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The Piedmont Highlander

The Piedmont Highlander

New coaches crash the scene

There are three new arrivals to Piedmont fall sports this year. No, not freshmen, but men’s varsity water polo coach Kaitlyn Riddle, assistant coach (and Biology teacher) John Savage, and cheerleading assistant coach Ruby Garrett.

“Working with [Garrett] for the past few months have been a real pleasure,” senior Ivory White said. “She’s understanding and good to work with.”

The new coaches have brought alternative practice routines and techniques to the teams and students and coaches must adjust.

“With Coach Kate it’s different,” senior Hayden Souza said. “She had to learn all of our names and who we are as people and and as players. She had to find out our preferences.”

Garrett was originally a competitive cheerleader from Tennessee and later a cheerleader at Stanford. Junior Tia Ikemoto said Garrett brought hip hop dance experience and motivation to work harder to the team.

“She’s really great because she’s super devoted to the team and full of energy. She’s also very fun and peppy,” Ikemoto said.

Garrett said her favorite memory with the team thus far was during the first football game. The team was nervous, she said, but during the first routine Ivory went into a high kick that released her shoe into the audience, making the team laugh and helping them relax as she had hoped they would.

Garrett said, “My focus this year is definitely on dancing, crowd engagement, and showmanship. The PHS Cheer Team catches on to choreography extremely quickly and I want them to showcase their skills.”

Men’s varsity water polo coach Riddle started playing water polo at Bishop O’Dowd and continued on to play at University of Colorado and became team captain her senior year.

“As a female coach, I feel I bring a new dynamic to the team in a positive way. My goal is to build well-rounded, versatile players who can master the fundamentals of the game,” Riddle said.

Riddle has introduced the team to a new approach in games where they run plays according to how the opposing team’s defense is set up, rather than exactly as they learned the plays in practice.

“When you have a ton of different plays with a lot of scoring options it makes it difficult on the defense,” Souza said.

This is different from last year, Souza said, as previous coach Brett Lane taught the team more fundamentals and fewer plays.

Men’s varsity assistant coach Savage said that he has played water polo since middle school and wants to be continually involved in the sport. He said the men’s Varsity team is dedicated and hard working and that he “can add experience and love of the game to the team”.

“Our team consists of an energetic, hard working, talented group of players who are very close. I enjoy coaching them and getting to know them very much,” Riddle said.

Junior Dylan Pike said that Riddle encourages the team to play as hard as they can.

Garrett said, “PHS is one of the most positive teams that I have worked with. They have been welcoming and extremely open to learning new things. I push them extremely hard physically in practice and they still smile at me – a sure sign things are going great.”

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