April 29, 2011 - Clayton Pioneer

Page 10 Clayton Pioneer • www.claytonpioneer.com April 29, 2011
Three weeks to the day after
the March 30 blaze at the
Clough home, the boys and girls
lacrosse teams lined up before
an enthusiastic crowd at Clayton
Valley High School for a benefit
game.
Boys and girls high school
lacrosse have different rules, so
to even the playing field the
boys agreed to play by the girls
rules and use girls sticks, which
have a much shallower net.
Keeping it all in fun, the boys
showed up at Gonsalves
Stadium in practice jerseys –
complemented by red girls
lacrosse skirts. Playing for the
girls team, boys varsity goalie
Troy “Pretty in Pink” Carlson
took it one step further and
added pink tights to his ensemble.
When CVHS lacrosse player
Joanna Fan heard about the fire
that consumed the Clough family
home in Clayton, she talked
to some of her Eagles teammates
about something they
could do to assist. The Coughs’
oldest son Joey is a new member
of the Eagles varsity this spring.
The girls came up with the
idea of having a benefit lacrosse
game against the boys team.
After checking with coaches,
school administrators and ath-
Coaching high school sports
can bring rewards – often of the
intangible variety – to the
women and men who take on
that daunting task.
letic director Pat Middendorf,
Joanna and her teammates
quickly put their idea into action
for the first-ever contest.
The girls baked homemade
goodies and produced com-
Most coaches aren’t teachers
at the school and probably don’t
even earn minimum wage if the
number of hours spent planning,
practicing and competing
are divided into the paltry pay
they receive. To make it worthwhile,
there has to be a large
amount of personal satisfaction
and the knowledge that the
coach is making a difference in
the lives of the student athletes.
There are also those rare
times when a team or individual
athlete does extraordinary
things. For Clayton Valley High
School alumnus and boys volleyball
coach Stephen
Coddington, this is one of those
times.
Outside hitter Mitchell
D’Angina is being counted on
to lead the Eagles to their third
straight berth in the North
Coast Section playoffs. The 6-6
senior is literally and figuratively
head and shoulders above most
teammates and competitors.
“I have always dreamed of
Clayton Sports
Lacrosse teams playfully join for benefit game
JAY BEDECARRÉ
Clayton Pioneer
JAY BEDECARRÉ
Clayton Pioneer
Clayton Clayton Valley Valley
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Both Eagle mascots came out to
cheer on the teams.
The girls raced to a 4-0 lead
in the first half, but things did
having a player of Mitchell’s caliber.
It’s fun watching him play
this year,” Coddington says.
“Against Berean Christian last
week, he made a back row attack
and made contact with the ball
about five feet past the 10-foot
line to complete the kill and
landed at the net. It was a legal
play. That is skill on another
level.”
For D’Angina, it’s been an
equally exciting time. He was
accepted to Brigham Young
University last week and invited
to walk-on to the Cougars volleyball
team, currently ranked
No. 2 in the NCAA. A day after
getting his college acceptance,
he helped CVHS defeat Berean
Christian in four sets. His stat
line included 21 kills, 21 digs
and five aces.
“It’s been a great experience
to be able to bring our team up
to a higher level of play and to
be able to compete with some of
the top teams,” D’Angina said
before the Berean match. “We
not go without incident. The
boys forgot that the girls play by
no-contact rules and inadvertently
knocked a few of the girls
to the ground, resulting in heavy
penalties for the boys team. By
need to learn to play as a team
and bring each other up (in
order to compete at NCS).”
He has been concentrating
fully on volleyball while playing
club for the Diablo Valley
Volleyball Cobra Kai 18 team.
The CVHS team lost six seniors
so had to fill in with a lot of
new players. “Even with this
rebuilding, we have high expectations
to be competitive with
the league’s best teams and go
for a Diablo Valley Athletic
League title,” Coddington says.
“We should also make the NCS
playoffs for a third year in a
row.”
Seniors libero Clark
Stratford and outside
hitter/opposite Austin Woods
give D’Angina strong support
and this year’s team veteran
leadership. A quartet of juniors
– setter Cole Willardson, defensive
specialist Dalton Moore
and middle blockers Taylor
halftime, the boys started to figure
out how to work the girls
equipment and came back to
lead 5-4 at the break.
The second half opened with
the draw between sister and
Photo by Mike Dunn
THE ACTION WAS GENERALLY FAST AND FURIOUS but the smiles were also plentiful when the Clayton Valley High boys and girls
lacrosse teams took the Gonsalves Stadium turf for a benefit game to assist the family of boys player Joey Clough. Participants
included, from left, Allie Robison, Amanda Calimlim, Cody “Nothing Under the Skirt” Anderson, Aaron “Anna” Calimlim, Joanna
Fan, Travis “Cookie” Kohlmeyer (back) and Sara Okimoto. Fan initially came up with the idea for the benefit and did much of
the legwork to make it happen.
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brother Amanda and Aaron
Calimlim, with Amanda assisting
with the goal. The teams traded
goals, keeping the score tight
with Megan Abcede, Samantha
Healy and Kera Prell putting it in
the net for the girls. Both
Carlson and Tyler “Hope the
Dress Doesn’t” Falls scored two
goals for the girls team, but in
the end the boys prevailed 9-7.
Joey Clough was sick and
didn’t play in the benefit. “The
event turned out really good,”
he said after the game. “A lot of
people came out and it was a lot
of fun. It’s really nice, really
helpful, really moving.”
The event ended with both
teams lining up at midfield for
the “Honor the Game” handshake.
Afterward, all the players
gathered to take commemorative
group pictures.
“It is inspiring to witness
young people take the initiative
to come together, lose their
inhibitions and stereotypes to
make this event a success and a
positive impact on many people’s
lives,” said boys coach Matt
Hill. “The first girls vs. boys
benefit lacrosse game was so
much fun that we will definitely
continue the tradition in years to
come.”
Michelle Hill and Mike Dunn
contributed to this story.
D’Angina taking Eagles volleyball team, coach to new heights
MITCHELL D'ANGINA
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SOPHOMORE TYLER SUN (CENTER JUMPING) OF CLAYTON AND SENIOR
OUTSIDE HITTER MITCHELL D’ANGINA (8) helped the Eagles sweep
rivals Concord in three sets last week with 11 kills as Clayton
Valley won its 10th game of the volleyball season.
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