HIGH SCHOOLS : Attitude Helps Sweetwater Stage Big Turnaround

As the Sweetwater girls’ volleyball team can attest, attitude and chemistry can make or break a season.

After a 2-12 season and a second-division finish in the Metro League, Sweetwater has regrouped.

Sweetwater (10-3 overall, 6-0 in league) has basically the same personnel as last season. But during spring practices, the players weren’t just working on their skills as athletes, they had to refine their skills as friends.

“The players did not get along last year,” Coach Rick Kessler said. “The chemistry wasn’t good. They’ll be the first to admit it. They didn’t play as a team, and that’s why we struggled.

“I really wasn’t going to coach this year if they didn’t get their act together.”

But during spring practice Kessler said the girls decided they better change their attitude.

“During spring practice they got along great on and off the court,” Kessler said. “They had always been friends. I just don’t know what happened last year.”

Four players, who are the “heart” of the team Kessler said and who have been on varsity either two or three years, are captain Patty Gonzalez, April Juric, Celia Fausto and Mary Ann Machicote.

Sweetwater is currently in first place in league, with Castle Park (5-1) second.

Since Grossmont junior tailback Jason Eskridge was brought up to varsity at mid-season last year, he has gained at least 100 yards in every game he has started.

In Grossmont’s 27-7 victory over Monte Vista Friday, Eskridge not only gained 148 yards in 14 carries and scored two touchdowns, but bettered a 10-year school record as well.

To start the game, Eskridge returned the kickoff for 95 yards and a touchdown to surpass the record of 90 yards set in 1980.

One of the oldest rivalries in San Diego will be renewed Friday at Grossmont when the Foothillers play host to Helix.

This is the 40th consecutive year the two schools will play for possession of the Musket, the victor’s prize.

“It’s a bigger deal for the school than for the football team,” Grossmont Coach Judd Hulbert. “The football team looks at them as another team. It would be a bigger deal if they were in our league.”

Helix leads the series 20-17-2 and hasn’t been beaten by Grossmont since 1978. The teams tied last year, 21-21.

“It should be a close game,” Hulbert said. “Helix is a very good football team. It will take a tall order for our football team to beat them. We are rebuilding. They’re rebuilt.”

Of the 10 football games La Jolla Country Day played last year, seven of them were stopped before the clock ran out.

That’s because the Torres racked up a large enough margin against opponents that the game was called because of the 45-point rule in eight-man football.

And if their first league victory Saturday is any indication of the rest of the season, the Torres could again be unstoppable.

The game was stopped at halftime because LJCD (4-0) led Midway Baptist, 63-0.

The Torres, which played their non-league games against 11-man teams, had just Friday night to practice before the game because students had their Outdoor Education Week and didn’t return to San Diego until Friday afternoon.

But there wasn’t too much concern about the team being able to adjust not only to a week without practice but to playing their first eight-man game of the season.

“They were excited to get back and play football,” Coach Rick Woods said. “We were able to keep everything simple. There were a lot of comments that it didn’t seem like there were enough guys in the huddle.’

Oct. 13 probably won’t come soon enough for City Harbor League football teams. That’s the day the newly formed Harbor League begins league play and the day participating schools can start playing teams their size.

Four games into the season, Harbor schools have been outscored, 457-199. That means each week the five schools are giving up an average of 114.25 points combined.

The City Harbor League schools are: Christian (2-2), Marian (2-2), Coronado (2-2), St. Augustine (2-2) and Clairemont (0-4).

San Pasqual High center Eric Meek, a two-time Times All-County selection, has narrowed his choice of colleges to Duke, Vanderbilt, Stanford, Washington and Kansas. The coaches from the five schools have visited with Meek at his home. Next week, Meek will begin visiting each campus.

San Pasqual basketball coach Tom Buck said Meek had briefly considered attending UCLA and Arizona State. Although Meek, who averaged 28.5 points a game last year, has played the post position in high school, Buck said every school but Stanford is recruiting him as a power forward.

Buck also announced that San Pasqual will be traveling to two holiday tournaments during the Christmas vacation. On Dec. 21-22, it will play in a tournament at University of Arizona’s McHale Center with Artesia High, Washington D.C.’s DeMatha High and a Tucson school. On Dec. 27-29, it will play in the Raleigh (N.C.) Times Invitational with teams from Pittsburgh, Macon, Ga., Mississippi, Tennessee and North Carolina. The Grossmont tournament, held in the first week of December, will be San Pasqual’s only local tournament.

Dave McKibben contributed to this story.