Written by Nanda Nayak and Stephanie Lam

WITH EVERY NEW YEAR, and every new season, sports teams find themselves adjusting to new players, new talent and new equipment-it’s the same thing each year. This year, however, three teams found themselves adjusting and coping with something new, but very different -a new coach.

We lose coaches for various reasons, Athletic director Nick Bonacorsi said. Although we would love to keep our coaches forever, it just does not always work out. As an athletic department, we do not look back.

Girls JV tennis, girls water polo and girls golf all recently hired new coaches. Like Bonacorsi, the teams have all decided to accept their new coaches and focus their attention on how the new coach will benefit the team and upcoming season.

The girls water polo team is no stranger to new coaches. In the last three years, the team has had four coaches: Don Vierra, Cyrus Kahangi and now this year, Gigi Swan and Katy Basile-Ferro. Despite the continuous transitions between coaches, the girls have learned to accept each new coach and focus their attention on the sport they love, water polo.

Senior Priyanka Agrawal, a returning player on the team, also agrees with Deacon.

“The transition so far has been pretty smooth,” Agarwal said, “Each coach focused on the same thing and it hasn’t really affected our team dynamic as much. If anything, we’ve been focusing on different things, like conditioning and building up strength.

Both of the players also believe that the uncommon experience of transitioning between multiple coaches has made the girls closer as a team.

“Throughout the whole process we’ve gotten a lot closer, and definitely this year I would say we are a lot closer than we have been in the past,” Deacon said. “There’s a lot more unison in the team rather than a feeling of being separated by grades.”

“We lose coaches for various reasons,” Athletic director Nick Bonacorsi said.” Although we would love to keep our coaches forever, it just does not always work out. As an athletic department, we do not look back.”

Like water polo, girls golf also found that switching from former coach Brian Sullivan to coach Barbara Wang Tolentino did not strongly affect the team. The girls agree that Tolentino’s dedication and commitment to the team has been a key factor to the transition.

“The transition has not been that hard because [Tolentino] is a really great coach.î returning member junior Sruthi Ramabadran said. “She’s supportive and gives us specific exercises, like putting, that helps us to narrow down our aim.”

“[Tolentino] is very dedicated to the team and makes sure she knows all the players.” unior Shiya Perati said. “She herself enjoys the sport, and I think that creates a more positive energy throughout the whole team. It’s a good team unifier.”

JV girls tennis had not experienced a coach change in eight years, but the team still found the transition to be fairly smooth. The team’s former coach Charley Situ resigned from coaching this year in order to make time to care of his father.

“Family first, that was one of the big reasons I stepped out.” Situ said. “I needed to spend more time taking care of my dad after school hours and spend more time with him.”

Situ’s abrupt resignation as JV coach surprised returning tennis players, but for JV tennis captain junior Emma Tong, Situ’s decision didn’t surprise her. Tong played for the badminton team last year, in which Situ also normally coached. When Tong found out that Situ was no longer their badminton coach, she assumed that he would not be returning as the JV tennis coach.

Contrary to Situ saying he resigned for his father’s health, Tong blames herself and her team, because she believes that Situ’s decision to quit was also influenced by the less than ideal performance of the tennis team as well has the low number of girls that have been trying out.

Although Situ is no longer a coach, Tong believes that the transition to math teacher and new coach Alan Wong was a smooth one. Tong believes that Wong does an exceptional job at coaching, even though it is Wong’s first time coaching  at MVHS. According to Tong, Wong communicates with the varsity tennis coach to provide a strenuous, yet beneficial practice session for the tennis team, and he focuses on helping the team improve their strengths.

Tong thinks that the greatest difference between the two coaches is their coaching style, but admitted that coaching style is expected to differ with different people.

“Both are really nice and they both talk to you a lot and give you advice and everything,” Tong said.”[Situ] was more chill. He always talked about random things with us. Both are pretty nice, and it’s not like one is mean and one is really nice.”

The new season, with the new coaches, however, has barely started, and all three of the  the MVHS teams agree that it is too early to fully understand their new coaches. But for now, all the teams focus on moving on from their previous coaching experience, and look forward to a memorable season.