Mesa Vista has not had a winning record or an appearance in the Class 2A state volleyball tournament since 2016.
Entering her second season, Brooklyne Sandoval is Mesa Vista’s sixth coach since that last state berth and the Lady Trojans have not won a district title since 1991.
That latter fact, in particular, is something Sandoval would like to change. And soon.
She certainly has the chops to do it after quickly building Legacy Academy into a 1A power that continued to win after moving up to 2A last season without Sandoval, while the Lady Trojans went 6-15, including 0-9 in District 5 play.
“Losing time and time again, we had to do some digging,” she said. “I wanted to build a little bit more. Last year was the digging phase and this year we’ll see the foundation actually set in.”
Can Sandoval enact change that quickly? Well, she is certainly doing everything in her power, including taking some rare opportunities to address the mental aspect of athletics.
“This year is going to be a really big turning point,” she said. “They’re hungry and they have a different mentality. They don’t care who they are playing, what team it is. They have the look in their eyes of we’re just going to go in and play. They’re playing free.”
After a rigorous summer of training, once school started, the Lady Trojans spent the first week ignoring the court. Instead it was all about developing camaraderie, addressing teamwork, building bonds and squashing fears, worries and anxieties.
For instance, taking a page from the Zozobra playbook, Sandoval had the players write down their issues and then they torched them.
“The first week, we didn’t even touch a volleyball,” she said. “We did a lot of confidence building. Every day was a different theme.”
The unorthodox effort was designed to lift up the players.
“We learned how to have a positive mindset,” Sandoval said. “They did a growth mindset survey, tangible activities, like burning our fears. We took all of our fears and burned them in a trash can.”
Goals were etched on a vision board that is hanging in the coach’s classroom and topping that list is the district championship.
Sandoval is looking to her two seniors to lead Mesa Vista toward that goal.
Valery Martinez (5’6” OH) and Jaslene Torrez (5’7” MB) are the last holdovers on the team that suffered through the devastating January 2022 COVID-related deaths of Leonard Torrez Sr. and Leonard Torrez Jr., who were the school’s volleyball and girls basketball coaches, as well as Jaslene’s father and grandfather.
“My dad and I really bonded in volleyball,” she said. “When I was a seventh grader, I used to go practice with them and it was cool to see the way he would study the court and take his own personal time to learn about the sport that he never played. Now when I play, I feel really close to him.”
So Jaslene Torrez could appreciate what Sandoval was trying to do with the mental training.
“That was really groundbreaking,” she said. “Our sports teams have never done any kind of mindset or mental aspects, but coach Sandoval genuinely wanted to check on our mindsets and mental health to make sure that we can do all of the training. If the minds aren’t in the right space, then our bodies won’t be either.”
And now the team is excited to hit the court, Martinez said.
“I think this year is going to be something big,” she said. “A lot of people think we’re not going to do good this year because we’re so young. I think we’re going to get far this year.”
It’s all about coming together as a team, Jaslene Torrez said.
“Our coach has a lot of notches on her belt when it comes to volleyball,” she said. “I don’t even remember all of the different things she’s done. I also think we’ve been building this since the beginning of last year. I think now that we built that foundation, we’re ready to start winning games.”