BY DAVID LASSEN
From beginning to end, this has been an exceptional year for girls sports at Hemet High. Bulldog teams have already won CIF-Southern Section championships in volleyball and water polo, and Hemet will play for the Division 4 softball title on Saturday. “It’s insane,” said junior Taylor Van Zee. “It’s a great feeling. Our school has really come together to support each other. We all want to do well.” Van Zee will attempt to help cap the school’s success on Saturday, as well as complete a unique individual achievement. She was a back-row specialist on the team that won the Division 4AA volleyball title, and she’s the shortstop and leading hitter on the softball team, which faces Santa Monica in Saturday’s 12:30 p.m. championship game at Barber Park in Irvine. “That’s unbelievable,” coach Jeff Galloway said of Van Zee’s opportunity to win two titles. “… That’s unheard of, I think. I mean, I don’t know many athletes that do that.” Van Zee began playing volleyball when she started high school, “for fun, and because my friends were playing it,” she said. “So I gave it a shot and stuck with it.” Softball, though, is her primary sport. She began playing as a fifth-grader, is on the Huntington Beach-based Louisville Firecrackers club team, and has made a verbal commitment to play at Washington. “Taylor is a phenomenal athlete,” Galloway said. “The girl lives and breathes sports. She plays softball very well. She knows the game well. Her head’s in it all the time and she’s always helping the team out. She’s always doing whatever it takes to get to that next step.” She has certainly performed at an elite level. Entering the playoffs, Van Zee was batting .688 with 12 home runs and 42 RBIs. “She hit a home run in every league game except one,” Galloway said. The coach hasn’t updated the numbers during the postseason — partly out of superstition and partly for competitive reasons — but given that the Bulldogs have outscored their opponents 35-2 in four playoff games, it’s safe to assume that Van Zee has remained productive. “I just look for certain pitches,” Van Zee said, explaining her success. “I’ve learned a lot over the past summer with my travel ball team. … My coaches really taught me a lot more of the game than you see as a fan watching from the outside — the mental part of the game, learning what pitches you want to hit, and how calm you should be, and just to stay within yourself. … “And it just made me be able to stay consistent, and I’m happy with that.” Maintaining composure is also the biggest lesson she took away from her experience as part of the volleyball team’s championship run, she said: “Even when things are going bad, you just have to stay calm and be aware of your surroundings.” There aren’t a lot of skills that translate between the sports, she noted, but there is one. “A lot of footwork in both,” she said. “In volleyball, you have to be quick with your feet, and playing shortstop — or any position in softball, you have to be quick on your feet and ready for any hardhit ball.” While Van Zee is a junior on a team with a number of seniors, Galloway pointed out she has assumed a leadership role. “She’s one of our captains,” he said, “and she’s really stepped into that role so that the girls are focused. … “She is dead focused on making sure we have every opportunity to win Saturday.”