A Steady Stream Of Stars

By Michael Ashcraft --

No, it's not the water. The secret to Lighthouse's volleyball success is not even in the club players.

"It's the coaches' love for the girls," says Coach Tiffany Mckinney. "I love these girls. I love to see them do well on the court, and it shows. We're a small school with a big heart."

Lighthouse Church School's 7th and 8th grade team beat Turning Point School of Culver City Wednesday. The Turning Point kids are the "Tornadoes." It would seem that Lighthouse was the hurricane. The Saints won 25-9 and 25-10 and are undefeated in three matches.

This explains how the senior high school counterpart, Lighthouse Christian Academy of Santa Monica, gets a steady supply of stars.

This year, freshmen Eden Garcia, Bethania Wonagseged and Lilah Hosni joined sophomore stars Jillian Jenkins, Riley Gonzalez and Lucy Young to keep winning even after superstars Allie Scribner and Dahlia Gonzalez graduated. If the league hoped for Lighthouse to have a "rebuilding year," they were sorely disappointed.

On the middle school team, Kallie Mckinney, Msgana Reda, Julianna Calderon and Antonella Fausto crushed Turning Point with serves. Some of the 8th graders even did jump serves. The team managed hits.

The 6th grade team narrowly lost to Turning Point 25-27 and 25-27. The are the minis of the high school girls. Jillian's sister and Lucy's sister are on that team.

Coach Tiffany went through Lighthouse herself and was coached by a volunteer pro coach. The high school team was trained like a club team. Since those days over a decade ago, Lighthouse has remained a powerhouse of volleyball -- only today, the players from that time have turned into the coaches of today.

They are paying forward all that they received into a new generation.

About this writer: Michael Ashcraft teaches journalism and writing at the Lighthouse Christian Academy of Santa Monica.