Armed with a new coach and new attitude, the West Sedona Wildcats will open their fall sports season Tuesday, Aug. 26, by reopening their volleyball rivalry with Big Park Community School.

“This is a really different group of girls,” first-year head coach Patricia Etcheverry said. “They’re excited about the rivalry, but they’re just really thrilled about the game, that’s what I’ve noticed the most. They hate to end at 5 [p.m.] — if they could have practices until 10 o’clock at night, they’d be here.”

The seventh-grade B team will take on the Coyotes at 4 p.m. in their gym, with the A team, dominated by all but two eighth-graders, squaring off an hour later.

Volleyball coach at Mayer School the past three years and Heritage Middle School in Chino Valley for the two previous years, Etcheverry has been running the first two weeks of practices on her own, drilling the 23 players on the A and B teams on positioning and defense the past week.

“I’m the only coach; everybody else’s job is to support each other and be really loud, vocal and encouraging,” she said. “I’m actually trying to use those core girls on my A team to try some new stuff here and there.”

For the full story, please see the Friday, Aug. 22, issue of the Sedona Red Rock News.