Roberto DeVargas knows coaching — the veteran has led the McCurdy Charter School baseball team for the past 12 seasons, so how hard could the adjustment be to take over the school’s volleyball team?
He’s already a familiar face after becoming the interim head coach last year after the firing of JuliAnn Martinez five games into the 2017 season.
It’s not the strategy or the nuances of the game he’s adjusting to — he was an assistant coach last season before taking over — it’s simply working with girls instead of boys.
“It’s coming along ,” DeVargas said. “I’m proud of the girls. It’s a lot different coaching girls than boys. I can tell the boys, ‘Hey, I love you guys,’ and they say, ‘I love you too coach,’ but the girls, I tell them every day after practice, ‘Thanks for coming out I really appreciate it, I love you guys.’ They look at me like, ‘What do you mean?’”
Even though they might not fully understand his method, the important part is the girls learning to become one unit.
“It goes a long way because it’s not so much trust, it’s family,” DeVargas said. “It’s coming together and that’s what I’m trying to do with these girls.”
Due to McCurdy’s 2017-18 school year ending later in June, DeVargas was only able to organize one summer camp for his team, who traveled to Adams State College in Alamosa, Colo. in mid-July.
“I took about 14 girls up there,” he said. “We played 12 games and won seven or eight. They learned the conditioning they needed, which was the biggest takeaway.”
Junior right side hitter Devyn Cordova said the summer months have caught up with some of the players.
“We need a little more conditioning because I think some of us are still out of shape,” she said.
DeVargas has that handled too. He’s adjusted the conditioning to sprinting before and after practice instead of running miles like previous coaches did.
Cordova will be a part of a stout front line for the Lady Bobcats that includes senior middle hitter Destiny Peabody, who stands 6 feet 2 inches, and junior Erika Loera-Avila (5-11).
“The two tall girls, Erika and Destiny will be in the front, that’s for sure,” DeVargas said about his rotation. “ The rest (of the front) will be filled out with Devyn Cordova and Daisha Vigil.”
Vigil returns after missing her entire junior season after suffering a torn anterior cruciate ligament and meniscus in her knee during her sophomore softball season. She served as a manager for the volleyball team in 2017.
“This is my primary sport other than softball, so it was really hard to just watch and not be on the court with them,” she said. “I thought it was going to be harder to recover but I feel I only came back stronger and wanting more in this season than I did in my sophomore season. I’ve found more will to be a better player.”
While the front line will be a group the Lady Bobcats can depend on, serving and setting will be the two areas of concern that will need extra work.
“Our hitters are definitely our biggest strength, but serves is something we’ll have to keep working on,” Peabody said. “A lot of them don’t go over and when they do they’re out of bounds.”
“We’ll run a (6-2) offense with two setters,” DeVargas added. “We lost a lot of the girls from last year, so it’s been a work in progress. I’ve been working out three of them: Heavenly Arellano, Angie Arroyo and Olivia Cantrell.”
The primary servers will be Cordova, Vigil, Angie Arroyo and Jayme Bustos, who’s also the teams defensive specialist at Libero. She held the position last season as a sophomore.
“My libero will be Jayme and she’s really come a long way,” DeVargas said. “She had a great camp there at Adams State, I’m really impressed with her. More so skill-level, but also her leadership.”
Many of the players said communication on the court will play a big factor in the success the team has.
“If we start working together good things will come,” Bustos said. “Last year communicating was one of our weaker points. We just need to become a louder team.”
DeVargas said when he took over the coaching reigns last season, some girls didn’t know the offense they were running or certain aspects of strategy, they just went out there and played. His intent this year is to have open-communication.
“I want you to come and say coach, ‘Let’s try this, or that’s not going to work.’ That’s what I need because the big emphasis here is, ‘This is our team, this isn’t my team, this isn’t your team, this is everybody’s team.’”