The Nucla girls are deep into the season for volleyball, and head coach for the Mustangs Debbie Wytulka gave the San Miguel Basin Forum the report on how this year’s team is getting along so far. Wytulka has coached for approximately 26 years (this is her 27th), and this year she’s assisted again by Berrie Reams.
With three seniors, one junior, six sophomores and five freshmen, the Mustangs are a relatively young team. Competing this year are Maggie Andrews, Jocelyn Bose, Kyra Redd, Shay Snyder, Peyton Naslund, Lantry Galley, Sydney Tomlinson, Skylee Bose, Viviana Zunich, Savana Norris, Makenzie Gilbert, Alexis Eggen, Destiny Bilazzo, RyLee Rankins and Ashlee Meeks.
Wytulka said the girls are functioning well as a team. She said the upperclassmen are “working together to help the new girls learn the rotations,” and she added they’re “improving (their) basic skills every day.”
At the same time, communication is the one thing coach said the gals could improve upon.
“There is always something to say, related to our offense and defense, which helps avoid confusion,” she said.
This is the first season the for which the girls have had the opportunity to compete in the new gym, following West End Public Schools District opening a new, state-of-the-art K-12 school in Nucla last year.
Now, Wytulka said the team is loving it for both games and practices.
She said there’s “lots of space to put up two nets,” and that has been “very helpful to spread the girls out for different drills."
Already, the Mustangs have been to three tournaments.
Most recently the JV beat Dolores on Sept. 6 — 18-25, 25-17 and 15-10 — but varsity lost, 23-25, 13-25 and 22-25. For the Soroco tournament on Sept. 7, varsity son over Manitou Springs, 25-12 and 25-20, but lost to Little Snake River, 10-25 and 6-25. They also lost to Hayden, 17-25 and 27-29. JV did beat Hayden, but lost to Little Snake River, Moffat County and Soroco.
Now, the girls will be playing their San Juan Basin League games; they were scheduled to play Dove Creek on Sept. 10, then Ouray on Sept. 17.
Sophomore Sydney Tomlinson told the Forum on Sunday she’s happy to be on the court.
“This season has been going very well, and our team has been crushing it playing games,” she said. “I think as a whole we are ready for our Tuesday game and cannot wait.”
Anyone who’d like to see the schedule should see the website at westendschools.org/page/athletics.
Additionally, the West End has a new athletic director (AD), following Kelly Arnold’s leave at the end of last year. Now, teacher and head of the wrestling program Rob McCabe has been hired by the board as AD.
McCabe told the Forum over the weekend that the new job is a good thing, and he already holds a master’s degree in athletic administration.
“It’s super exciting to take over as the AD,” he said. “I wanted to move into an athletic administrative position at some point in my career, I just wasn’t expecting it this soon.”
McCabe said the transition has gone fairly smoothly, but like anything new, he experienced a bit of a learning curve. McCabe said he is now getting into the “swing of things” with all his duties.
