BY NATE KOTISSO | STAFF WRITER
DONNA — Coach Ofelia Griffith has many reasons to be positively giddy about her Edcouch-Elsa (2-3) team entering the 2017 campaign.
“One of the things that we’re depending on, and it’s been a few years since I’ve had this many, is our five seniors,” Griffith said. “I’m counting on them to continue playing the way they always have.”
Griffith brings back a bevy of experience with right-side hitter Ashley Galarza, defensive specialists Madeline Acevedo and Odessa Mata, middle backer Sieanna Ortiz and libero Jackie Alvarado. Galarza, Acevedo and Alvarado each played 100 or more sets in 2016.
After clinching 13 playoff appearances and seven district titles in her first 14 years, Griffith is hopeful her 15th season will be an embarrassment of riches not because of her seniors, but due to an emerging junior outside hitter.
The 2016 season marked the official arrival of outside hitter Paloma Ybarra. The Yellow Jackets were forced to shuffle their lineup several times due to injuries to Mata, Alvarado and Ortiz, and Ybarra shined as a sophomore, leading the team in kills (372) and garnering 2016 District 32-5A Offensive Player of the Year honors as the Yellow Jackets won a bi-district championship.
In the gradual professionalizing of high school-level amateur athletics, volleyball has become a year-round sport. Edcouch-Elsa’s success on the court, however, hasn’t been predicated on travel players entering the program.
“For us, we have only one girl now who plays club, and it’s Paloma,” Griffith said. “Throughout the years, I’ve had one girl who did here and there about every other year. The team we took to the regional round didn’t have any club girls at all. We’d have to go back to 2012 to find another girl who played with a club.”
Ybarra is a member of the RGV Venom travel team.
“It’s great, because all my teammates there are the best in the Valley,” Ybarra said. “I had to compete with them just to earn a spot on the team, and it’s helped me translate with Edcouch-Elsa.”
Ybarra notched 29 kills in three matches in the 2017 Donna ISD Varsity Tournament versus Rio Grande City, Lyford and San Benito on Friday. The Yellow Jackets wound up winning the first two of their three Friday matchups. In E-E’s five matches thus far in 2017, Ybarra has registered 52 kills and 13 assists.
“Paloma’s been putting in the work,” Edcouch-Elsa assistant coach Ceasar Salinas said. “She’s laid back and knows her role on the team. With her experience, it’s almost like Paloma is a sixth senior out there. She deserves every accolade she’s achieved so far, and we’re excited to have her for another two years.”
If it wasn’t for travel ball, Ybarra said she wouldn’t feel like the player she is today.
“A year ago, my confidence wasn’t there as a player,” Ybarra said. “Now I feel stronger than ever with the teammates I have around me here at Edcouch.”