Some Big-Time Athletes Play at the County’s Littlest Schools: Ruth Lazzari, Connelly High/Volleyball

As the Connelly High girls’ volleyball team comes onto the floor for pregame warmups, outside hitter Ruth Lazzari looks right at home--and completely out of place.

The 5-foot-10 senior leads her teammates in pregame drills, moving gracefully, passing accurately and spiking powerfully--not surprising, considering Lazzari is a polished club player who is being recruited by Division I schools including Brown, St John’s, George Washington and Duke.

But Lazzari’s high school teammates don’t play at that same level.

Connelly, an all-girls school with an enrollment of 213, has never been an athletic juggernaut. The Koalas don’t have Southern Section championship banners hanging in their gymnasium. Connelly doesn’t even have a gymnasium.

But that doesn’t mean a big-time talent like Lazzari--she’s also an all-league basketball player who played softball as a freshman and ran track as a sophomore--can’t thrive in a small-school environment.

Just ask Connelly’s athletic director, Timmerie Henry, who has been at the school for 22 years.

“There’s no doubt she is the best all-around athlete to come through since I’ve been here,” said Henry, who coached basketball for 14 years and softball for 17 at Connelly and also spent 27 years as a Division I women’s college basketball official.

“Ruth is just a neat all-around kid. She’ll be a winner in whatever she chooses to do from here.”

Around Orange County there are similar big-fish-happy-in-their-small-pond examples. Jason Whieldon of Orange Lutheran might be the county’s best quarterback. Lauren Capriotti of Capistrano Valley Christian and Matt Winter of Heritage Christian have the stats--and the talent--to match up with just about anyone.

Lazzari originally wanted to go to a bigger school, but she’s happy she chose Connelly.

“In eighth grade, I wanted to go to Mater Dei,” said Lazzari, who commutes to Connelly’s Anaheim campus from her family’s home in Seal Beach. “I have friends who go to Mater Dei and they tell me what it’s like.

“But I’m really glad to be at Connelly. The environment here helped me open up.”

Part of that environment is smaller class sizes--two to 25 students, she said. It was also easier to get involved with student government and other activities.

“It’s helped me grow as a person,” Lazzari said. “I’ve realized there is more to life than sports. Right here and now, sports might matter, but in the long run, it will just get you a little ways.”

Lazzari, an A student who is thinking about premed or engineering as a college major, embraces that philosophy. But that doesn’t mean she doesn’t sometimes get frustrated as an athlete at Connelly.

“I think it’s kind of a bummer for Ruth,” Connelly Coach Kim Zavodnik said, “if she’s trying her hardest, but then the sophomore next to her doesn’t have that same experience and can’t pull off the same kind of plays she’s used to in club.

“Still, Ruth has done a good job helping people out.”

Said Lazzari: “In my freshman and sophomore year, I was younger and had that mentality that this high school team should be as good as my club team. I still get frustrated occasionally, but these are my friends and I accept them.

“I’ve gone to school with Jamie Poon since the fifth grade, and she finally came out to play volleyball for our senior year. That’s been fun playing with her.

“She kind of asks me, ‘Hey Ruth, what do I do here?’ when we play volleyball, and I ask her what’s going on when we play basketball together.”

Poon concentrates more on basketball and is less comfortable in volleyball.

“Ruth helps us out and gives us a lot of input,” Poon said. “We know she’s competitive and we understand where she’s coming from. We all want to win, but we want to have fun.”

At Connelly, Lazzari is enjoying her break from the highest levels of competition.

“At the really big high schools, some play really hard but then you can get burned out too,” she said. “For me, since it’s not year-round, real intense playing, I think it’s easier to keep things in balance.”

Lazzari’s most intense competition comes with her club team, Ichiban, which won the Junior Olympics girls’ 18s championship last summer in New Orleans.

“That was very exciting,” Lazzari said.

Lazzari had to fight for playing time at first, but established herself as a starter by the time the tournament ended.

She also impressed her coach, Roger Goodwin, a 25-year veteran who has coached many top players, including two-time college player of the year Misty May of Newport Harbor High and 1992 and ’96 U.S. Olympian Tee Williams.

“Ruth is so dependable,” Goodwin said. “You can count on her to do exactly what is expected of her 100% of the time. She is like the Rock of Gibraltar on the court.

“She has the focus, work ethic and willingness to spend the extra time it takes to become a great player.”

And college coaches usually will find those great players, no matter where they go to high school.

“Ninety-five percent of the recruiting we do takes place in club,” said one Division I college assistant. “Playing for a high-profile high school team can be an advantage but it isn’t a prerequisite to make it to the next level.”

Lazzari is having fun now, whether it’s weighing the options of a potential Ivy League education, playing sports, cooking hot dogs for junior high volleyball tournament players or going to the homecoming dance.

“She gets pulled in so many different ways,” Henry said. “But she doesn’t think of herself as so important that she can’t help you out. That’s maturity.”