It’s not that coach Sam Navarez lacks confidence in his Gilroy
High girls’ volleyball team
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It’s not that coach Sam Navarez lacks confidence in his Gilroy High girls’ volleyball team.
In fact, he predicts the Mustangs will return to the Central Coast Sectionals, where they advanced to last year’s quarterfinals before losing to Piedmont Hills.
“I think it’s just more of the unknown factor,” said Navarez, who enters his third year as GHS head coach. “We lost four top-notch seniors … and they’ve left some big shoes to fill.”
Last year, all of those seniors – Lourelle Palao, Raquel Lucente, Yanina Gonzalez and Kassie Thomas – were either first- or second-team selections in the Tri-County Athletic League.
And more importantly, they led the Mustangs to their first CCS appearance in 12 years.
“They were four really strong leaders … basically carried this team for the last two years,” Navarez said. “So the older girls we have now really didn’t feel they had to be all that vocal in the past.
“Now it’s time to emerge from the shadows.”
To do that, the group of five seniors – Kendall Costa, Michelle DiFiord and Amanda Link on the front row and Amy Trujillo and Shanna Silivera on the back – will have to maintain the team-oriented leadership of last season, Navaraz said.
“Every successful team has to have two things: a strong sense of the team-concept and a lack of team dissension,” he said. “We definitely had both last year.”
If the preseason is any indication, they appear to be set in those two areas again this year.
“The group has bonded quite well … the comraderie seems to be there,” Navarez said. “I’ve been very, very pleased with that.”
Granted, the team is fairly inexperienced. When the Mustangs begin their season with Tuesday’s home match against Alvarez, they’ll lineup one sophomore, three juniors and three seniors.
However, this year’s seniors enter their final season with much less experience than last year’s class, Navarez noted.
“Even though many of them return from varsity, their court time has been somewhat limited,” he said. “It’s not a worry or really a concern … I just wish we could get the competition started.”
Once the season does get underway, promising players like sophomore power hitter Kayla Meavell and the pair of setters – junior Katherine Hussey and sophomore Jennifer Smith – will have the opportunity to show off more than just their talent.
“These girls can play ball – they know what they’re doing. But will they be able to function together during a game? Will they have confidence in each other?
“I think they will. I have high hopes for this team.”
