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Panarese keys Mitchell's surge

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By EDDIE DANIELS

edaniels@tampatrib.com

Published: October 29, 2009

The opening stanza to the 2009 volleyball season wasn't the best for Mitchell.

The Mustangs endured a five-game losing skid to open the season and Coach Keith Paulk had to figure out who went where on the court.

"You can't tell until you put a team on the floor for real matches," Paulk said.

One of the big moves he made was to place freshman Victoria Panarese in the lineup to be his serve receiving expert.

"She's almost made as many serve reception passes as the rest of the team put together," Paulk said. "That's how effective she's been."

Entering Wednesday night's semifinal against Hudson, Panarese has 388 digs for the Mustangs.

"We weren't competitive until we did that. That was the problem with the 0-5 start," Paulk said. "Once we got in the middle of that 0-5 start, that's when I saw what our problem was. The first time we had a chance to practice two or three days in a row, we rearranged all of that so she could be in the thick of all the passes. That's when we stabilized."

The Mustangs (13-10) immediately flipped that 0-5 start into a 5-1 turnaround.

Panarese hasn't been the only standout in the Mitchell lineup.
Middle hitters Alex Vollmers (140 kills) and Devan Dampier (140 kills), as well as Shelby Wright (90-plus kills) have been spark plugs for the team's hitting.
Paulk said he has had some great hitters, but this group might be up there with them.

"We've got a real comfortable front row as far as hitting goes," Paulk said.

On tap

With district tournaments reaching their crescendo, be sure to check out one of the two finals being held tonight in Pasco County.

The Class 4A-District 8 champion will be determined tonight at 7:30 at Zephyrhills. The finalists will be the winner of Wednesday night's matches pitting Land O' Lakes against Nature Coast and Zephyrhills against Lecanto.

At Hudson, the Class 4A-District 7 tournament will be decided at 7 p.m. That title will be decided when the winner of the Hudson/Mitchell winner faces the winner of the Ridgewood/Pasco matchup.

Strike the pose

Mitchell's Wright was selected as the school's recipient of the Wendy's High School Heisman, according to Paulk. He learned of the news when Wright was congratulated by an assistant coach before practice Monday.

Wright last played as a freshman for the JV team and made a comeback this season. It was a shaky start, but she got it together.

"Her athletic ability earned her a starting position, but she was really erratic at first," Paulk said. "She could be great and she could be terrible, but man, she has really settled down. At the end of the season, I think she's had double-digit kills in our last three or four matches. She's been getting right at 14 kills a game at the end of the season. So she's really settled down and quit making errors and has really become a force. That helps us a lot."

So how does one reach such a status?

According to the Wendy's High School Heisman Web site: "Eligibility for application is limited exclusively to men and women entering their senior year of high school in the 2009-2010 academic year who have at least a 'B' grade average and participate in at least one of the 27 sports officially sanctioned by the National Federation of State High Schools."

The recognition is designed for students who have shown the ability to "work hard, are dedicated and have become role models" for underclassmen.

Athletics is not the sole indicator of achievement. The students are judged on how well they've fared in the classroom as well as their dedication to community service."

From whence you came

Well before the season came to an end for the Anclote Sharks on Tuesday night, Coach Chris Vergnaud had to adjust his philosophy.

Instead of worrying about the team's record, he had to make sure his players were developing and showing signs that one day, the items in the win-loss columns would be headed in the right direction.

With a winless program in its inaugural season, players getting frustrated is an obvious side effect. But Vergnaud has tried to keep the players from falling into that.

"What keeps us on our toes is the fact we look at where we started in preseason to where we are now," Vergnaud said after his team's loss to Gulf last week. "When we look back at where we started and look at where we are now, this team has done so much."

A sure sign of that development came in the tournament the team hosted two weeks ago. The Sharks didn't go down easy in any of its losses.

"(Games) were going back and forth, and the drive was there so it's still a young squad, we have to keep that in mind," he said. "They showed me a lot of growth and a lot of potential over the last few months, and that makes me excited for the future. It really does."

The Volleyball Notebook will run every Thursday in the Pasco Tribune. Coaches who want to add their team's information can submit their entries to Eddie Daniels by calling (813) 259-7066 or e-mailing edaniels@tampatrib.com.

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