Prep girls' volleyball notebook: Chatsworth's Geraldine Martinez is back on the grid

Her rebirth commenced in Mexico Metropolis, one particular of the very best girls’ volleyball players in the Metropolis Portion slapping a ball from her grandparents’ household for months as everyday living again residence threatened to transfer on with no her.

It was a extended, sluggish fall from the mountaintop for Geraldine Martinez. The Chatsworth senior was picked the City player of the yr her freshman season, but lost drive following COVID-19 strike. Her grades plummeted. She arrived to college late, listless.

The Mexico journey, in a feeling, saved Martinez for the reason that it helped help save an individual else.

“It was me just setting up all over, fundamentally,” Martinez mentioned of her return.

One particular Monday in the spring, Martinez and her household read her grandfather in Mexico was dealing with coronary heart issues. She instructed Sina Aghassy, coach of her Chatsworth and club volleyball teams, that she’d be leaving indefinitely.

“Kiddo, do the math,” Aghassy instructed Martinez. “Your grades aren’t good … it is not definitely likely to aid you, only hurt you.’”

But family members was spouse and children. So Martinez bought a airplane ticket and flew out the exact 7 days.

She was, in most conditions, the only one particular there. Martinez produced her grandparents breakfast and lunch just about every day, gave them their drugs, served her grandpa walk for some workout.

The days handed, and in amongst hurrying her grandpa to the crisis space and back, a single 7 days became two. Two became three. She stayed for two months, battling a shedding struggle with seeking to entire university on line as her GPA dropped.

“I did not have a great deal time to be performing my perform,” Martinez mentioned. “I experimented with my greatest.”

There had been rays of sunshine, though. She received to devote Mother’s Working day with her aunts and extended family, acquiring the possibility to actually join with them for the to start with time. She scraped jointly some pesos to invest in a volleyball. And slowly and gradually, she understood she was having her daily life in Chatsworth for granted.

“Mexico is completely different,” she stated. “It opened my eyes to a lot of factors — they really don't have as much possibility as we do. It just produced me be grateful for everything that I have and for the people that I have, the time.”

When she returned, after her grandpa’s well being had stabilized, her Chatsworth teammates sat down with her for a assembly and agreed to strip Martinez of her captaincy in the slide. Her grades had been tanked. She hadn’t played structured volleyball in months.

However Martinez was identified to generate her captain stripes again.

“That’s really pushing me by way of, and I know it’s heading to press me by way of the relaxation of the college calendar year,” she reported. “I hold my promises.”

She took some summertime classes, Aghassy explained, pulling her grades up to retain eligibility. She’s the initially 1 to set up the nets at tactics, initially to just take out the trash, arriving early and keeping late to assist with frosh-soph and junior varsity gamers.

On the court docket, Martinez is enjoying some of her finest volleyball considering the fact that she was a freshman — the “heart and soul” of her Chatsworth squad, Aghassy stated, top a 7-5 workforce in kills.

She’s not taking any additional times for granted.

Big swings

—Marymount has not dropped a recreation given that November 2019. In their most up-to-date effort and hard work, senior Torrey Stafford went into turbo mode when struggling with Vista Murrieta’s Claire Minor, who’s been committed to BYU considering the fact that eighth grade. Stafford dropped 17 kills in a 3-established earn, and libero Alexa Trapani had an remarkable activity in digging out some strong spikes by Little.

—Chino Hills (10-) emerged winners of the Chatsworth tournament this weekend, in a industry mainly of Town Section squads. Palisades (7-4) highly developed the furthest of any team in the Town, with Venice notably using down Woodland Hills Taft right after getting rid of to them the former weekend.