Volleyball helps set life’s goals
Riis Valcho
With more than 20 games under the Lady Thunderbirds’ belts the team is still striving to find a consistent cohesiveness that translates over to a winning season.MCC’s volleyball coach Ku’ulei Salinas, is turning the program around from being nearly unknown in the 1990’s and early 2000’s to becoming a strong program once again.
Building respect within the Arizona region and around the southwestern United States as well.
Salinas, is in the midst of her second full season as head women’s volleyball coach at MCC, after having to take over halfway through the 2006 season.
Salinas is a former player and assistant coach from the South Alabama University, and before that, the Female Athlete of the Year of the Eastern Arizona College volleyball squad.
She knows how important it is to have quality players in order to have a quality program.
Salinas is now able to recruit her own players, set her own coaching strategies, have tough practices that challenge her players, and most importantly mold a volleyball team around her vision for a winning program.
Four of the teams’ sophomores are moving on to a university to play next year; a good indication that MCC volleyball is positively evolving into a stronger program.
All of the current freshmen players will be returning to play in the 2009 season.
“It was hard to start off on a winning season when you were thrown in to coach a bunch of players you had not recruited or worked with closely,” Salinas said.
Adversity has become a motivation for Salinas in her desire to see the program come back from the dead.
After two years, Salinas believes the program is turning a corner.
The team’s record of 7-13, with two games remaining on the 2008 schedule is still holding out hope that they will be one of the top four teams in league play invited to the Region I tournament starting Nov. 6.
“Focus, we need to move forward. Week at a time. A Game at a time,” Salinas said.
Time is running out on the 2008 season, never the less, Salinas doesn’t loose sight of her high expectations for the last few games of the season.
She realizes that the players have other goals in life as well.
Although, many of Salinas’ players desire to move on to the four-year university level, many players understand that they will not.
Salinas wants to see all of her athletes succeed at a university.
She feels one of her jobs as a coach is to make sure that her players get into a four year school and finish up their degrees that they are working on now.
“Bottom line: move the girls on to four-years’. Move them on to degrees,” Salinas said.
At the end of a season there is time to regroup and recharge for the next.
If the forward momentum from the current season is any indication of greater things ahead for Thunderbird Volleyball.
