Lisa Baer has seen success coaching Cortez Middle School volleyball.
Baer has the led the Lady Jaguars B-team to multiple league championships. The CMS volleyball program has been a strong force overall for quite some time.
In basketball, Baer hasnt had nearly the same success. But after seven years of coaching the girls seventh- and-eighth grade basketball B-team, the Lady Jaguars finally brought home a league title to Cortez on Dec. 10.
CMS entered its league tournament as the No. 3-seed behind Durango rivals Miller and Escalante. Pagosa Springs and Bayfield Middle Schools are also in the league.
The Lady Jaguars were 4-4 after the regular season and had a first round date with Miller Middle School. Each team split in the regular season. But behind 12 points from Courtney Cashner, CMS rode to a 31-23 victory to advance to the tourney championship game against Escalante Middle School.
We had just beaten them that Monday before Saturday, Baer said about Escalante. We felt pretty confident that if we could pass Miller, we would be able to beat them again.
Leading CMS scorer Madison Archuleta poured in 12 points along with fellow seventh-grader Cashner, and the Lady Jaguars defeated Escalante, 33-23. It was the first championship in Baers tenure, as the Lady Jaguars finished with a winning 6-4 season.
All 11 girls contributed to the win, Baer said. I was super proud of their progress. Megan LaRues rebounds were huge in that game. Escalante is always really well coached. For us to beat them twice in a week, was really wonderful.
After all the volleyball championships, the 2011 basketball title is very significant for the CMS program.
I thought it was really rewarding to see the girls change so much from the beginning of the year to the end of the year, Baer said. They were really cohesive and they worked together as a team really well. I think having my assistant coach Chris Wolf helped a lot. He was really motivating to the girls.
Things didnt begin all so well, and the coaches were sceptical.
I really did not think starting the season, that we would end up winning. I was really pleasantly surprised that they won, Baer said.
Although some girls may move up a skill level to the A-team next season, Baer is confident her B-team will be challenging once again.
It shows that next year having four or five seventh graders on there, that were going to have a pretty good team. That will be good.
Reach Bobby Abplanalp at bobbya@cortezjournal.com.