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McDaniel’s passion is coaching. Her biggest joy is her family. She’s blended the two with the Gators, creating a “bigger family altogether.”
“That’s not to say it isn’t hard, because it definitely is,” said McDaniel, who coaches 5th through 12th grade. “Going through two hard things … can be really high stress at times, but it’s definitely worth it.”
McDaniel, who said it can be exhausting to balance her roles as mother and coach, has found comfort in her team’s maturity. The Gators are accountable and self-driven, McDaniel said, giving their coach the flexibility to step away from parts of practice for doctor appointments, for her kids and for breaks. If her three children come to practice, injured players will often spend time with them.
“Their level of intensity and focus doesn’t change,” McDaniel said.
Katherine Carr, a senior midfielder who McDaniel has coached for seven years, said her coach’s kids are like little siblings. Carr is an example of the pipeline McDaniel has created by working with younger players.
“We’ve been building this for years,” McDaniel said. “And I’m just really proud of the program … how much they see me focused on my own family has helped create a bigger family for all of us.”
After narrowly missing the first state tournament appearance in program history last year, Hayfield entered 2024 with four goals.
While the Hawks might lack the trophy-winning pedigree of some of their Class 6 rivals, Coach Ruben Bolognesi believes this team is the best he’s had in 19 years as Hayfield coach. If any group can make program history, it might be this one.
Hayfield’s first goal this spring was to defeat South County. The Hawks haven’t beaten the Stallions since South County was opened in 2005 and took a large share of Hayfield’s students. The Hawks tied the Stallions in March, falling just short of their goal but earning a positive result. They later drew with then-undefeated Washington-Liberty as part of a strong showing in nondistrict play.
“Usually for us it was maybe two, three wins and three losses [outside of the district], or maybe more losses,” Bolognesi said.
Hayfield has leaned on a strong defense anchored by freshman goalkeeper Morgan Birdsell and goals from Howard commits Maya Blackston and Hailey Ayers to get out to a 6-1-2 start.
The Hawks have conceded more than one goal in just one game this season: a 2-1 loss to district rival Thomas Jefferson on April 16.
Bolognesi said the Hawks took away valuable lessons from the loss. They hope to use those lessons later in the season to achieve the next three goals: win a district title, reach the region final and qualify for the state tournament.
Hayfield graduated only two starters from last year’s team, and the tightknit group believes they can make program history with the lessons learned and confidence gained from last season’s disappointment and this year’s strong start.
“They believe in themselves and they do believe that they can compete against anybody,” Bolognesi said.
Ella Reynolds remembers how much fun she had attending softball camps in the Bethesda area when she was a middle-schooler. Last summer, Reynolds — now a sophomore at Walter Johnson — hatched the idea to run a softball clinic of her own. 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 over 30 youth softball players at Walter Johnson’s field for a free softball clinic. The Wildcats taught the fundamentals of hitting, pitching, base running and fielding.
The team partnered with Leveling the Playing Field, an organization that aims to redistribute athletic equipment to expand access to under-resourced communities.
Each athlete was allowed to take home the equipment given out during the clinic if they needed it, Reynolds said. Roughly a third left with new softball equipment.
“I wanted to make sure it was completely free and nobody had to have access to money to pay for the clinic and the experience that we’re giving the kids,” Reynolds said.
The Wildcats divided the clinic into five stations, one for each fundamental skill. Reynolds helped lead the base running station, where she taught the kids to round the bases faster by taking a sharp angle and stepping on the inside corner of the bag.
“That was a tip that helped me improve my game, I hadn’t heard it until a couple years ago,” Reynolds said. “Teaching these younger kids that was probably helpful for them.”
The clinic lasted roughly three hours and Reynolds considered it a success. Walter Johnson Coach Richard Carter said the team will likely host more clinics in the future.
It was all going better than Elena Juarez had expected. In just her second time running hurdles, she was actually winning her heat in a meet at Penn State in the middle of her freshman season.
But, as she rose for the third hurdle, disaster struck. Juarez wiped out, smacking her face on the orange clay track.
“It was so bad,” Juarez said. “[The crowd] was like ‘ooooohhhh.’”
But that feels like eons ago. Juarez is now one of the top hurdlers in the state. Over the weekend, the Gaithersburg junior swept the hurdling events at the Trojan Invitational in Gaithersburg, finishing at 15.03 seconds in the 100 meter and 45.31 in the 300 meter.
Those times were both nearly a second faster than her performance at last year’s Maryland 4A championship event.
A technical change sparked the progress. Gaithersburg assistant coach Herb Tolbert has worked with Juarez about alternating which leg she jumps with.
“She has always thought about and expressed her desire to being one of the best,” Tolbert said. “Now she is doing the things necessary to be the best.”
Before the 300 on Saturday, Tolbert told Suarez to go out and get the sub-47 time she had been working toward.
“How about sub-46,” Juarez responded. They both laughed at the idea.
Just over 45 seconds later, Suarez had a new personal best.
When Bethesda-Chevy Chase sophomore Rayna Kaye stepped up on the podium to celebrate earning the top all-around score at last week’s gymnastics meet against Whitman and Sherwood, she made sure to slip on a pair of cowboy boots to go with her leotard.
It was the latest in a series of country-inspired moves that began earlier in the meet, when Kaye debuted her floor routine set to the music of “She’s Country” by Jason Aldean. She had choreographed it with the help of a friend over two days at school.
“It’s one of my favorite songs, I love country music,” Kaye said. “We just spent our lunch period in my cheer coach’s room … and we were just playing the song over and over and over again trying to get ideas.”
The routine featured Kaye mimicking typical line dancing moves and tossing a few imaginary lassos before nailing a tumbling pass with a roundoff back handspring layout. That secured her a 9.45 and contributed to an all-around score of 37.
For B-CC Coach Paula Shaibani, Kaye’s consistency across every event — vault, bars, beam and floor — has been instrumental in keeping the Barons competitive with Montgomery County’s top teams, including Whitman and Walter Johnson. Kaye’s efforts weren’t enough to edge Whitman last week, who scored a team total of 180.95 to the Barons’ second place finish of 171.05.
But that loss isn’t making her any less country.
“I get a really big adrenaline boost, and I just like to have fun with my routine,” Kaye said. “It’s nice to put on a show.”
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