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Thursday, August 21, 2008

Flood ruins gym floor; Monarchs may not get to play any home games

By Harold Smith
Mountain View Telegraph
          Manzano High volleyball coach Carol Barnitz has seen it all.
        "I've been here so long, I can't remember how many times I've had to do it," said the 37th-year coach regarding her Lady Monarchs having to move out of the school's main gym due to flood damage. "I think I've done it three or four times. It always seems like it's during volleyball season (because of the monsoons)."
        An Aug. 3 storm sent a deluge of water cascading from Manzano's central patio area down into the gymnasium area. Much of the hardwood court will have to be replaced.
        "It's happened three times in the last 10 years," the school's athletic director, Bob Kelly, said on Saturday. "They still say it'll take 10 to 12 weeks. They're using a blower under the floor. That was such a good floor. It was so thick — they don't make it like that anymore — that they're having to go through a special milling process to get the floor made."
        The bottom line for Barnitz's varsity team is its six seniors will probably not be able to play a match on their home court during their final prep season. The Monarchs' schedule is firm only through Sept. 13 because their initial contests are all away.
        Manzano's first match of the season will be at Del Norte on Sept. 2 at 6:30 p.m. The Monarchs will then play at Sandia High on Sept. 5, also at 6:30 p.m.
        Manzano is also set to compete in the Albuquerque Public Schools Metro Championships, to be held on Del Norte's and Cibola's courts, on Sept. 9-13. After that, including an originally scheduled first home match versus La Cueva on Sept. 16, all of the Monarchs' "home" sites were still to be determined as of Monday.
        Rich Gerrells of the APS athletic office is working out the arrangements with the school district's other schools for use of their gyms. But there is no telling when the new schedule will be finalized, Kelly said.
        "I know that we play away for the first two weeks," Barnitz said during her team's practice in the auxiliary gym on Friday. "Then the rest of the schedule is up in the air as far as where we're going to play."
        Getting through the cutting process is always a tad tense for teams and their coaches. Then, for Manzano, the flood further aggravated the atmosphere.
        "But we're dealing with it," said An Vo, the Monarchs' 5-foot senior defensive specialist. "It could pull us together."
        Manzano's veteran coach had to make a hard decision. She cut a senior before announcing the final varsity lineup.
        "It's part of the job every coach hates," said Barnitz, who lives in Tijeras.
        The whittling of the roster was a hard pill to swallow for some.
        "It's kind of tough," said Laura Snipes, Manzano's 5-7 senior outside hitter from Tijeras. "One of our seniors got cut. She was a real lively person ... But that's coach's decision.
        "And now we won't have any home games," Snipes said. "It's difficult that this happened during our senior years. It'll take time to get used to the change."
        The Monarchs were 10-12 overall, 4-4 in District 5-5A in 2007. They were eliminated in the second round of the district tournament last season after advancing to the state semifinals in 2006.
        "I think we have a chance to be a good team this year," Barnitz said. "But we have a lot of work to do. We have some seniors with two or three years of varsity experience. And the juniors on the JV had a real strong season."
        Whitney Polosky, a 5-9 1/2 senior middle hitter and a three-sport athlete, will be back in a purple uniform after skipping softball this past spring.
        "But I think I'm going to try to play (softball) this year," said Polosky, a Tijeras resident who also plays basketball. "I was really burned out from sports. It enabled me to concentrate on my studies for a while. I was getting so overwhelmed. I was stressed out."
        Polosky, the sparkle back in her eyes, was upbeat about the upcoming volleyball season.
        "I just want to get out there and play," she said. "This is a good team. We have lunch together, and there's not a clique with this team like there is with some girls' teams. There's not one girl that's a loner."
        Manzano's remaining 12th-graders include Krysten Flores, a 5-foot libero; Brittney Herbert, a 5-7 setter; and Victoria Ramirez, a 5-11 middle hitter. Alysia Dow, a 5-8 junior outside hitter from Edgewood, is the Monarchs' sole varsity underclassmen from the East Mountains.