LJ winter sports: Scheduling, cont.

By Ed Piper, Jr.

Continuing the train of thought of my previous post, on new so-called "equity" alignments of leagues, Coach Kristin "Jonesy" Jones' girls soccer team will play a veritable plethora of home games this winter on La Jolla's new surface--after two full years of away games.

Jonesy pointed out last winter, as construction continued on the renovation of facilities in and around Edwards Field on campus, that she had begun scheduling games on the road the previous season--2014-15.

This was because early thinking on the sports facilities' makeover was for construction to begin long before March 2015, one of the spoken starting dates. That would have impacted the girls' soccer season, which runs from December through February. Can't do with no field.

The groundbreaking actually happened right after graduation ceremonies June 18, 2105, three months later even than the supposed March date. My understanding unofficially was that the new press box was added to the previous proposal, so approval was delayed and the resulting construction date was likewise postponed.

So, Jonesy plied the highways and byways of San Diego County to get to her team's matches not only throughout last year's schedule, but also the year before.

Two years in exile. (Sounds like an album title: "Exile on Pearl St." a la the Rolling Stones' "Exile on Main St.")

Now, Jonesy, just completing her coaching at UCSD with the Triton men in the fall, has to be sitting "fat and happy" looking down the barrel of--not one, not two, not seven, but 13 home games on the new turf, from a count of her team's schedule currently posted on the school website.

These are unheard-of riches!

Last season, the Vikings suffered the lingering injury of forward Phoebe Riley, that greatly affected their offensive firepower.

Phoebe played by the end of last season, and is well, at last report. She graduated and went on to greener college pastures. So that's in the past for La Jolla.

With returners having another year of seasoning and growth, which is so phenomenal at the teenagers' young age from year-to-year, a traditionally strong program should be in that much better of a position. And without the wear-and-tear of having to sludge through increasingly congested San Diego traffic.