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Wednesday, Sep. 16, 2009

Sean Lynch: Cuts force Merced College coaches to get creative

A wave of momentum can be a powerful thing.

Most teams only catch a handful over the course of a season. Some never do.

So you can imagine Jessica Casey's frustration, as her Merced College volleyball team has been forced to essentially squander one.

The Lady Devils opened the season with an energetic victory over Chabot and then fought back to secure the consolation championship at the Modesto Junior College Tournament on Sept. 4.

It's the kind of start that Casey's young squad needed to build some confidence.

Building on that success, however, has been another issue.

The state's budget problems have brought the Lady Devils' early run to a standstill.

Every community college in the state was forced to trim from its athletic budget in order keep things running in these troubling financial times.

MC athletic director Steve Cassady said an equation was devised for how many games each team would have to cut.

Sports with big schedules like the baseball team had to cut about 20 percent of its schedule. Smaller seasons like football only had to cut about 10 percent, which for football meant the team's scrimmage.

Once coaches knew what needed to be cut, it was up to them to pick and choose what to keep.

In the case of the volleyball team, MC's schedule was reduced from 24 dates to 20.

While that may not seem like a dramatic change, it forced Casey to reshuffle her schedule. When the dust finally settled, the Lady Devils were left with a two-week gap in between matches.

"It's just how things shook out," she said. "We started out so strong and got on a good roll.

"Now who knows what we'll look like when we play on the 24th."

The budget cuts have forced the school's coaches to get creative.

Casey's squad, for example, took practice off on Monday to go attend a Stone Ridge Christian volleyball match.

"Right now I'm just doing whatever I can to keep us from getting bored," Casey said. "We had one practice that was all 3-on-3s.

"We had some alumni come in and play with us.

"Just little things to try and break up the monotony until we play again."

The Merced College water polo teams know all about trying to keep things fresh.

Their schedules were reduced to only tournaments and conferences games, pushing their start dates back to a full week after MC's other programs.

"We were practicing for four weeks before we finally played last weekend," men's water polo coach Scott McCall said. "I think the guys got a little tired of going up against each other.

"One thing we did on a Friday was to play three-team water polo. It's normal water polo rules with three teams and three cages.

"They got a kick out of that."

The loss of non-conference games has made the Blue Devils' tournament participation all the more important.

"It could be really big," McCall said. "We may have only one opportunity to face some of these non-conference schools, so a win or a loss could matter a lot when they're doing the NorCal Tournament seedings."

Even the Blue Devils' football team has felt the crunch.

Every team in the state was forced to cut its scrimmage, so Mark Kaanapu's squad entered its opener with no live special teams' action.

The MC coaches did their best to simulate things at the Blue/Gold Scrimmage, but it wasn't the same.

As a result, the Blue Devils' special teams have had some hiccups in both of its games.

"I'd be more worried about it if other teams had a scrimmage that we didn't," Kaanapu said. "Everybody has to deal with the same circumstances, so it's just up to the coaches to make the most of them."

So far, so good.

Sean Lynch is a Sun-Star sports writer. He can be reached at 385-2476 or via e-mail at slynch@mercedsun-star.com.