Hillcrest Christian’s Meyers is Principal-of-All-Trades

Wanted: A principal who can oversee faculty, staff and curriculum while demonstrating strong communicative skills with teachers, parents and students. Must be able to administer proper disciplinary measures. And, oh, yeah. Must be able to coach volleyball.

Sounds like a job for Karen Meyers.

Meyers, in her fourth year as principal at Hillcrest Christian, a small school in Thousand Oaks, faced a dilemma when the school mutually parted ways with its girls’ volleyball coach in mid-season.

So she traded in her heels for sneakers and became the coach.

“What could I do?” Meyers said. “That’s what principals do in small schools, whatever’s necessary.

“I’ve watched a lot of volleyball. It was just a small step to move to the bench and fill out the lineup sheet and assure the refs that nobody had jewelry in their ears.”

Besides, Meyers said, she gets help from last year’s coach, Jake Kerby, who makes it to practice once a week if he can free himself of graduate studies at Cal State Northridge.

Meyers also gets help from her daughter, Jenna, a 5-foot-10 senior outside hitter who played club volleyball last season for the Renegades, a successful team based in Ventura County.

Jenna runs the drills at practice and, during matches, signals to teammates what area of the court they should serve.

“Jenna is really coaching the team,” Karen Meyers said. “She’s kind of a natural teacher.”

Jenna said she shares responsibility with co-captain Kim Haigh, also a 5-10 senior who played for the Renegades.

“It just takes the girls respecting us, and they really do because they know we have a lot of experience,” Jenna said. “Sometimes they goof off, but they straighten up because they know we’re kind of leading the team.”

And if they don’t straighten up?

“I make them do push-ups,” Jenna said.

It seems to be working. Hillcrest Christian, which has an enrollment of 80 high school students, is ranked No. 2 in the Southern Section Division V-A poll.

The only loss for the Saints (17-1, 11-0 in Westside League play) was to Diamond Bar, a five-game match in which Meyers--Jenna, not Karen--had 31 kills.

With playoffs starting next week, the Saints could go marching for quite a while.

“I think this [situation] has pulled them together more,” Karen said. “They’ve had to rely upon one another more. They talk strategy and encourage each other. Normally they’re in follower mode. This allows them to have some leadership they normally wouldn’t have.”

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With the seeding meeting tonight, here’s a guess how some of the City Championship seedings will turn out for the playoffs, which begin Monday:

Chatsworth (13-0), the West Valley League champion, will be seeded No. 2 behind two-time defending City champion Palisades.

Sylmar (12-1) lost to Chatsworth but won the Valley Mission League title and will be seeded No. 3, edging out Narbonne.

Poly (12-1) lost to Sylmar but fended off North Hollywood for the Sunset Six League championship and will be seeded No. 5.

Taft (11-2) lost twice to Chatsworth but has Trisha Bratford, who might be the top player in the City. The Toreadors can expect to be seeded No. 9 or 10.

North Hollywood (9-4) won the Sylmar tournament but finished second to Poly in the Sunset Six League. A No. 11 seeding sounds about right.

Monroe (11-2) finished second to Sylmar in league play. The Vikings should be seeded about No. 12.

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Sylmar could get a boost from the unexpected return of Kassy Jimenez, a two-time All-City selection who has been sidelined because of a partially torn anterior cruciate ligament in her left knee.

The senior middle blocker was injured in the Spartans’ second match, but she has been cleared to play after receiving a second medical opinion.

“She wants to play,” said assistant coach Soheil Mashhoud of Sylmar. “She doesn’t want to sit on the bench.”

The Spartans lost their first match after Jimenez was injured but have won 10 straight.

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The Top 10

Rankings of region volleyball teams

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RK LW School (League) Rec. 1 1 La Reina (Tri-Valley) 18-0 2 2 Harvard-Westlake (Mission) 18-5 3 3 Westlake (Marmonte) 16-6 4 4 Royal (Marmonte) 21-8 5 5 La Canada (Rio Hondo) 15-0 6 6 Chatsworth (West Valley) 13-0 7 7 Valencia (Foothill) 16-2 8 8 Buena (Channel) 10-7 9 NR Sylmar (Valley Mission) 12-1 10 NR Oxnard (Pacific View) 14-5

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