After a 31-1 pool campaign, what now for DHS girls?
Coming off a 31-1 season that saw Davis High School graduate seven senior girls water polo stars, Blue Devil coach Doug Wright knows his crew has some work to do if it wants to win the school’s third consecutive Sac-Joaquin Section crown.
“Getting the young players confident in games will be a key,” explains Wright, entering his 16th season. “That makes our first 10 games all the more important. I don’t care if we win. I want to make sure we get third in league so we go to sections — and win four games at the end.”
Gone to graduation are frontline standouts Keelia Houston, Rachel Brooks, Elsie Fullerton and Hannah Levien.
Knowing that, many coaches might sit and sob over their losses; not so Doug Wright.
There remains a wealth of experienced veterans to send Davis on its way to an unprecedented ninth CIF championship…
Starting with netminder Haley Cameron.
Now a senior, Cameron divides her time between the water polo cage and smacking softballs out of the park during the spring.
“My prediction is she’ll be the top goalie in the section,” Wright says, noting that Cameron was one of the top two area keepers each of the previous two seasons. “She should be unbelievable. Her passing is great and she blocks a lot of shots.”
Then there are defenders Zoe Malot, Hailey Wright and, sometimes, Rachel Johnson or freshman Colby Stapleton.
“Defensively, I think we’re bringing back one of our best teams,” the coach believes.
That’s very bad news for the rest of the region.
It’s on offense, where Fullerton swam tall in the middle, that the Blue Devils will have an entirely new look.
“Without a dominant center, we’ll see a lot of RJ (Johnson), Zoe and Hailey driving to the cage. Really, no one can stop them,” coach Wright continues. “And we’ll put one of our top players in front of the goal.
“We’ll do a lot of shucking and jiving where we’ll have everybody set up in an umbrella and drive — trying to make it really difficult for people to keep up.”
In Stapleton and Mara Dominguez, Wright has a couple of versatile ninth-graders, and the coach says he’s delighted with his sophomores, Katie Van Deynze, Madison Weimer, Alicia Demaree, Annie Bowers, Claire Evans and back-up goalie Marina Mobley.
With only four seniors — Yelda Eser, Cameron, Malot and Wright — Devil fans also can expect emerging roles from sophomores Heather Johnson (Rachel’s sister) and Lauren Owens.
Wright is the first to admit there’s room for everybody at Arroyo Pool.
“We can’t worry right now whether we’ll be ready for section or not until we get there,” the varsity mentor explained. “The last couple of nights, the (girls) have been training really hard. If we fall this year, it will not be for lack of effort … it will be because we weren’t quite able to get our younger players to where they needed to be.
“But I don’t foresee that happening.”
And neither do rivals like St. Mary’s or St. Francis.
Notes: DHS girls just returned from a retreat at Lassen. Wright was delighted with the bonding. …The Devils have focused on fundamentals and conditioning in the first couple of practice weeks. “We just got balls in the pool (on Tuesday),” says the coach, who is assisted by UC Davis standouts Dakotah Mohr and Ariel Feeney. Amanda Lilliedoll also coaches — and all three are former Davis High players. The Devils host Miramonte, Woodcreek, St. Mary’s and Del Oro on Saturday at Arroyo Pool, beginning at 8 a.m. On Monday, DHS scrimmages at Johansen before traveling to Vintage for its first official match on Wednesday. The girls aren’t home until conference begins on Wednesday, Sept. 28, versus Franklin (3:45 p.m.).
— Reach Bruce Gallaudet at bgallaudet@davisenterprise.net or (530) 747-8047.
Short URL: http://www.davisenterprise.com/?p=77389
Posted by Bruce Gallaudet
on Sep 1 2011.
Last Login: Tue 22 May 2012 11:46:20 PM PDT
Filed under Aquatics, Blue Devils, Sports. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry
