By , Special to JTNews
Fielding a new interscholastic sports team at any school usually means starting out with a loser. But that’s not how things went at Seattle Hebrew Academy for its newest team.
Two months ago, a group of 13 girls, most of whom knew nothing about volleyball, showed up at the Seattle Hebrew Academy’s gym for practice not knowing what to expect. Under the guidance of Drew Artiaga, SHA’s new K-4 PE instructor, the SHA team went through a rigorous two-week training program.
Three weeks into the school year, SHA traveled to Cedar Park Christian and shocked the Eastside Middle School League (EMSL) by defeating the Eagles 2 games to 1 to win its first-ever volleyball match. Before the season-ending EMSL volleyball tournament at Bear Creek, SHA had a 5—2 record. At the tournament, SHA placed second in the Upper Division by winning four out of six matches against schools that have a student base that is 3 to 4 times as large.
What started out as a struggling new program became one of the best in the league. For new SHA athletic director, Jed Davis, it was a dream come true.
“I am very supportive of girls’ athletics, so we put a lot of money and effort into our volleyball program,” said Davis. “But the reason it was such a success was because of Drew Artiaga. It is often difficult to find good middle school coaches for girl’s sports. Drew came in as an experienced assistant coach at Lakeside, one of the more high-powered programs in the State of Washington.”
“My goal was to make volleyball an institution at SHA,” said Jed Davis. “The whole school was playing volleyball for two months. The girls had fun, they learned a sport they can use for a lifetime and, most importantly, we involved girls who normally would not have participated on a sports team. We look forward to next year.”