Gina Sanders faces one of the toughest tasks of her coaching
career in selecting Live Oak’s captains for the 2011 field hockey
season. In this case, that’s a good problem to have. The leading
candidates include seven seniors who were critical in last year’s
run to the Central Coast Section quarterfinals, the Acorns’ first
playoff appearance since 2006. Three of them made first- or
second-team all-Santa Teresa Division. Two have been approached by
NCAA Division I programs
MORGAN HILL
Gina Sanders faces one of the toughest tasks of her coaching career in selecting Live Oak’s captains for the 2011 field hockey season.
In this case, that’s a good problem to have. The leading candidates include seven seniors who were critical in last year’s run to the Central Coast Section quarterfinals, the Acorns’ first playoff appearance since 2006. Three of them made first- or second-team all-Santa Teresa Division. Two have been approached by NCAA Division I programs.
“I’m very proud of everything they’ve accomplished,” Sanders said Wednesday as her team hustled through warm-up drills, unaffected by the triple-digit weather. “I really look at my seniors for great leadership. Every one of them brings something different to the table in their abilities, their skills, their mentality and their motivation. They’re just doing really good things.”
That the captaincy is far down on many of the seniors’ lists of expectations for 2011 speaks to the team’s unity — and its potential.
Section playoffs were the ultimate goal a year ago, with Live Oak coming off three straight near misses under Sanders. This year they are an expectation.
“That’s the bar for us,” fourth-year starting midfielder Kirsten Doting said. “As seniors, we want to raise it.”
The Acorns have the talent, chemistry and moxie to do just that. They return their entire starting midfield of all-leaguers Anisha Patel, Doting and Michaela Swensen, a second-team honoree, to go with four experienced forwards Marisa Faust, Megan Rauschnot, Danielle Horning and junior Sydney Barker.
Melissa Sigona, a senior, returns for her second year starting in the cage.
“She’s a workhorse,” Sanders said. “She was great for us last year, and she’ll be great for us again.”
What they lack in experience on the backline, where underclassmen Hanna Doting and Emily Guthormson are expected to start next to fresh faces, the Acorns more than make up with their prized midfield.
Swensen, Doting and Patel are in their third year playing together.
“They have speed, size, skill; it’s incredible watching them,” said Sanders, now in her fourth year as coach. “Michaela has great elimination skills and a great hit. Kirsten has phenomenal game. She can hit the whole field. Then there’s Anisha, too. She’s so skilled. She tries so many new things because she wants to be able to beat someone all the time no matter what she’s doing.
“I honestly think this midfield can hold the team together.”
Live Oak returns to the Santa Teresa Division it led for a good portion of 2010 before tailing off and finishing third.
Sanders doesn’t expect her team to win a league title necessarily. But the Acorns could be primed to do so after grueling nonconference games against A league programs Archbishop Mitty, Leigh, Presentation, Gilroy and St. Francis — whom they open the season against Thursday — not to mention their annual rivalry match with Sobrato.
“The past four years we’ve had really tough schedules, and I wouldn’t have it any other way,” Sanders said. “The expectation isn’t to win. The expectation is to implement what I’m teaching them. And based on what I’m teaching them, they should prevail against their competition.”
Sobrato coach Jessica Naranjo needed only to see her team take the field for its first couple of practices to become optimistic about 2011.
The Bulldogs drew an average of 18 to 20 players a day during summer workouts, culminating in a program-high turnout of 37 for tryouts in early August.
Where there is dedication, there is success.
“There’s a lot of motivation, a lot of positive attitudes,” Naranjo said following Tuesday’s practice at Sobrato High School.
Naranjo’s second offseason as SHS coach has gone off without a hitch, thanks to a committed group of players and their families.
Veterans, such as Kate van Keulen, Allie Bondi and Naranjo’s sister, Amanda, a senior, began recruiting players at the end of last season and helped organize practices in summer.
The Bulldogs have had good turnouts as well at booster meetings.
“Having parent support right off the bat has really helped,” Naranjo said. “I tell them their daughters are showing a lot of effort and will. They just want to play.”
Before they open the season Thursday at Leland, the Bulldogs first have to replace several starters from last year’s team that placed fifth in the West Valley Division. They have a good foundation with van Keulen, a third-year starting center-midfielder; Caitlin Ryman, a 2010 second-team all-league honoree at forward; and Amanda Naranjo, last year’s junior varsity captain, at center-defender.
Look for seniors Nicole Kiles and Bondi to make an impact this year, along with newcomers Monica Topete, Katrina Herrmann, Alex Diaz, June Billings and freshmen Jourdyn Alcantara and Elizabeth Tran.
“We definitely need to come together as a team fast,” Ryman said. “Because we’re not going to perform at our best if we’re not working together out there. I’d like to see us come closer more than anything this year.”
