Thursday, Oct. 01, 2009

Volleyball notebook

By Rene Ferran, Herald staff writer

Kylee Sixkiller got the Pasco coaching job less than a month before the season began. What's been the toughest part of the transition process?

"The toughest part?" she said with a chuckle. "Moving to the Tri-Cities? A new teaching job? It's all been pretty tough."

Anything going smoothly? "The kids," she said. "They've been the easy part."

The Bulldogs are 3-4 at the midway point of CBBN play, in a three-way tie for eighth place. The top eight 4A teams qualify for districts.

"We're just looking to get to the postseason and see what we can do from there," said senior middle blocker Karis Gamache.

The transition to a new coach was exacerbated by the split between Pasco and Chiawana, which left the Bulldogs with only three returners -- including Gamache, an all-league hitter who is fourth in the league this season in kills (3.4 per set).

"If we could have just stayed together one more year," Gamache said. "We were doing so good at the end of last season."

Then came the offseason, in which coach Jim Steach moved to Chiawana and it took until August to hire Sixkiller. Also, Pasco's main gym is undergoing repairs, forcing the Bulldogs to play their home matches at Ochoa Middle School.

"It was really hard," Gamache said. "We all wanted to be dedicated, but there was nobody there to organize things. We pretty much winged it."

Gamache hopes not to be winging it next fall. She is making a visit to Spokane Falls CC this weekend, with an eye on playing for the Sasquatch and eventually becoming an ultrasound technician.

-- Kiona-Benton won a state championship led by senior McKenzie Burgess, a three-time All-Area MVP. Burgess -- now McKenzie Garberg -- is back as the Bears' first-year coach, looking to get the program back on the winning track. Garberg is the team's third coach since Sharon Brandon retired six years ago, and Ki-Be missed districts last year.

"You look at our kids. We're very athletic, and we have potential, but we've never played together," Garberg said. "It's a new team. Only four of them are returning varsity players. We have six seniors, but we're so young for being so old."