school.

Those who knew Wood will remember more than the awards she earned.

Weedin will remember a player who, while guarding him during a winter practice, jokingly placed an elbow at his back and threatened to take him out.

Assistant Coach Melody Ejde remembers a player who smiled constantly and asked to occasionally sit on the bench so the younger players could play.

Megan Curfman, who grew up as a junior high rival of Wood but quickly became her friend, said, “I can’t imagine a single memory of high school without her.”

Wood had Crohn’s disease, a serious intestinal disorder, and the drugs used to combat it made her bones weaker. Eventually she had hip replacement surgery at Duke University.

Even when she was in a wheelchair after the surgery she was upbeat, telling her former coach how she would beat the disease, battling it like she did players three or four inches taller and 10 or 20 pounds heavier.

Complications from that surgery led to her death April 24.

“The disease won… but she didn’t go down without a fight,” Weedin said.

Many of Wood’s teammates and friends were shocked to hear of her death.

“I guess time flies, and things happen so fast,” said McKinstry.

As always, Wood left everyone around her wondering where the time went.