Mustangs Teaming Up With Rivals On Club Team

Everyone in the South Bay is aware of the intense rivalry between Mira Costa and Redondo Union high schools.

When the Mustangs and Sea Hawks match up, it is the biggest game of the season in every sport and especially football, basketball, softball, volleyball and baseball. If you beat your rival it could make your season, and a lopsided loss will sting for a long time.

In most high school sports, athletes do not have the opportunity to play with their rivals, even during the summer months.

But the girls from the Redondo Union and Mira Costa lacrosse teams are playing together on a new club team – PCH - along with girls from Peninsula and El Segundo. 

Redondo coach Erin Garnsey put the team together along with Cherie Michaud, who was a star player at Johns Hopkins, one of the elite college programs in the country.

They teamed up last year as coaches for the LA Express in a local summer league but this summer they wanted to play against some tougher competition in Orange County. There is a question how well rivals will get along on a summer team, but according to the PCH coaches, it has been a great experience.

"Everything is coming together perfectly. It's the way we structured it at the first practice. We set the standards at that practice and told the girls that everything from the past high school season is not relevant to our summer team,'' Michaud said.

After leading Redondo to Bay League titles in 2009 and 2010, Garnsey said she was not sure how the girls from Mira Costa would respond to her.

"It has actually been pretty easy,'' she said. ''They are all very respectful that I coach their enemy during the season. They are all good girls and there have been no rivalries or riffs or tiffs."

The players had the same thoughts as the coaches.

"During the season we are much more competitive, but during the summer I have become friends with all of the Redondo girls, so it's been really nice,'' said Emma Schiewe, an up and coming star for Mira Costa. ''I already knew some of the girls because I was on a summer team with them last year, but most of our PCH team is from Redondo so it is a little different this year."

Along with Schiewe, Taylor Pool is another Costa player on the PCH team. She is one of the smallest girls on the field but she is also one of the toughest competitors - she doesn't back down from any challenge during a game.

The PCH club team has another Manhattan Beach girl on their team as well in Allyson Barry, who happens to attend Redondo. Lydia Roth is another rising talent that plays for PCH. She is a Hermosa Beach resident and also just started playing lacrosse for Redondo last year as a freshman.

"It was a little bit of a challenge at first playing with Costa girls because they are our enemy during the regular season,'' said Allison Field, from Redondo. ''They are really sweet girls once you get to know them and they are good players too."

The team has had great success so far, starting off 3-0 against teams from Orange County. Michaud hoped for tougher games.

''We wanted a higher level of competition, but we haven't seen that yet in the games we have played,'' she said. ''We have played Mater Dei twice and were hoping for more variety and tougher games."

Their biggest game of the summer was on Tuesday at Campus El Segundo against the LA Express. There are several Mira Costa players on the Express this year and it set up some interesting match ups, with Pool and Schiewe playing with Redondo girls and for Redondo's coach on PCH, and against their Costa teammates.

Schiewe had a tough decision to make, as she plays for both the PCH and LA Express teams.

"It's not so good playing against my Costa teammates,'' she said. ''I practice with both teams so I had to make a choice. I love playing for Erin and Cherie because they were my coaches last year on the Express."

The match turned into another rout for PCH, winning 12-0. The scoring was spread out with seven different PCH players scoring goals. Julia Denney from Redondo and Kaitlyn Hafdell from El Segundo each scored three goals. Schiewe had two goals while Field, Pool, Victoria Lelo from Peninsula and Meesha Robinson from Redondo all scored one goal. The PCH defense played tough all night as the two goalies from Redondo, Hayley Lane and Heather Czech, recorded the first shut out of the season.

For coach Garnsey it has been a great experience.

"We have some older girls and they are helping out the younger girls,'' she said. ''We have 10-12 girls that are really good and that's great to see that on the West Coast. It's great to see lacrosse growing and we have some girls with great potential to play in college."

With the rivalries behind them for the summer, the question remains. Which team will win the match ups between Mira Costa and Redondo next spring?

Schiewe, obviously, felt Costa will be back after losing twice to Redondo last season. "We have a pretty good incoming freshman class so it should be interesting," she said.

But Field, who has started for Redondo for three years and knows all about the rivalry, had a different take.

"I think we got them next year,'' she said. ''With our undefeated JV girls moving up, we will win. We got them again."