Reaching New Heights
This year, the Lincoln High School Hornets are having their best season ever.
Several of their players are Starlings. As a result of their outstanding
performance, the San Diego Union-Tribune has written a fantastic article about Lincoln and
some of the Starlings.
The
San Diego Union-Tribune, Thursday, November 4, 1999
LINCOLN ABUZZ AS VOLLEYBALL BECOMES NEW HIT ON CAMPUS
By: Tom Shanahan
SAN DIEGO -- Lincoln High's girls volleyball team has had a lot of
explaining to do this season. The Hornets are winning like never before, but
the questions they hear are more basic than "why?"
Jayli Jackson, Lincoln's powerful 6-foot-2 junior outside hitter, says she has
to decipher statistics.
"People see our scores and stats in the newspaper and they see 'Jackson, 15
kills,' and they ask me, 'Jayli, what is a kill?'" said Jackson, laughing outside
Lincoln's gym after yesterday's win over Madison.
"They don't know volleyball at this school. They only know football,
basketball and track. We're having fun, and it's been good for this school."
A kill, as Jackson patiently explains, is a point or sideout when a player slams
the ball across the net to the floor. She has totaled plenty this season,
including 15 more in a 15-6, 15-7, 9-15, 15-13 win over the Warhawks in a Harbor League match that was the regular-season finale.
Lincoln's 12-2 league record was good for second place. The Hornets split
their matches with league champion Clairemont (13-1), but an upset loss to
Coronado prevented them from claiming a share of the league title.
Lincoln, a Division IV school in the CIF-San Diego Section playoffs, will be
up against defending champion Bishop's, the overwhelming favorite. But just
the fact that Lincoln's players are looking forward to the playoffs instead of
basketball season has generated new interest on campus.
"We've never had a team like this," said Lincoln principal Wendell Bass.
"They're hard-working girls, they have good attitudes and they like playing
together."
Senior setter Ollie Vance is the team leader and had 34 assists against
Madison. Senior K'rin Duplessis added nine kills and six aces.
"Jayli hits the ball straight down and is the best hitter I've ever had," said
Lincoln coach Thomas Tom. "Ollie is a great competitor with good hands.
K'rin is an outstanding hitter and a great defensive player."
The Lincoln girls say they considered themselves basketball players when they
came to Lincoln, but Dot Robinson, the school's athletic director and girls
basketball coach, encourages her athletes to play volleyball, too.
Jackson, Vance, Duplessis, junior Monique Bush and sophomore Kamilah
Hicks also joined the Starlings, a club volleyball team founded four years ago
by Byron Shewman to give inner-city girls an opportunity to learn the game's
finer points and earn college opportunities.
Vance is being recruited by Norfolk State and Duplessis by Morgan State.
Shewman -- a San Diegan and former member of the U.S. national team --
has placed most of the girls from his club team in historically black colleges,
but he hopes Jackson will be the first player recruited by NCAA Division I
powers.
"All five (of Lincoln's Starlings members) will play in college on some kind of
scholarship," Shewman said. "We've built a good network with the black
colleges. It's been rewarding to sit in the stands and see how far the kids have
come. They view volleyball as a legitimate sport instead of as something to do
until basketball starts."
Jackson says her goal is a college volleyball scholarship.
"The Starlings have helped me so much," Jackson said. "I know now that
volleyball is my dominant sport."
