For the Bakersfield College volleyball team, this season has been about more than just focusing on their wins and losses to determine success.
Head coach Carl Ferreira has a different opinion than most coaches on how he defines success.
“Volleyball is not the real reason that we are going to be successful, it’s more life related skills that get inner woven,” Ferreira said.
“Anytime you have an entire group of people working together for four months in a concentrated manner and you commit to a common goal, you work and put out effort, and work toward the common goal,” said Ferreira.
Ferreira said that the key to reaching that goal is for teammates to communicate, to listen to each other, to trust each other and be honest with each other.
Ferreira said that being successful is a significantly higher standard and priority than winning. “If you are able to be successful you are going to win more often. Winning is a by-product. We were able to win on the volleyball court, but it’s the end result of all the other things we put into place,” he said.
Ferreira mentioned some of his team’s high points this season. “We performed very, very consistently at a high level for a long time. We finished second in our conference. We qualified for the state playoffs two years in a row. The fact that fifteen people show up, and there are no major problems in terms of how you get along and how you communicate, that is the big highlight. You’re transforming relationships through volleyball,” he said.
“There is no greater highlight for me than to see athletes who didn’t know each other before it started (the season) collectively work together on a daily basis,” said Ferreira.
Ferreira added that there were things that his team wanted to achieve but did not. “We wanted to win the conference championship. We wanted to win the state championship, but when you don’t do those things that does not mean you are not successful. That is something I consistently convey to the players.”
The Renegades lost a match in the first round of the regional playoffs to Cuesta College. They lost all three games in the match, with scores of 30-25, 30-18, 30-24.
The Renegades finished this season 19-7 overall (7-3 in the Western State Conference South).
Players who received All-WSC southern division honors were sophomores Rachel Cox and Haylee Varner. Others who received second team All-WSC honors were: Jamiee Humphrey, Katie Cronk, Emily Ermigarat, Heather Liles and Tricia McGowan.
Ferreira said that he could not think of a single lowlight from the season. “We didn’t have any major injuries. We didn’t have any bad losses. We had nothing that interfered with our daily goals,” he said.