Laird Is Just One of the Guys as Coach of Los Alamitos Team

LOS ALAMITOS —  After playing sports with four older brothers, Pattie Laird knows all about the growing pains of teen-age boys.

She also knows a thing or two about coaching them.

Laird, the boys’ volleyball coach at Los Alamitos High School, is one of four women coaching high school boys’ volleyball teams in Orange County.

Although she didn’t realize it at the time, Laird’s days of playing football and baseball with her older brothers in their Long Beach neighborhood taught her more than just how to run a deep fly pattern or throw a curve. She learned how to deal with teen-age boys.

“High school guys are still little boys in men’s bodies,” she said. “They’re trying to adjust. They’re two years behind the girls as far as mental and social maturity.

“It’s neat coaching them because they’re tougher than the girls. You can roughhouse with them in practice. The harder you hit the ball at them, the more they like it. They don’t wimp out.”

Laird, 36, has played volleyball at the high school, club and college levels for the past 25 years. She coached girls’ volleyball at the elementary, club and junior high levels four years before moving on to the boys’ team at Los Alamitos.

Laird had no plans to become a boys’ coach when she attended a volleyball clinic at Westminster High School three years ago. She was surprised when Westminster officials asked her if she wanted to take over.

“Bill Boswell (former Westminster coach) said, ‘It’s no problem. It’s just like coaching the girls. It’ll be easy,’ ” Laird said.

She turned down the offer from Westminster after hearing about a new program starting at Los Alamitos.

“I already lived in Los Alamitos and I thought it would be fun to work with a team in its first season,” she said.

When Laird first grabbed a whistle and started coaching the boys, a few eyebrows were raised around the school.

“There weren’t too many women who had coached boys’ teams there,” she said. “There were a lot of men coaching girls’ sports. I was treading on some sacred ground. I was walking into the guys’ fraternity.

“Everyone was wondering, ‘What’s this girl going to do? How’s she going to handle the guys.’ ”

Laird made her intentions clear the first day of practice. Play hard, do as you’re told and you’ll have no problems.

“I told the guys, ‘I’m not your mother and I’m not your sister,’ ” Laird said. “I’m not going to scream at them. I told them to do something twice and if they didn’t do it, they would sit and not play. It’s that simple.”

Setter Jason Kennedy has seen another side of Laird.

“She’s concerned with more than just volleyball,” he said. “She helps us with problems outside of volleyball too. Most of the men just want to coach and that’s it. She’s always there when you need her.”

And sometimes, Laird needs her players.

“I’ve had a good reception from the guys,” Laird said. “I have some seniors who have been with the program for a couple of years who help out. I don’t usually need enforcers, but sometimes they will go over to someone during practice and say, ‘Hey, she’s had enough.’ ”

Laird juggles her coaching schedule around a real estate career and family life. She and her husband, Gary, both play volleyball, as do daughters Kirstin (age 15) and Kelly (9).

After playing volleyball at Long Beach College for two seasons and Cal State Long Beach for one, Laird joined the executive pool of a technical corporation in Orange.

But life as a corporate wife and mother wore thin.

“I would take the kids to the baby-sitter at 8 a.m. and pick them up at 5,” she said. “I got stuck in the working-mother syndrome. I wanted more time to spend with the kids.”

Her real estate and coaching jobs have flexible hours. And when she’s not running one of her daughters to volleyball practice, she’s watching Gary play with a masters’ club team in Long Beach.

“We’re a volleyball family,” Laird said.

Laird spends most of her time around Los Alamitos in the spring. Her jobs have been demanding, but rewarding.

She coached the Griffins to a third-place finish in the Garden Grove League in 1988, their first season.

Last season, the Griffins moved to the Empire League and won the league title. They also reached the second round of the Southern Section 3-A tournament.

Los Alamitos has won 65% of its matches under Laird’s guidance. She said her experience as a player and girls’ coach has been helpful with coaching the boys.

“The women run a much faster offense and defense than the men,” she said. “Men are more power players, the heavy hitters. We run a mixture of the two styles.”

This season, the Griffins (1-2) are working with a new offense similar to one used by a girls’ club team in Hawaii.

The offense, which assistant coach Bobby Yomes taught in Hawaii, uses a series of decoys, with as many as five players approaching the net when the ball is set.

“It’s great; no one knows where the set is going,” Laird said. “It’s a real quick, high-tech offense.”

Laird and Yomes use hand signals to alert the players of offensive changes. Once the ball is bumped to the setter, he can set the ball to any of four players.

“Ninety percent of the time, the defensive team will set up the block for the wrong (hitter),” Yomes said.

Outside hitter Mike Wilson, a first-year player, said the offense is complex, but effective.

“I came out for volleyball and it was real confusing at first,” he said. “But they say a good athlete can pick it up. After a while, it was easier than I thought. It’s real effective in a game. They don’t know where anyone is going.”

Teaching the offense has been a challenge for Laird. But she’s used to that.

“There was a little disappointment among the players when I first became coach,” she said. “There’s always a hint of doubt that a woman can do it, no matter how open-minded you are.

“One of the assistant football coaches doubted I could do it, then he saw me working with the team in our conditioning class. He heard me barking and yelling, not letting the kids get away with anything. He saw how I earned their respect.”

Later, the coach pulled Laird aside and said, “That’s real surprising coming from a woman.”

“I took that as a real compliment,” Laird said.