Kingwood Park coach reaches win milestone

White secures 200th victory as volleyball coach
By JASON MCDANIEL CHRONICLE CORRESPONDENT

"It's still so hard to believe that I've been in that many game situations over the course of 10 years," White said. "It's kind of hard when you start putting the numbers down on paper, but time flies by fast and along the way I've worked with a lot of great coaches."
Some coaches will say milestones are just numbers that usually say more about longevity than anything else. But White admitted reaching 200 wins was special to her, and something worth celebrating.

"Ideally, we're out there because we love kids and we're good with teenagers, but still deep down we have a competitive nature, and winning is always a fun thing," White said. "That's what we strive for, to bring our teams to that point, or that level, and so I was excited about it."
After three years as an assistant coach, White got her start as a head coach at small TAPPS school East Texas Christian. She spent two season there and four at Huffman Hargrave before K-Park.
White's first win was against Evadale, another small TAPPS school north of Beaumont. East Texas went 30-3 that season and advanced to the TAPPS 1A state tournament.
"It got me hooked," White said.

On the same night White reached win No. 200, senior libero Nausheen Merchant surpassed 1,000 career digs, which White compared to a pitcher's 1,000th strikeout or a basketball player's 1,000th point.

"She's an extremely talented athlete and we knew she was going to get it," White said. "She came in as a freshman and played varsity when we opened the school, so we knew that she would get it and she did."
K-Park took a 26-2 overall record into the weekend, and sitting at 4-0 in district, White admitted she was starting to allow herself to think about winning the school's first district championship.

She also was well aware there's a long way to go. K-Park finishes out the first round of district this week before starting Round 2 on Oct. 5 at Willis.
"We still have to stay the course and be fiery and fired up, ready to win, and just go out and play our best," White said.
"If we focus more on playing consistently across the board, the winning part will definitely take care of itself."

Kings of region, sort of
The Kingwood boys and girls cross country teams swept the top varsity races at the Region III preview last week at Atascocita, where area teams got their first look at what it will take to get to Austin.

Only, the teams the Mustangs saw won't be at their regional meet.
Kingwood's harriers are in Region II for the next two seasons after the most recent UIL realignment, but they opted to race at the regional preview in Atascocita because it was much closer.
And either way, they're in good shape.

The Kingwood boys won the 5K gold varsity race with an average time of 16:29.20. They placed six harriers in the top 15, led by Justin Brinkley (fifth, 16:12), Travis Beck (seventh, 16:28) and Logan Terry (eighth, 16:30).

The Kingwood girls won the 3,200-meter gold varsity race in 12:13.60. They placed five runners in the top 15, led by Sandie Raines (fourth, 11:56), Catie Daigre (12:03) and Laura Craig (12:04).
Kingwood's depth also was on display. It won the boys and girls junior varsity divisions and placed third in the boys freshman race.
In the JV girls race, Claire Hodges, Sarah Bradley, Malia Sewrdloff and Delaney Gusdorff filled the top four spots, respectively. Sergio Rodriguez won the individual title in the boys JV race.


Best of rest
Kingwood Park was third in the boys 5K gold varsity race with an average time of 17:14.20. The only teams ahead of it were Kingwood and College Park, two Class 5A teams from Region II.
The Panthers placed three runners in the top 25. Kwame Jackson (16:32) was ninth, Michael Lindberg (16:57) was 16th and Juan Zambrano (17:03) was 24th.
Atascocita's boys and girls teams also fared well. The girls took sixth place in the 3,200 gold varsity race with a time of 13:44 and the boys took seventh in the 5K gold run with an average of 17:42.
Summer Creek's Jake Bootz won the boys 3,200-meter freshman division with an 11:10.