LJ g VB: Drobeck

New Viking volleyball coach Kelly Drobeck (far

left) evaluates younger talent in her new program

in tryouts Tues., Aug. 16, on the LJHS campus.

(Photo by Ed Piper)

By Ed Piper

Kelly Drobeck won an astounding 15 CIF titles in 17 years as girls volleyball coach at USDHS/Cathedral Catholic High.

She was busy Tues., Aug. 16, at her new work site--La Jolla High's gym--screening what looked like younger, more inexperienced players for her new Viking volleyball program.

And it hasn't been a pretty welcome, facilities-wise. At least, not so far. The gym complex on Westbourne is being refurbished, with reported repairs to the leaky roof and now patches and new paint to the exterior, which is still in a state of disrepair as we speak (read?).

Hot tar was steaming outside, with its accompanying rich aromas. But inside, Drobeck reportedly was in the second day of creating a sweet aroma in a second day of tryouts, after the gym was not ready to be occupied last Wed., Aug. 10, the scheduled start of tryouts.

The facilities will be enhanced once all the work closing the gym the entire summer has been completed. The new surface on the football field, another part of the LJHS sports complex's uplift, appears to be ready. Football coach Matt Morrison said his team gets to take that field for practice Mon., Aug. 22, for the first time.

The softball field received a fresh, new artificial surface in time for last season's play, though new dugouts--ample in space--were lacking end walls or gates facing home plate to protect players on the respective benches from balls flying off the bat only a short distance away. Hopefully, that will be corrected before the 2017 season.

Meanwhile, the rest of the improvements at Edwards Stadium are a work in progress: coaches offices, boys locker room, concession stand, and one other building along the west side of the football field. The visiting stands between new buildings have been in place since last school year.

At last writing, the layer to be added on top of the old track surface was yet to be applied. That should be a beautiful blanket to behold once it is in place.

Field hockey coach Lisa Griffiths said Muirlands will continue to be her team's home field, giving it stability and reliability. But the Vike hockeyers will play some games on the Edwards Stadium surface, which she said will be special.

A discussion ensued over the quality of facilities for girls at different schools. She said at her previous school that her teams were sidled off to a side field. A reporter recalled the disastrous surface that used to exist at San Dieguito Academy, before the new stadium was constructed at the west end of campus.

Viking hockey players were put in danger by sometimes swampy conditions on the old SDA field. The playing surface was uneven, and you could tell the field was kind of an afterthought which no football team would be subjected to. Now that is all better with the stadium SDA built a couple of years ago on the same site.

Hilltop High could be a wonder, with Kristin Jones' Viking girls soccer team forced to play a game last year on grass, which they weren't used to, but also on a severely uneven surface. There were holes spotted around the field, and as you got nearer to the home sideline, you got into more danger of spraining an ankle or tweaking a knee in any one of several unintended hazards.

Back home on Fay Ave., athletic director Paula Conway's program's facilities are looking better and better. Drobeck, though not distracted by peripheral issues to her program which are out of her control anyway, will enjoy her first season at LJHS with all these aesthetic and functional improvements.

Her team has its only scrimmage Thurs., Aug. 25, at 3:30 p.m. at home.