This is my third and final year as a Cuyamaca Coyote, and I've experienced a lot. I played my first, redshirted my second, and am now leaving it all out on the court for my third, and last. I went into this year not even expecting us to have a team. There were only two other girls coming back, and they weren't so sure either. I told my academic counselor, Sophia Romeri, to keep me posted. First week of July, I get a text from my mom saying the new coach called, and an email from Sophia saying that the coach wants to talk to me. I was excited, nervous, and scared. My first two years as a Coyote weren't easy. Our team struggled to come together and become one, I struggled with various injuries, and we had some tough stuff happen. But after a phone call, I was hooked. The first day of summer practice was the best practice that I've ever had at Cuyamaca College. There was nothing extravagant about it, but it was exactly what our program had been missing. We had a coach who was committed to making us better volleyball players, we had girls who wanted to be there, and we had this unity that I hadn't seen before.
It's hard to see everything that we have going for us when you look at our record. My first year, we were 0-22. My second year, they only won one game. But for me, I've never let the record define how I play. It's not about the win or the loss that goes down in the scorebook, but the effort that was put forth. I can say that, without a doubt, these girls give it their all. We've definitely made some teams angry because we're still smiling and playing hard even if the scoreboard says that we should've given up already. One day, we'll get those wins. We've already started to, and we're not going to stop. Cuyamaca has come a long way, and I know the program still has so much more ahead of it. Coach Dave sees our potential more than anyone, and he is the first one there to encourage us and motivate us to be better and play harder.
To the recruits out there who are reading this, I encourage you to come see this all for yourself. Come to practice, talk with coach, meet the girls, talk to Sophia. (Honestly, she is the best academic counselor out there, and a huge life saver, and always has your back, and wants the best for all her athletes. Truly amazing! She helped me keep my sanity on more than one occasion.) I promise you won't regret it. You can't let a team be defined by their record, there are so many more things to a team than the wins and the losses. It's the process. This is one of Coach's favorite words, but it's perfect. There is a process that every team has to go through. The ups and the downs, the road trips, the practices, the "ah-ha" moments; all of it is part of the process. And at Cuyamaca, it's changing, and it looks really, really promising.