By Ed Piper, Jr.
Lisa Griffiths, who headed La Jolla's field hockey program for two years, has stepped down from her position and moved with her husband to Denver for his new job.
"I've already picked up another school to help coach at this year," said Griffiths, who coached at Clairemont High for one year before La Jolla Athletic Director Paula Conway plucked her away to come to La Jolla in 2015. Griffiths, an Australian by birth, worked in financial management during her time in San Diego.
"The team is in good hands," said the former coach. "Amanda Warford, who runs the club Coastal Clash, is taking over from me and with her, this program is going to explode!"
La Jolla has had good athletes the last several years, including many under Conway, who directly preceded Griffiths, whom she hired. But the Vikings have never had a feeder program starting at the middle school level, as do Serra and Scripps Ranch, the powers in field hockey in San Diego County.
As a result, while the girls have been able to run, and are very competitive, they have lacked the polished stick skills that are mandatory for La Jolla to get over the hump to compete against the elite teams on an even level.
Without the years of experience required to perfect the ability to handle the field hockey stick, players on offense are often limited in their ability to attack by dribbling through traffic and forging their way aggressively to the net to score.
Griffiths, with her full-time employment around her school coaching, wasn't able to devote her time or expertise to the building of a youth program for girls in the area.
She will be missed by the girls, who quickly bonded with her warm manner and willingness to act as sort of a "big sister" in the coaching role, a contrast to Conway's manner, which comes with an extremely high level of skill and competitive experience and which to the high school girls comes more from above as the authoritative parental figure, rather than a friend type of role. There are definitely advantages to both types of coaching.
The great advantages the La Jolla program enjoys are that Conway can act as a kind of mentor to the younger coach and from time to time, as she did during Griffiths' short stay, pop in to coach the girls during a match or two to augment what the coach is doing.
No comments:
Post a Comment