BY SAUL BERRIOS-THOMAS | STAFF WRITER
HIDALGO — After Gilberto Villarreal quit as the Hidalgo volleyball coach in the middle of the 2014 season, the players started to give up, too. Hope was bleak.
Then, during the offseason, Kay Dee Benavidez was hired and things started to turn around.
“Now that we have a coach that believes in us, and doesn’t just throw away our future in volleyball, things are better,” senior middle hitter Karla Cantu said. “I feel like we owe her, because she has never given up on us before.”
Benavidez describes what she found when she came on board as a “broken team.” The Pirates had gone through three coaches in two years before she arrived.
However, she said she believed in the players and felt like she was the prefect fit to rebuild the program.
She said she just had to prove that she was different from the other coaches they had. One of the times she proved that was after Hidalgo missed the playoffs last year.
“It was a relief for her to stay, because we had a coach (Villarreal) that left mid-season because we kept losing,” Cantu said. “He was like, ‘I can’t do this anymore.’ He basically gave up on us. So she doesn’t give up on us, regardless of if we are winning or losing.
“She just makes us work harder, so the next game it can be different. She showed that by staying, even after we missed the playoffs last year.”
One of the tactics Benavidez brought was a relentless commitment to getting the players stronger.
“Coach Benavidez takes us to the weight room two or three times a week,” senior setter Stephanie Ysasi said. “She thinks that the weight room is so important, and she is right, because I’ve seen the girls improve.
“She even brings the weights to the court and makes us jump with them and that has increased every girl’s vertical. Things I’ve never done with any other coaches, she makes us do, and it has a great impact.”
The vigorous weight training started right away. That was when the players first started to buy into Benavidez.
“They weren’t very trusting at first,” Benavidez said. “They had seen coaches come and go, so they needed to see if I was going to stay first. Once I got them in the weight room and they started seeing the results, they started to believe.”
Cantu thrived in the weight room. She now takes pride in being the strongest player on the team, but she takes more pride in how strong the rest of the team is.
“Right now, we are stronger, not just me,” Cantu said. “They have impressed me so much. I’m usually the one to bench press what they squat. I say, ‘You can’t just rely on me.’ With (Vivian Chavez), I make her put on more plates. I tell her, ‘You can do more than you think. Come with me and I will make you stronger.’”
Chavez, a senior outside hitter, has gained a lot of respect for Cantu because of the way she motivates.
“She is like the mother figure of the team,” Chavez said. “Every time we are down, she tries to pick us up. She is just always there for us.”
The hard work off the court has translated to success on it.
Hidalgo finished the season 19-3,10-4 in District 32-4A, which earned it a playoff berth. Hidalgo faces Orange Grove today at 6 p.m. at Bishop High School.
“We are very excited,” Benavidez said. “We haven’t made the playoffs here in a couple of years, and this is only my second year here, so we are very excited.”
For Cantu, it will be even sweeter to prove the doubters wrong.
“Everyone gave up on us,” Cantu said. “Now we can show them that they were wrong. So, it’s just exciting that we can reward Coach with something.”