Fontana's Gators have the right attitude to go far

Jorie Fontana isn't making a big deal out of it.

Yes, Fontana's Crystal Lake South girls volleyball team will play at Jacobs next week, marking Fontana's first trip back to her alma mater as a head coach.

But, really, it's no big deal. To Fontana and her Gators it's just another game.

Taking that one-game-at-a-time approach to the season has worked pretty well so far for the Gators, who are 11-1 after Thursday night's win over Dundee-Crown.

"I love to go back," said Fontana this week. "I had a great time at Jacobs. Rivalries are fun, so if I can add a little to it for my players by making sure they know Jacobs was my school, then so be it. But at the same time I really enjoy it here at South and I want my kids to know they should enjoy their high school years here and then enjoy coming back when that time comes."

Fontana (nee Miguel) has to take the approach she does. Her team has enough talent that what she has to guard against most is looking ahead.

"We're just taking things one game at a time for now," says 6-foot-3 senior Erin Johnson, who is committed to Illinois. "We have high hopes but it's one at a time."

Given what's happened to the Gators over the past several seasons, that's not a bad mindset to have. Highly regarded doesn't pay the bills - performing in the clutch does. But the Gators, while winning 6 regionals under former coach Laura Jensen, haven't made it past the sectional round since 1996, the last of those great Pete Kottra-coached teams that went downstate five times during his tenure.

But this season depth and experience, above all, are what Fontana and the Gators hope take them to not only a conference title but another regional plaque and beyond.

"I think any team would look at us and say there's a lot of talent," said Fontana, now in her fifth year at South. "We're intimidating. We're tall and we have a lot of three-year varsity players. But the biggest thing is they're mentally tough. We work a lot on pressure situations in practice where they have to fight and claw against each other. They're intense and they're mentally tough and a lot of that comes from practice. They work their butts off every day."

With so much experience, the Gators know each other well, on and off the court.

"A big thing for us is team chemistry," said Johnson. "This year it feels like we all mesh real well and we all have the same goal. It helps knowing how people play and how you play with each other. That helps bring everyone together."

Senior Katie Trayser, whose sister Kristen plays at Arizona State, says Fontana's approach has a lot to do with the Gators' early-season success.

"It's all thanks to coach Fontana this year," said Trayser, who hopes to play in college but hasn't committed yet. "She's really turned our program around. (Jensen) was great but coach Fontana has really been researching other teams and lets us know where to put the ball.

"Our chemistry has been really great this year too. The experience we have is really important."

Fontana, who graduated from Jacobs in 2000 (she was an honorary captain of the 1999 Daily Herald All-Area team) and played four years at Loyola University in Chicago, couldn't be any more blessed than to have two senior leaders like Johnson and Trayser.

"Most people would agree that a player like Erin comes around once in a decade if you're lucky," said Fontana, who is married to her high school sweetheart Rob Fontana, a former baseball standout at Jacobs and Aurora University who now teaches PE and coaches baseball and girls basketball at South (he gave up football to help care for the couple's baby girl, Isabella).

"She's 6-3 and she's motivated. She fires the girls up. When she gets a kill, the girls next to her get more excited than she does. And Katie Trayser has been a real force for us. More than just being improved, she's always been a consistent player and I don't think she's gotten the accolades she deserves. She's putting up some better numbers in our offense this year and she gives you a solid all-around game. She's a dynamic force all over the floor. I'm shocked she's not committed. She's a gift to our program and she's be a gift to anyone else."

Trayser says the Gators, while focusing on things one day at a time, have some goals to achieve this season.

"We want to win conference and regionals, but we also want to get to state," Trayser said. "We're off to a great start and everything's going our way, so we're hoping state comes our way this year."

If they can finish what they've started, this could be the year the Gators finally return to Redbird Arena and the state finals.

One game at a time.

jradtke@dailyherald.com