MARIO AGUIRRE | STAFF WRITER
Considering its youth and inexperience, Grulla coach Cita Jimenez has a difficult time projecting where her team might finish this season.
She has a relatively small number (eight) of the players on her roster, and only half of those are returners. But the fifth-year coach feels comfortable with the direction of her program, having helped groom each player since their freshman season.
“Our foundation is finally setting the tone,” Jimenez said. “I feel like we’re in a good place. The girls are being competitive and putting everything together.”
The Lady Gators kept busy this offseason with spring and summer tournaments, hoping to accelerate some of the learning process. It’s too early to tell how it’ll ultimately play a role in the team’s success later this season. But Jimenez said she was pleased with what she’s seen so far, after Grulla swept Santa Rosa and Santa Maria in tri-match action Wednesday.
“I think we’re in the right place right now conditioning-wise,” she said. “We’re sore but we’re just going out there, trying to be active.”
It’s unclear yet whether Jimenez will eventually promote someone from her JV roster to help fill out her varsity roster. She said she’s hesitant to do that because she prefers to have someone play consistently on JV, rather than play sparingly on varsity.
Still, she said, there are four to five juniors on JV that could potentially get a look down the road this season. For now, the focus is on chemistry-building. It’ll be the point of emphasis this week, when the Lady Gators take part in the Zapata Tournament.
Perhaps more than those results, Jimenez wants to see her team come together, with Alexia Andrade, an outside hitter, emerging as the leader. She referred to her team captain (and class valedictorian) as a “motivator” and said she could very well become team’s primary scoring threat.
With Evelyn Zarate, a junior setter, and senior Michelle Salazar, Jimenez hopes she has the trio in place that can help the program grow, with district only a few weeks away.
“We have to be mentally and physically prepared soon,” she said. “This is why we took the approach we did in the spring and summer, because if the seniors want to make the playoffs, the time to push is now.”
COMING TOGETHER
Despite boasting eight returners on a 13-player roster, McAllen High coach Paula Dodge said her team will need some time to mesh. The Lady Bulldogs will carry a blend of incoming players with seasoned veterans, some of whom gained new experiences and habits in summer leagues.
The challenge now comes in building continuity as McAllen High prepares to compete in the Poundfest Tournament today.
“I think tournaments are a time for us to start improving from where we are and coming together as a group,” she said. “We did play some games (in the offseason). Actually, a mixture of girls were on summer league teams. And now we just need to adjust and adapt to their skills and stay in shape.”
Dodge said she was “really excited” to see the tournament lineup, boasting what she believed were some of the better teams in the Valley, with Los Fresnos, the McAllen schools, Brownsville Rivera and Brownsville Veterans Memorial.
“Those are some of the best teams in the Valley,” she said. “Obviously not all of them are going to play. But when you look at their rankings, it’s exciting. There’ll be a lot of great volleyball going on.”
TAKING FORM
Donna High coach Cindy Viesca remembers when the Donna Tournament hosted more than 40 teams on the opening week of the season. While the Poundfest Tournament has lured away some of the competition, slicing that figure in half, Viesca said the tournament still serves as something of an early season barometer for those participating.
“We’ve got some good quality teams coming in,” she said, pointing to Harlingen High, Harlingen South, Edcouch-Elsa and Edinburg High, the reigning tournament champions. “This’ll help us get ready for the longer matches we’ll be facing (later in the season). Being that our district is so competitive, we’ll be in situations where we’ll probably have to go five sets. So endurance is part of it.”
Having scrimmaged against Edinburg High, Viesca said the Lady Bobcats “looked pretty good” and she expects them to be in contention to defend their tournament title.