This was such a special time in these junior high athletes’ careers, times that they remember forever.
Representing their school in an indoor athletic event for the first time, before a loud, capacity crowd with teammates that they have grown up with, creates an environment that cannot be duplicated.
This tournament started in the 1970’s in the small gym at Newport Harbor High and has progressed to the state-of-the-art Blass Gymnasium at Harbor Day School. The Coastal Athletic League played a round-robin schedule over the past two months to determine the seeds for the tournament with two teams not qualifying for the tourney.
Harbor Day Athletic Director Mike Coleman runs a top-notch tournament with everything as professional as can be, which only makes the event more memorable.
First-round play started Feb. 9 with the seventh-grade level.
Corona del Mar, coached by Linda Craig, won in two over TeWinkle, while Ensign, coached by Kari Rush, won a three-game thriller over Sowers of Huntington Beach. With the spiking of Kaitlin Bell and the all-around play of Leah Castillo, Carlee Kapana, and Sammie Yaeger, Ensign won the first game easily before losing a close second game.
Inspired by the backcourt play of Abbey Pickett, Ensign led most of the way in the deciding third game. At 12-10, setter Reily Cox came off the bench to serve the last three points of the match for an Ensign win.
The eighth-grade matches on Feb. 9 featured two-game sweeps by CdM and Ensign over Harbor Day and TeWinkle, respectively. CdM was led by the powerful play of Jules Pouch and Anastasia Colombo, as well as the setting of Irish Burns and Sabrina Roy, and backcourt play from Elizabeth Samuels and Kacie Kline.
