LEE ISN'T DONE AT VALENCIA.Byline: Ramona Shelburne Ramona Shelburne is an American sports journalist currently writing for the Los Angeles Daily News. Shelburne was born and raised in Los Angeles, California. She attended El Camino Real High School in Woodland Hills, California where she was a class valedictorian. LOCAL Donna Lee Donna Lee is a bebop jazz standard itself based on the chord changes of the traditional jazz standard "(Back Home Again in) Indiana".[1] It is named after the now-obscure bassist Donna Lee. was a young teacher just out of college, and she had her hands full with a physical education class at McClay Junior High in Inglewood. Troy Starr could tell she had something special the first time he saw her in action. ``She was amazing,'' Starr recalled. ``Those were some tough kids, but she could handle anything. After I saw that, I knew she could coach anyone.'' A few years later, he put a job where his mouth was and offered that young teacher, then known by her maiden name maiden name n. A woman's family name before she is married. Used of a surname that is replaced by a woman when she marries. Also called birth name. , Donna Hetman het·man n. pl. het·mans See ataman. [Ukrainian het'man, from Polish hetman, from German dialectal hötmann, hetmann, captain; akin to German Hauptmann , a job as the junior varsity junior varsity n. Abbr. JV A high-school or college team that competes in interschool sports on the level below varsity. Noun 1. football coach at Taft High in Woodland Hills. That's right, football, not futbol. ``She's a legitimate coach, it wasn't a sideshow See Windows SideShow. ,'' said Starr, now one of the most respected football coaches in the area. ``If she would've stayed, we probably would've taken her as a coach on the varsity.'' Hetman, now known by her married name of Donna Lee, didn't stick around, though. She was ready for a new challenge, so she moved up to start the softball program at Valencia High. The school was still under construction when she got there in 1994. There was no field on campus yet. In the 12 years since, she quite literally has built the softball program into one of the best in Southern California Southern California, also colloquially known as SoCal, is the southern portion of the U.S. state of California. Centered on the cities of Los Angeles and San Diego, Southern California is home to nearly 24 million people and is the nation's second most populated region, . Valencia has won at least a share of six straight Foothill League titles and sent 15 players on to four-year universities. Two years ago, Lee thought she had done enough. She was burned out and wanted to spend more time with her two young sons, Austin and Mason, and her husband, Greg. She even hired an assistant coach, Cristal Brown, with the understanding that she'd hand off the program to her at the end of the year. Meanwhile, on the field, her team was giving her one heck of a send-off. After years of playoff frustration, Valencia finally broke through and made it to the Southern Section Division I championship game behind sophomore pitcher Jordan Taylor. But the Vikings lost 2-0 to Royal of Simi Valley Simi Valley (sē`mē, sĭm`ē), city (1990 pop. 100,217), Ventura co., SW Calif. in an oil, fruit, and farm region; laid out 1887, inc. 1969. . When the time came to leave, however, Lee balked balk v. balked, balk·ing, balks v.intr. 1. To stop short and refuse to go on: The horse balked at the jump. 2. . She told her administration she was leaving one afternoon, then regretted it all the way home. A few days later, she went back to the administration building and told them she'd had a change of heart. ``I didn't realize how emotional I was going to get,'' she said last year. ``It's a long walk back from the administration office to my office, and I started thinking about it. I was like, `What am I doing?' I built this program from the ground up. I wasn't ready to walk away.'' The administration was only too happy to give her job back to her. She went through a similar process again this season, even telling her fellow Foothill League coaches that she was retiring at the end of the season during their all-league meeting. Meanwhile, her guts were churning and her heart was breaking. She still loved this. She still wanted to coach, still had more to give. The only reason she was getting ready to retire was because she'd said so at the beginning of the year. This week, Lee, 43, went to the administration office at Valencia again and told them she was coming back. This time, she isn't saying this will be her last year. She's not putting any more timetables on herself. Some people will read this and roll their eyes. Some will call her selfish. People don't like indecision. As far as I'm concerned though, Lee falls into the Joe Paterno Joseph Vincent Paterno (born December 21, 1926, in Brooklyn, New York), nicknamed JoePa, is the head coach of Pennsylvania State University's college football team, a position he has held since 1966. category. She has accomplished enough in her career to earn the right to decide when it's time It's Time was a successful political campaign run by the Australian Labor Party (ALP) under Gough Whitlam at the 1972 election in Australia. Campaigning on the perceived need for change after 23 years of conservative (Liberal Party of Australia) government, Labor put forward a to leave. She has done enough to be given a mulligan mul·li·gan n. A golf shot not tallied against the score, granted in informal play after a poor shot especially from the tee. [Probably from the name Mulligan.] Noun 1. on the retirement talk. Some would say she's only coming back to see if she can win a title in Taylor's senior year. ``This isn't about winning and losing,'' Lee said. ``I still have that fire. '' Longtime Sylmar coach Jeff Engilman left after the 2003 season and turned the program over to London Woodfin. Within a year, Engilman had the itch to come back. He coached the freshman team at West Ranch High in Santa Clarita Santa Clarita, city (1990 pop. 110,642), Los Angeles co., S Calif., suburb 30 mi (48 km) NW of downtown Los Angeles, on the Santa Clara River; inc. 1987. Situated in the Santa Clara valley and nearby canyons, Santa Clarita includes the former towns of Canyon Country, last year. Then last month, he accepted the head coaching job at Arleta High, a new school set to open this fall. Lee didn't want that to happen to her, too. ``I said I was going to leave, and the more you say it, you start to believe it,'' she said. ``But then it's like, `Is this what I really want?' I didn't want to leave and then a month later be saying, `Now what do I do?' '' As for spending time "Spending Time" is the first single released by Christian artist Stellar Kart. The lyrics describe the band members desire to spend "more time with God". "Sometimes it’s a real struggle to spend time with God. with her kids, Lee said that's not going to be a problem. Part of the reason she has been so successful is a hyper- organizational trait. Lee and her husband plan their schedules out at least two to four weeks in advance on a color-coded board. ``I've always been able to coach and do everything I want with my kids,'' she said. ``There's no reason I can't keep doing this.'' She's right. And she has earned the right to keep on coaching as long as she wants. We should all be grateful she has decided to stick around some more. ramona.shelburne(at)dailynews.com (818) 713-3617 CAPTION(S): photo Photo: Donna Lee announced her retirement as head coach of the Valencia High softball team this season, but has changed her mind. David Crane/Staff Photographer |
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