Sobrato’s volleyball team knows it has some ground to make up in the next season.
Graduating seven of its 13 members from last year leaves a few holes that the Bulldogs will aim to fill quickly.
As Sobrato is reloading, it is also welcoming a new face at the helm of the team. Nicole Simoneau will take over this year and is already excited about the prospects in front of her.
“I am really excited. We did have a lot of seniors graduate last year,” Simoneau said. “But we have a lot of girls coming up. Some I know from previous years of coaching here at Sobrato and club.”
Simoneau is returning to Sobrato after graduating in 2008.
“I am really just ecstatic to be back here. It’s different, because as a player, there’s a whole different mindset. But as a coach, it’s going to be exciting to get back here to teach them.”
She attended San Jose State University, graduating in 2012.
Simoneau has worked as the coach of club teams and worked as a junior varsity coach before taking over as the varsity coach this year.
She said there has been good response from incoming freshmen who have been reaching out to Simoneau and have attended conditioning.
The biggest challenge facing Sobrato will come on the defensive end of the court. The Bulldogs graduated their defensive specialists, including both liberos. They also are forced to find people who can stand in the middle against other teams’ attacks.
“What I’ve noticed through conditioning is that there are a lot of girls who are defensive specialists — a lot, actually,” Simoneau said.
Sobrato is returning Jordan Westall, the lone player listed at middle blocker returning from last year, but has bounced around from the opposite and outside hitting positions.
Simoneau said the team is lacking a blocker right now, so Westall could be tapped to take over that position on a more regular basis.
The Bulldogs will also return Miranda Werts at setter, who will act as the catalyst for the attack.
“I think it’s going to be really good because we already have that offense. It’s going to help us on the defense and having the new players coming up get situated in their positions,” Werts said. “So they have one thing they need to work on. We already have the offense, so it’s just the defense that we’re just going to have to think about, which is the most important.”
Werts said it’s going to be especially important for the upper classmen, mainly the senior players of herself, Samantha Nydam and Casey Hendricks, who are both going to be hitters this year, to set an example for the rest of the team.
Nydam said she’s feeling confident in the team heading into the season, mainly because she’s been able to see some of the incoming players compete on club teams during the offseason.
“At first I was kind of nervous because we graduated eight seniors, but we kept our strong offense and a lot of the girls on the JV team were really good at playing defense last year, so I think that’s going to be a really good benefit,” Nydam said.
Sobrato is itching to improve on last season’s 15-15 overall record and build on last year’s playoff berth. The burden is going to rest on the youth of the team.
Last year, the team carried three underclassmen on a roster of 13 that also included the seven listed as seniors on Maxpreps.
Last year’s junior varsity team was also fairly young, as it was completely frosh/soph, but could help to replenish the defensive ranks left vacant by the graduating seniors.
Westall and Werts said most of the Mt. Hamilton Division teams are in the same boat, having lost a fair number of their seniors from last year.
The two exceptions being Live Oak – who lost three seniors and a foreign exchange student – and Westmont who ran away with the league last year with a 13-1 BVAL mark (22-8 overall).
This year will also feature new opponent Branham who moves up from the B division, replacing Willow Glen. Branham went 13-1 in the Santa Teresa Division and was 18-5 overall.
Simoneau said she saw through Facebook that the girls were organizing workouts on their own to gear up for the season.
“That shows me they’re all dedicated and ready to work hard,” Simoneau said.
The players would go to the Morgan Hill Centennial Recreation Center as well as taking advantage of time together through sports camps.
“Because of the camps, we would stay after and talk and just have fun with each other,” Werts said. “Then with conditioning, just getting to know some of the new players who are coming up as well as keeping in touch with people we’ve played with before.”
Sobrato will open the season against cross-town rival Live Oak.
“I think everyone takes it just a tad more seriously than a regular game just because its our town and we want to show that we’re better,” Westall said.
The team will begin tryouts on Monday, which will be Simoneau’s opportunity to look at the talent that is coming up as well as make decisions about who will play where.
Practices go 3:30-5:30 p.m. Monday through Wednesday in the Sobrato High School gym.
