LJ g VB: Back to life

By Ed Piper

Having seen La Jolla's loss in the Open Division playoffs and not realizing Coach Kelly Drobeck's Vikings would move on to state regionals, I almost made a big boo-boo by prematurely writing the epitaph--though positive--for the season after last weekend.

But, with Drobeck's revitalized squad, carrying a dominating 28-5 record, on the verge of entering the regionals Thurs., Nov. 1, I can still sum up the triumph that this season has already been: The girls volleyball program has been restored to excellence.

Last year, in Drobeck's initial season at La Jolla High after more than 15 CIF championships at Cathedral Catholic, her team struggled to a 4-21 record, bearing no resemblance to any of the squads she coached at her alma mater. (She starred in volleyball and softball at USDHS, Cathedral's predecessor.)

After a year of thinking about it, Drobeck set a different tone from the first day of tryouts in August: "We're going to bump it up a little," she told this reporter while her players ran stairs in the football stadium. No returner was guaranteed a place on the team. She declared that once a player entered the gym, "There's not going to be anything else going on except practice," or words to that effect. No more hanging out, socializing, taking it easy.

Voices were heard during that long slog of a season last year: "I don't see the fire (to make the team competitive)." "She had the top athletes at Cathedral. Maybe she can't win without elite players."

She had proven herself at the private religious school. But that was in the past, and that wasn't at La Jolla. So no one at LJHS had witnessed the day-to-day preparation, dedication, the grit behind the smile.

You see, Kelly Drobeck always has a smile on her face. She doesn't look like a killer. But this season, in setting a new tone, she righted the ship and moved the Viking volleyball program back into Open Division-level play.

The San Diego Section portion of the season ended abruptly Sat., Oct. 27, with a straight-set loss to Scripps Ranch, 3-0, the opening round of the CIF playoffs. But a play-in game Nov. 1 as a prelude to the state regionals means further vindication, and the stamp of quality on the program.

Nice job, Kelly. You've proven yourself.

The greatest beneficiaries of the new, recouped tone are the girls themselves. Leyla Blackwell, who anchors the middle, returned from an outstanding sophomore year for yet another season of great play. Maya Gessner, a lefty setter/hitter who peps everybody up, helped build positive chatter and formed part of the leadership core.

One of the hardest things the veteran coach had to do was cull through her troops and, frankly, eliminate a few players from last year's team. The team attitude had to be different. And it was, not just in the number of wins but in the teammate-oriented feistiness of the squad.

You could see evidence of that early in the season, as the wins piled up against a single loss. Gessner's a yakker. Blackwell, though not a big talker, told her teammates in the huddle during one match, "Let's keep our focus on what we're doing." Alex Dinofia, only a sophomore, moved in as libero and added considerable talk and energy--a new spirit was injected.

The demands of running bleachers in August, the sterner tone--though Drobeck still does it collegially, with a smile on her face--the new roster, all contributed toward a successful rebuild. Hopefully, the result is young women experiencing the fruits of their hard work as they achieve success, and carrying that into other parts of their lives. That's the ultimate goal.