A Tigers' Tale: From Worst To First

Rarely, if ever, do coaches survive winless seasons.

In sports, a zero in the win column represents a titanic struggle at many levels.

Traditionally, it also translates into the scarlet letter for the sport's head coach.

Scarlet letters are hard to shake. So are the pink slips that usually follow.

Look at how many years - a decade - it took for the Tampa Bay Rays to avoid being mentioned in John Herbert columns.

Same with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Under former owner Hugh Culverhouse, the Bucs were the poster child for losing.

Ditto for the New York Mets. The Shea Stadium crew went through the same growing pains before Seaver, Koosman, McGraw and Co. helped changed the complexion in the clubhouse.

Of course, having talent never hurts.

Interestingly, this comparison arrived when the curtains just came down on the Hernando County Middle School Athletic Conference's volleyball season.

The heavy preseason favorite was the Challenger K-8 Navigators.

The Navigators ran the table in 2007 finishing 10-0 overall. They did not drop any of their eight regular-season matches and captured both matches in the annual county tournament.

Head Coach Patti Martin was blessed to have the majority of that team play three seasons for the Navigators.

The prospects for a repeat looked bright his fall as Karen Jones' junior varsity squad also went unbeaten in 2007. The majority of those players would serve as the foundation for Martin this fall on the varsity team.

It was no surprise to see the Navigators repeat as county champions, finishing with a brilliant 9-1 season.

What was shocking and eye-opening was how Fox Chapel tied Challenger for first place in the county.

Fox Chapel athletic teams have traditionally not fared well, especially during the past decade.

SO WHERE'D THEY COME FROM?

You see, last fall the Tigers' varsity squad went 4-5 overall under Head Coach John Patrick.

Patrick did not return this fall and only four players from that team returned to the varsity squad.

More importantly, Fox Chapel promoted last year's junior varsity coach, Vanessa Ferrier, to guide the varsity team's fortunes this year.

All this after Ferrier's JV squad in 2007 finished winless at 0-8.

To top it off Ferrier missed almost half the season due to a leave of absence. She tended to her terminally ill grandmother.

But this time, things were different.

For one, Ferrier never missed a match; or any practices. Her energized commitment rubbed off on her 10-member squad.

Fox Chapel had four returning players from Patrick's squad including: Marisa Welch, Halie Werkmeister, Nikki Fox and Kayla Montealegre.

Ferrier also had three players promoted from last year's winless JV team: Karissa Mendez, Jazelyn Ramos and Rachel Angelillo. Plus, the Tigers welcomed three new faces to the program: Julia Rifino, Lauren Grimsland and Holly Allen.

All were eighth-graders except for seventh-grader Angelillo.

What were Ferrier's initial thoughts when the team was selected?

"Without knowing anything about anybody else, I felt like we had the best team in the county," declared Ferrier. "The biggest reason was their team unity. We did a lot of team-bonding stuff to make sure this team not only played together on the court, but hung out together off the court."

TIGERS 101

Who were the principle players?

According to Ferrier, the team's undisputed leaders were Welch and Werkmeister. Coincidentally, both were the only two players that played offseason AAU ball.

On Welch, "She was definitely the team leader," said Ferrier. "It didn't matter where she plays, she was so versatile. The key was, even if she messed up, it wasn't like it was the end of the world.

"Marissa was the team. Whatever mood she was in, the team was in it too," added Ferrier. "Everybody looked up to her. I think she could do things blindfolded."

On Werkmeister, who excelled at net play, "She's got the talent and the skills. She can jump serve and she was where she was supposed to be at all times," described Ferrier. "In the three years she played here her biggest improvement came with her confidence."

On Montealegre, "She was very consistent serving. She was not afraid of anything at the net either," said Ferrier. "She got to every second ball."

On Fox, "Was a consistent passer from the backline," said Ferrier. "She too served consistently well."

ON A ROLL

The Lady Tigers rode Ferrier's infectious go-get-'em attitude to six consecutive wins to open the campaign, highlighted by Sept. 4's stunning 20-25, 25-22, 15-3 nod in the Navigators' gym.

"I was all right all year except for that first Challenger match," explained Ferrier, who graduated with a physical education degree from Westchester College in Pennsylvania. "I was a nervous wreck that match. That's the match our kids really wanted."

What happened that night?

"Our kids played above their level," summed up Ferrier. "They knew exactly what they were up against and brought it."

The Tigers' win skein stretched to six matches before the Sept. 22 return match with Challenger K-8 at Fox Chapel.

The two teams split the first two sets before the Navigators took advantage of an early foot fault against Welch, to never look back capturing the rubber game, 15-8.

Besides the foot fault, Welch had an outstanding match totaling 13 points. But the Tigers could never retrieve the momentum.

After that match, both teams swept their final three opponents to finish with identical 9-1 won-lost slates.

How difficult was it for Ferrier to split the county title with Martin, who is 19-1 lifetime?

"I wasn't mad or anything, and I wasn't disappointed," recalled Ferrier.

"For everything that has happened, our kids played their hearts out against a quality opponent. I couldn't be prouder of my kids," she boasted. "There was no infighting with this team. This group played very well together. There was never a question about this girl or that girl playing next to anybody else. That's very common with other girls' sports. But that did not happen here."

And the future?

"I'm a P.E. teacher and we're already scouting for players for next year," pointed out Ferrier. "Next year, I'll drop down to the junior varsity team while Coach (Erin) Brown takes over the varsity team. Next year, look out for Rachel (Angelillo). It's her third year in the system. We're building the team around her."

What about going back to the JV level? Isn't that like a demotion?

"It doesn't bother me at all," Ferrier said. "To me coaching is teaching. I've learned you have to shift gears and stress the fundamentals, especially at the middle school level."

Though Brown guided the Fox Chapel JV squad to a 1-9 slate this fall, there's no panic on the Deltona Boulevard campus. Why?

Look for Ferrier's steady influence to help shape the Lady Tigers' program into producing consistent results beginning next fall.