By Ed Piper
We're in the second year of the Amanda Combs Warford era at La Jolla High. And we're starting the second year post-Jane Morrill, the coach who built Scripps Ranch into an area field hockey power over the past two decades.
That was apparent to people attending the two teams' season opener in Edwards Stadium Thursday afternoon, August 30, as Viking returners Morgan Hansen and Reagan Jetter and their teammates battled the visiting Falcons on close to even terms for much of the game, finally yielding a second goal with 4:07 left in the contest to succumb 2-0 to the number-three ranked team in the county.
But it was the continually improving stick skills on the La Jolla side that made the game the fight it was. Formerly, the Vikings might have showed athleticism, and played tough defense, yet fall 5-0. Sometimes on bad days, 8-0, to either Scripps or Serra, the two area powerhouses.
Not on this day. None of the Viking forwards could push the ball through for a goal, but no one was hanging their heads on the red-and-black side after the conclusion.
Said Combs, "That's was the number-three team in the county. I would have been happy with 1-0, but" (we still played well).
And that's why the second-year coach scheduled the Falcons for a non-league opening matchup, despite the fact the two teams are Western League opponents and square off in league Oct. 17 and Nov. 2. Usually, coaches avoid scheduling league opponents in the pre-league schedule.
The whole idea is to challenge her field hockey players from the beginning, as the Vikings have already been practicing nearly three weeks in intensive strategy and skills workouts, some days the first two weeks with double workouts a day.
It appears Combs, who is assisted by her husband Tucker, is investing the 40 hours she invests every week in field hockey to build the La Jolla program to be an Open Division-worthy team. Her involvement with Coastal Clash, the club team she and her husband run, means she is coaching the same girls through much of the year. And that signals constant development.
La Jolla never had a girls development program before. Now, ninth-graders are beginning to arrive in high school with stick skills and game concepts already under their belts. It points to a season this fall that will better the Vikings' 13-11 record of a year ago, though making it to the Division 1 finals like last year will require persistent work by not only Hansen and Jetter, who played hard Thursday in the loss, but also fellow returning starters Kate Hartford, Isabella Jamieson Morris, Caeley Hickson Long, Serene Liu, and goalie Bridget Ballo, among others.
"We picked it up in the second half," said Combs right after the game, before talking to her team in the post-game huddle. She said she told her players to play a more free style in the second half, and it showed with better movement. Combs didn't indicate disappointment in her team's performance--quite the opposite.
La Jolla has several other outstanding teams coming up on the pre-league schedule, including La Costa Canyon, Rancho Bernardo, Torrey Pines, and others.
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