Foothill Has Pieces in Place to Make Championship Run

Foothill Coach David Mikesell bubbles with excitement when he talks about his girls’ water polo team this season. He just wishes he could be around to enjoy it a little more.

But Mikesell does have his priorities straight. He’s taking a brief sabbatical from coaching until after his wedding next month. So until January, who better to entrust his team to than his best man, Foothill boys’ Coach Jim Brumm, who will have help from a UC Irvine All-American.

Dan Klatt, who redshirted for the Anteaters this season, is beginning his coaching career this season working with Mikesell and Brumm.

With the addition of some of the top freshmen in the county to a core of players including seniors Jaqueline Pirro and Daylene Coberly, both all-league selections last season, the Knights are shooting for the top this season.

“This is our year,” Pirro said.

One reason for the optimism is the arrival of three freshmen--Emily Ferer, Brittany Hayes and Gabby Dominque.

Ferer and Dominque were first-team All-American selections in the 14-and-under division at the Junior Olympics last summer. Hayes scored the winning goal in overtime for Trabuco Aquatics Program against Ferer and Dominique’s team, SoCal, in the championship game.

“Brittany and Gabby are the two of the best field players to come into this program,” Mikesell said. “They’re both fast and left-handed. And Emily is a great goalie with range to cover the cage real well.”

Mikesell is already comparing Ferer to former Los Alamitos goalie Jackie Frank, who is now at Stanford and was working out with the women’s U.S. national team.

“By the time Jackie was a senior in high school, she was the most dominant player in the water,” Mikesell said. “Emily has that potential.”

Add that potential to the team’s leading scorers last season, Pirro--who scored 63 goals for the Knights, who finished 16-10, and Coberly, who scored 52 goals--and it’s easy to see why Foothill is ranked third in the county’s preseason poll.

“Jackie started all four years here,” Mikesell said. “She’s a great defender. In fact, she’s great on both ends. And Daylene is a great counter-attacker.”

Juniors Crystal Carroll, Jo Graf and Vicki Brown will also be counted on to make key contributions for Foothill to have a chance to unseat Villa Park.

“Villa Park will be nails,” Mikesell said. “When John Carcich took over that program, this is the team he’s been looking toward.”

For the past three seasons, Villa Park has ruled the Century League with one of the county’s top two-meter players, Kristyn Pulver, garnering most of the attention.

But now, “we have four really good players at two-meters,” Pirro said.

More depth to beat up on Pulver?

“We’ve had to go up against her for three years,” Pirro said, laughing. “I think it’s our turn to take a league title. This team works well as a unit and we’ve improved dramatically.”

Said Coberly: “This is the fastest team we’ve had.”

This group has Klatt convinced.

“They’re good,” Klatt said. “It’s been nice having the seniors like Jackie and Daylene around, because they can help motivate and instruct some of the younger players too.

“This is a great situation for me, working with Brumm and Dave. I’m just trying to soak in as much as I can because I want to go into coaching.”

The Knights want to break through this season and Pirro said when Mikesell returns they will be even more dangerous.

“Coach Brumm and Klatt are great,” Pirro said. “But Mikesell has a way of just pushing us. When he comes back, we’ll have the best coaching staff around. And I always told him, I didn’t want to leave here without a championship ring on my finger.”

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Other top teams:

Newport Harbor, the defending Division I champion, is the preseason No. 1 team in the county with leading scorer Kyndra Cox heading the returning players. Jenna Barto and Katherine Belden also earned second-team all-league honors last season. . . . Villa Park should make a run at the section title. Kristyn Pulver is now a senior, and the supporting cast is strong with all-leaguers Danee French, Cindy Henn and Shari Meyer also back. . . . Capistrano Valley has nine players back from a team that finished top-ranked in the county last season, but lost in the Division I semifinals. There is a budding star in Amber Stachowski, two of the county’s top freshmen in Aimee Stachowski and goalie Meridith McColl, and plenty of depth with starters Xina Gleason and Lesley Merlo returning, among others.