McDaniel's passion is coaching. Her greatest joy is her family. She merged the two with the Gators to create “a bigger family as a whole.”
“That's not to say it's not difficult, because it definitely is,” said McDaniel, who teaches grades five through 12. “Experiencing two challenges can be extremely stressful, but it’s definitely worth it.”
McDaniel said balancing her roles as a mother and coach has been difficult, but she takes comfort in the team's maturity. McDaniel said the Gators are responsible and independent, giving them the flexibility to take time off from part of practice for doctor's appointments, taking care of their kids or taking breaks. When her three children come to practice, the injured player often spends time with them as well.
“Their intensity and focus level remains the same,” McDaniel said.
Senior midfielder Katherine Kerr, who McDaniel has coached for seven years, said the coach's children are like little siblings. Carr is an example of the pipeline McDaniel has built working with young players.
“We've been building this for years,” McDaniel said. “And I'm really proud of this program…how much they see me focus on my family has helped build a bigger family for all of us. .”
Hayfield, who narrowly missed out on the state tournament for the first time in program history last year, enters 2024 with four goals.
The Hawks may not have the trophy-winning history of their Class 6 rivals, but coach Ruben Bolognesi believes this is the best team he's had in Hayfield's 19 years as coach. If there's any group that will go down in program history, it might be this one.
Hayfield's first goal this spring was to beat South County. The Hawks haven't beaten the Stallions since South County opened in 2005 and accepted the majority of Hayfield's students. The Hawks tied with the Stallions in March, falling just short of their goal but earning a positive result. They then drew with then-undefeated Washington Liberty as part of a strong run in non-district play.
“Normally it would have been two or three wins and three losses for us.” [outside of the district]or even more losses,” Voronesi said.
Hayfield relied on a strong defense led by freshman goaltender Morgan Barthel and got off to a 6-1-2 start with Howard scoring goals from Maya Blackstone and Haley Ayers.
The Hawks have given up multiple points in just one game this season. They lost 2-1 to district rival Thomas Jefferson on Tuesday.
Voronesi said the Hawks learned a valuable lesson from the loss. They hope to use these lessons in the second half of the season to achieve his next three goals. That means winning a district title, making it to the district finals, and qualifying for the state tournament.
Hayfield only graduates two starters from last year's team, but the tight-knit group believes they can make program history with the lessons learned and confidence from last season's disappointment and this year's strong start. ing.
“They believe in themselves and they believe they can compete with anyone,” Bolognesi said.
Ella Reynolds remembers having so much fun attending a Bethesda-area softball camp when she was in middle school. Last summer, Ms. Reynolds, now in her second year at Walter Johnson University, came up with the idea of running her own softball clinic. She wanted to give young athletes the opportunity to learn the game from the Wildcats, one of the top teams in Montgomery County.
Earlier this month, Reynolds and her team turned that idea into a reality. The Wildcats hosted more than 30 of his youth softball players at Walter Johnson's field and held a free softball clinic for him. The Wildcats taught him the basics of hitting, pitching, base running and fielding.
The team partnered with Leveling the Playing Field, an organization dedicated to redistributing athletic equipment to expand access to under-resourced communities.
Reynolds said each athlete was allowed to take home equipment distributed during the clinic if needed. We have about a third of our new softball equipment left.
“I wanted to make sure it was completely free, so no one needed access to money to pay for the clinic costs or the experience that we were giving the kids,” Reynolds said. he said.
The Wildcats divided the clinic into five stations, one for each fundamental skill. Reynolds helped lead the base running station, showing the kids how to get around the bases faster by stepping on the inside corners of the bag at a sharp angle.
“That was a tip that helped me improve my game. I had never heard of it until a few years ago,” Reynolds said. “Teaching that to these young kids probably helped them.”
The clinic lasted about three hours, and Reynolds considered it a success. Walter Johnson coach Richard Carter said the team will likely hold more clinics.
Everything went better than Elena Juarez expected. It's only her second time running the hurdles, but she actually won her heat at a meet at Penn State in the middle of her freshman season.
But as she climbed the third hurdle, disaster struck. Juarez was eliminated by slamming his face into an orange clay truck.
“It was really bad,” Juarez said. “[The crowd] I was like, “Oh my god.” ”
But that feels like a long time ago. Juarez is currently one of the top hurdlers in the state. The Gaithersburg junior dominated the hurdle competition over the weekend at the Trojan Invitational in Gaithersburg, finishing in 15.03 seconds in the 100 meters and 45.31 seconds in the 300 meters.
Both of those times were nearly a second faster than her performance at last year's Maryland 4A championship event.
Technological changes triggered progress. Gaithersburg assistant coach Herb Tolbert worked with Juarez on alternating which foot he jumps on.
“She always wanted to be one of the best and expressed that desire,” Tolbert said. “Right now she's doing what she needs to do to be the best.”
Before Saturday's 300, Tolbert told Suarez to go out and try to hit the sub-47 time he was aiming for.
“What about sub-46?” Juarez replied. They both laughed at the idea.
Just 45 seconds later, Suarez set a new personal best.
When Bethesda Chevy Chase sophomore Rayna Kaye took to the podium to celebrate earning the top individual all-around score against Whitman and Sherwood at last week's gymnastics meet, she made sure to match her leotard. I wore cowboy boots.
This was the latest in a series of country-inspired moves that began early in the competition, when Kaye performed a floor routine to the music of Jason Aldean's “She's Country.” She choreographed the song over two days at school with the help of her friends.
“This is one of my favorite songs. I love country music,” Kay said. “We just spent our lunch break in the cheer coach's room…and we were playing that song over and over again just to get ideas.”
In this routine, Kay mimicked typical line dance moves, throwing a few imaginary lassoes before completing a tumbling pass in a round-off back handspring layout. This secured her a score of 9.45 and contributed to her overall score of 37.
For B-CC coach Paula Shaibani, Kay's consistency in all events, including vault, bars, beam and floor, helps keep the Barons competitive with Montgomery County's top teams, including Whitman and Walter Johnson. I am. Kaye's effort wasn't enough last week for the Barons to overtake Whitman, who scored a team total of 180.95 points and finished second with 171.05 points.
But that loss doesn't make her more provincial.
“I get a lot of adrenaline and just want to enjoy the routine,” Kaye said. “It's fun to do the show.”
