Training Keeps Tara Kroesch on Track

Four years ago, Marv Marinovich was working at his Anaheim athletic training facility when a gangly 12-year-old girl wandered through the door with her father.

“She was kind of awkward and untrained, more so than the boys,” Marinovich remembered. “I don’t like to run down athletes, but she had a bad knee and a sore ankle. Her back was sore, too. Her workload was too much for her.”

Tara Kroesch’s knee and ankle had taken a beating after only two seasons in youth volleyball.

Her father, Leroy, brought her to his longtime friend, Marinovich, for help. He had heard of Marinovich’s training program, which was made famous by Marinovich’s son, Todd, the starting quarterback at USC.

“She was 5-feet-9 in the seventh grade,” Leroy Kroesch said. “She grew so fast that she started having knee problems after the first year she played.”

In the next few months, Kroesch strengthened her knees while working out with Marinovich. The pain, which she said felt--and sounded--like “two pieces of sandpaper rubbing together” disappeared.

Although the pain was gone, Kroesch continued with the weight training. She kept getting stronger and stronger.

Much has changed for the 12-year-old girl with a sore knee.

Kroesch, a 5-11 junior, is entering her third year as a starter on the Newport Harbor High School volleyball team, ranked 12th in Volleyball Monthly’s national preseason poll.

Kroesch and Maureen McLaren, a 6-0 junior and also a two-year starter, are considered two of the top outside hitters in the county. They’re among five starters returning from last year’s 14-5 team that reached the first round of the Southern Section playoffs.

Kroesch, 16, already has received recruiting letters from the University of the Pacific, Iowa, Oklahoma and Loyola Marymount.

Kroesch attributes much of her success to her work with Marinovich.

“It has been a major part of my improvement,” she said. “I started out just lifting, then I got into the running. It got to be a lot of fun this summer.”

Charlie Brande, who has coached Kroesch on an Orange County club team the past few years, said the training has made her a better player.

“She’s a coach’s dream,” Brande said. “She’s one of the hardest workers I’ve ever seen. She’s always doing extra work.”

So if Todd Marinovich was tabbed “Robo QB” for his training, does that make Kroesch the “Robo-spiker”?

After all, she eats, drinks, lifts and runs--all in the name of volleyball. Ask her what her interests outside volleyball are and she’ll tell you, “going to the beach and working out with Marv.”

Marinovich said Kroesch had no problems learning his program, which combines diet and mental approach with state-of-the-art physical training.

“The program here encompasses all aspects of training,” Marinovich said. “Tara is very, very focused. She has been from the start.”

Newport Harbor Coach Dan Glenn said he hopes she isn’t too focused.

“I always try to stay out of that,” Glenn said. “Sometimes it’s too much. We have to remember she’s only 16 years old.”

During the off-season, Kroesch trains three or four days a week with Marinovich. She trains one or two days a week in Anaheim after the club volleyball season starts in January.

Her father said it’s important that she keep her priorities straight.

“Athletics are so time consuming,” Leroy Kroesch said. “She studies three hours a day, works out three hours a day and plays volleyball. But her schedule doesn’t seem to bother her. She’s very well organized. She knows that academics come first.”

Tara is the youngest of Leroy and Kathy Kroesch’s seven children. Her brother, Ken, played football at Estancia, but Tara “has the most discipline of any of us, by far,” Leroy said.

Marinovich knows all too well.

“She’s now on the top level and she could actually teach at the facility,” Marinovich said. “There are only about 10 or 12 athletes who are on her level right now (out of about 60 in the program).”

Most of the athletes in the program are football and basketball players. Kroesch is training, and keeping up with Todd Marinovich; Ron Byers, a former Mater Dei standout now playing offensive line at Cal State Long Beach, and basketball star Ed O’Bannon, a freshman at UCLA.

“She’s on par with all the top athletes I have here,” Marinovich said. “In our system, it’s not age or sport, but how much training you have. It’s more like a school and we don’t slow anyone down. She grasps all the concepts.”

Marinovich said Kroesch has set an example for other athletes. She’s one of only a half dozen women in the program.

“When I have a young male athlete who has some ability, a real hotshot, I always bring Tara over and have her teach the guy the technique,” Marinovich said. “It humbles them. She’s so well versed in everything.”

Marinovich put Kroesch in his running program this summer with his football players. The program combines aerobic and anaerobic workouts, with participants running six 150-yard sprints while monitoring heartbeat during rest periods.

“It’s very competitive,” Marinovich said. “The guys don’t want to let anyone ahead of them, especially a girl.”

Leroy Kroesch said he never realized his daughter was so fast.

“The kid’s really fast,” he said. “She could go run track if she wants to.”

Tara Kroesch said she’s considering playing basketball and possibly running track. But volleyball’s the main thing on her mind right now--beating Corona del Mar and winning the Sea View League in particular.

“I would really like to win the league and see how far we can get in the playoffs,” she said. “Coach Glenn wants the best out of us and pushes us. He knows we can do well.”

When asked to list the top girls’ volleyball players in Orange County, Foothill Coach Travis Turner didn’t hesitate.

“Corona del Mar’s starting six,” he wrote.

Turner may not be far off the mark. Volleyball Monthly magazine ranked Corona del Mar second in its preseason national poll.

Although the Sea Kings lost Danielle Everett, the Times’ Orange County player of the year, and Krista Hartling, an all-county first team player, to graduation, they still have everal experienced players.

Leading the list is senior Lara Carlsen, an all-Southern Section selection last season. Also returning are Prentice Perkins and Tracy Schriber, both seniors who were all-Sea View League selections last year, and Stacy Petersen, a team co-captain and senior outside hitter.

A new addition to the lineup will be Tahlia Wagner, a transfer from Rim of the World, where she earned all-Southern Section honors last year.

Wagner is not the only new face at practice. Dale Flickinger of Redondo Beach has taken over as the Sea King coach, replacing Charlie Brande, who was relieved of his duties in the wake of an investigation by the Southern Section concerning his coaching of club teams.

La Habra, ranked 11th in Volleyball Monthly’s national poll, finished with a 7-0 record on a tour of Australia this summer. The Highlanders also finished second to Thousand Oaks at a national high school tournament. They return seven players from last year’s 21-1 team that won the Southern Section 3-A championship and the Division II state title. Their top player is Missy Clements, one of the best in Southern California.

Volleyball Notes

Rich Polk is Woodbridge’s new coach, replacing Steve Stratos, who has left to become the women’s volleyball coach at Loyola Marymount. . . . Gregg Swenson has returned from a one-year leave of absence to coach at Mission Viejo. . . . Lisa Mariotti, who coached the Laguna Beach girls two years ago, is the new coach at University. . . . Troy Abbey is a first-year coach at Mater Dei.

1990 PREP GIRLS’ VOLLEYBALL PREVIEW

Top teams: Capistrano Valley, Corona del Mar, Dana Hills, Edison, El Toro, Esperanza, Fountain Valley, El Modena, La Habra, Laguna Beach, Los Alamitos, Marina, Mater Dei, Newport Harbor, Sunny Hills, Woodbridge.

Top players: Brandi Brooks (Estancia), Kealy Clarke (Laguna Beach), Missy Clements (La Habra), Lara Carlsen (Corona del Mar), Bryn Gillis (Dana Hills), Julie Greer (Esperanza), Marni Hitchburn (El Modena), Tara Kroesch (Newport Harbor), Kirstin Laird (Los Alamitos), Heather McKinley (El Modena), Maureen McLaren (Newport Harbor), Adine Pawloski (Santa Margarita), Cristin Rossman (Marina), Tori Scott (Laguna Beach), Ashly Wacholder (Laguna Beach), Ali Werve (Santa Margarita).

Important dates: Valencia tournament, ends today; Orange County championships, Sept. 14-15; Fullerton tournament, Sept. 21-22; Foothill tournament, Sept. 29; Southern Section finals, Nov. 17; State tournament finals, Dec. 1.

Notes: Three Orange County teams are in Volleyball Monthly’s preseason national ratings. Corona del Mar is ranked second, La Habra 11th and Newport Harbor is 12th. Muncie (Ind.) Burris is the top-ranked team.

In the preseason Southern Section coaches’ polls, Corona del Mar is second in the 5-A division behind defending champion Mira Costa. Laguna Beach is third, followed by Capistrano Valley (fifth), El Toro (eighth), University (ninth) and Woodbridge (10th). In the 4-A division, Fountain Valley is second and Edison is ninth. La Habra is the top-ranked team in the 3-A division, with Sunny Hills fourth and El Modena fifth. In the 1-A division, Capistrano Valley Christian is fifth and Whittier Christian is 10th.