 Little did the SDA team know that their season was being
followed to create a major motion picture - "The Lessons of
Fanta"
September 9th and 10th San Diego Classic.
The Lessons Of Fanta
Episode One: The Little Team That Could...
Movie Review: This movie portrays a classic David and
Goliath struggle as small band of academic warriors attempt
to establish in athletic foothold led by their master
volleyball coach Dexter-san.
Set against a background of high school athletics,
Dexter-san inspires his team by sharing his broad knowledge
base, including the lessons of Fanta. A the team learns and
begins to embraced "The Lessons Of Fanta" -- which includes
hustle, team defense and hard work their confidence grows.
It should be noted that Dexter-san discovered these valuable
building blocks of success from
Coach Wooden
In this episode you witness how this team, which barely
averages 16 years of age, coalesce and transform from a team
that "hopes they can win" into a team that "believes it can
win."
After watching this full episode, both the viewers and the
players start to believe in themselves. Watch the team
evolve and soon realize that they can beat the evil invaders
from the north, Valley Center, and the former Chipmunk
turned minister, Calvin Christian.
As a bonus, this SDA girls performed their hit single, "Ride
That Pony" (the long version).
The results of the matches
Lost to Fallbrook
Beat Valhalla
Beat Point Loma
Lost to Calvin Christian
Lost to Valley Center
Episode Two (Horizon): Dexterism 9:16 --
In adversity you will find truth and power.
 This
episode opens with Coach Dexter-san focusing on the Horizon
game, creating his strategy. As Dexter-san enjoys a long,
cool drink of the pineapple Fanta elixir, he sees an image
of his team as a group of war torn veterans, fighting hard
every step of the way. Dexter-san knows that even though his
team are somewhat decimated with injuries and administrative
eligibility issues, that the JV players he has called upon
will step-up and fulfill key roles.
As Dexter-san draws in the last of the mystical Fanta, he
suddenly has a vision of how to compete against the church
based school; using a bible-like quote against them (of
course, adjusted to public school, nondenominational
standards). The magic of Fanta gives Dexter-san this clear
message and he promptly labels it Dexterism 9:16, "In
adversity you will find truth and power."
He now knows his team can prevail. He calls his team
together and shares the adversity quote provided by the
Fanta. As they break huddle Dexter-san whispers, "We shall
overcome." With that comment, Lea Ann's back is somehow
healed enough to play the game and the freshman players grow
two inches taller.
The game begins and the SDA's youth and inexperience
immediately give way to hustle and enthusiasm as the
volleyball team prevails against Horizon. As
Dexter-san walks off the gym floor, he is heard to utter a
single phrase, "Righteous."
Episode Three (Grossmont): Proving there is no life way
East of 5...
 The
mighty warrior princesses traveled their invading vehicle
into the lands far, far to the East. Some say you can see
the end of the Earth from this vantage.
The Hillers of Grossmont tried to use oppressive heat by
shutting all the doors to their gymnasium to create an
environment detrimental to our coastal girls. They also hid
their gym in a sprawling mass of urban planning gone bad; to
locate the gym the team had to trek past an auto shop full
of '65 Plymouth's and AMC Gremlins, then wander a maize of
link fences worthy of surrounding a penal institution,
finally traversing across landscaping so bad that it
appeared 25 goats had escaped from the watchful eyes of all
2,394 of the School's Future Farmers of America program
members (watching Beverly Hillbilly reruns, no doubt). Yes,
it is hard to believe that 2,394 students and their families
live in this remote part of America.
Coach Dexter-san considered giving all his girls an extra
can of Fanta to overcome these many obstacles, including the
heat, but then decided to save the mighty juice for a
special game.
The volleyball girls played hard and overcame the perils of
this harsh world, easily defeating the women of Elly-May
clones, once again proving there is no life way East of 5.
Episode Four (Carlsbad): Big school barely nips SDA (wait
to next year...)
 Carlsbad
High School with a pool of over 3,000 students tried to flex
its superior muscle against the SDA team, which has just
1,500 academically-oriented students.
Dexter-san gathered his team and told them that it appeared
initially that Carlsbad mistook our school size for our
"heart" size. In the first match, SDA lost by just three
points, then stunned the overconfident Carlsbad team by
beating them in the second game. The remaining games were
very competitive, especially considering the differential in
enrollment.
While SDA incurred a loss at Carlsbad, the games were very
close, as reported by the North County Times:
Carlsbad 3, San Dieguito Academy 1
San Dieguito Academy 22 25 20 18
Carlsbad 25 23 25 25
Notable: Courtney Tanner led the Lancers with 17 kills.
Ariana Covington had 13 kills and Kandi Walton had 14 kills
for the Lancers. Setters Alexa Harper and Cory Santos
combined for 58 assists.
For San Dieguito Academy, Leanne Stenett had 10 kills and
setter MacKenzie Aries had 22 assists.
Records: Carlsbad 7-2, San Dieguito Academy 4-4.
The Lesson of Fanta for this match? The old adage, "It is
not the size of the dog in the fight, but the size of the
fight in the dog," was realized by the team as they begin to
believe they can beat larger schools. Next time these two
schools meet, there may be a different outcome, no matter
what their student population is...
Episode Five (OLP): Exorcism needed
 The
pre-nuns for Our Lady of Peace visited SDA and initiated a
good ol' fashioned revival... When it was over, Dexter-san
said, "We need an exorcist."
SDA lost 3 games to 1.
Episode Six (Calvin Christian): Second Verse
There is a song that goes, "Second verse, same as the first." Unfortunately, the second time we play Calvin, we lost again.
Episode Seven (La Jolla Tournament): A cast... of little people
 In volleyball parlance big people are the seniors, and the little people are the freshman. Early in the La Jolla volleyball tournament, the biggest of the big people, Stacey, went down with a badly sprained ankle. The team feared that Stacey would need a cast and how she might look hobbling around.
Regardless, the team knew Stacey was out for the rest of the tournament, and some of the little people had to step in to play.
By Saturday, Kami and Kelly were either sick or injured, leaving only six
players to play most of the final matches.
Coach Dexter-san looked to his bench and summoned ALL the little people. The
Lilliputians came into the game, often swarming in three at a time to fight for
their volleyball team. Could the Lilliputians overcome the giants of the
tournament?
Normally coach Dexter-san calls where he wants the ball to be served by using a highly cryptic series of finger taps, contorted eyebrow gestures, subtle hand movements, deep breathing groans finally culminating in graceful finger extensions to signify the exact location for delivery; sorta' like how gangs sign.
Midway through the tournament, the team was so finely in tune with coach Dexter-san, and their serving was so precise, that Dexter-san no longer signing in the play. The opposing coach thought Dexter-san was using the "Vulcan mind-meld" technique and complained to the referee.
Amazingly, courageously and astonishingly, the cast of little people won all four matches on Saturday to win the entire tournament. The team celebrated wildly.
The lesson of Fanta? It can be good to be little... Thank gawd for the Lilliputians.
(postscript... If your daughter is overly athletic, hustles after balls and jumps a lot, you should consider having her wear ankle braces, or at least, high-tops. Even coach Dexter-san wears high tops and look at how many games he gets in to. Kenzie has tried almost every brand of ankle brace, including the easy to put on Active Ankles (they offer just average to poor support). The best ones we have found are the Axis Ankle - they are about $20 per ankle brace
http://shop.store.yahoo.com/satorsoccer/axanstab.html.
They are highly stable, easy to wash and are the best, by a wide margin, of all ankle braces we tested).
Episode Eight (Tri-City Christian): Yet another school of religion
The eagles of Tri-City played host to the SDA team. While it seems that every
other school we play has a religious orientation, it really is two out of three
schools that we play that are religious schools. While Tri-City beat SDA, Coach
Dexter-san told the non-religious affiliation SDA team that next year will be a
"Resurrection" and the team better play better or else all the kids
are going to come to his church of "I'm-gonna-whoop-your-a**."
Hallelujah!
Episode Nine (La Jolla Country Day): Make my (country) day.
La Jolla Country Day visited SDA and the Torrey's were beaten by both the
varsity and JV teams.
Episode Ten (Santa Fe Christian): A rivalry between David and Goliath.
 There
are many rivalries; Ohio State vs Michigan, UCLA vs USC, Yankees vs Red Sox and
SDA vs. SFC. These matches are always fun to watch as emotions run high.
While SFC is a smaller school, there volleyball team is highly successful and do
well not only in San Diego, but in the state. Plus their volleyball squad in
more than twice as large as SDA's.
Santa Fe Christian hosted SDA expecting a leisurely night of doing their nails,
listening to Christian rock and maybe breaking a little sweat against our
volleyball youngsters, especially knowing, that so many key players were out for
the match. The SDA squad could only suit up seven players.
SDA lost the first game. SDA almost lost a player to a badly sprained ankle, had
she not been able to play, SDA would have forfeited the match because they were
out of substitutions. By the end of the second game there was definitely
something to do with nails, as in the sound of nails screeching across a
chalkboard as tiny, undermanned SDA beat the highly ranked SFC girls.
Then in the fourth game, just to show SFC that they could, SDA beat them again,
by digging ball after ball, saving balls from beyond the scorers table and
turning them into points, and great serving.
Alas, by game five, the 16 girls on the SFC volleyball team wore out the tired
seven players on SDA.
We may not have won, but Coach Dexter-san could see that the Lessons of Fanta
were starting to gel.
Episode Eleven (Granite Hills Tournament): Back Row Attack
On Friday, SDA played three matches and won all using a heavy back row
attack, hitting ball after ball after ball from just beyond the 10 foot line.
The three wins on Friday placed SDA into the gold bracket on Saturday where they
faced other undefeated teams. On Saturday, undersized front row players provided
key blocks, but the SDA girls could not prevail.
Episode Twelve (Francis Parker): Quick game
SDA barely had six players and lost.
Episode Thirteen (Calvin Christian): Calvin - Take 5
SDA played Calvin for the third time this season. While the Calvin team beat
SDA, it took them five games to do so as the SDA team has improved substantially
since the beginning of the year.
Episode Fourteen (Sante Fe Christian): SFC Take 5
 The
band of young volleyball players, each a warrioress, are buoyed by a new tribe
member. The invading eagles of Sante Fe are played to five games, once again.
Coach Dexter-san, drinking the fifth can of Fanta from a six-pack, reflects to
his team. We continue to improve. Five games last time at Sante Fe. Five games
at Calvin Christian. Five games again with SFC. Dexter-san paused, and was
pleased with the improvement of his team, as each of the teams that beat the
girls were better, yet it took five games. High 5 to the team.
Episode Fifteen (Tri-City Christian): TCC Take 5
Down two games to nothing against Tri-City the SDA team rallied to win the next
two games, to even the match. Although they were overmatched, the SDA team
fought valiantly.
Episode Sixteen (Kearny): Play-offs - a victory!
Kearny visited SDA in the first round of the Division III play-offs. SDA swept
the Kearny Comets in three straight games.
Episode Seventeen (Cathedral): The play-offs end.
SDA travelled to the new Cathedral High School. The team started off very
nervous. Coach Dexter-san wishes he had brought more Fanta to calm down his
players. Alas, they lost the match.
Epilogue: Get Ready For Next Season!
With all starters returning for next year and a year of Fanta lessons under our
belt, the volleyball team looks forward to next season.
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September 15th Horizon