OCC’S Drozd caught on quick

BRYCE ALDERTON

Donka Drozd’s mother Darina Siro- mahkostova will be in the crowd

Nov. 12 when the Orange Coast College women’s volleyball team takes

on Riverside.

Fitting since it was Siromahkostova, who played under the last

name Pavlova as an outside hitter for the Bulgarian national team,

from whom Drozd, an outside hitter for OCC, learned the game.

Drozd’s play this year would make mom proud.

The 6-foot-1 native of Sofia, Bulgaria’s capital, leads the team

in kills with 144 through 12 matches while tying for the team lead

with 14 solo blocks.

The remarkable feat for Drozd, 29, is that prior to this season,

she had never played volleyball for a coach in an organized setting.

She has been in the United States for five years after leaving

communist-led Bulgaria and seems to have inherited her mother’s

volleyball genes.

Drozd, who graduated from the University of World and National

Economics in Sofia, married husband Kevin nearly four years ago. The

two live in Lemon Heights, an unincorporated area of Orange Country

near Tustin.

She has played recreationally the last three years for the

Saddleback Valley Volleyball Club, where she met Amber McCarthy, one

of her OCC teammates.

“Amber saw me playing and said I should try out,” Drozd said. “I

didn’t think I had the ability to [play at the community college

level]. Coach Chuck [Cutenese] saw me and asked me to stay.”

“We needed players on the outside,” McCarthy said. “She is real

competitive as am I. This is a great opportunity for her. She has

gained confidence knowing that she can play at this level.”

Walking into a new place full of fresh faces can be intimidating.

Drozd felt a similar sensation early on.

“Before I met the girls I was scared because I am older than they

are,” Drozd said. “I thought it would be hard to blend in, but the

they accepted me right away and it’s so nice to learn from such a

talented team.”

They began calling her ‘Dodi,’ which her mother already did.

Drozd experienced first-match jitters, but has led the team in

kills five times since the opener against Ventura.

OCC has jumped to a 13-1 record and the No. 2 ranking in the

state.

“We have good chemistry on and off the court,” Drozd said. “To use

a hockey term, we have a ‘deep bench.’ Everyone we put out there is

good.”

Drozd has learned especially quick.

“She brings this love and excitement whether it is practice or a

game,” Cutenese said. “She is a sponge. If we practiced five hours a

day, she would be there for five hours.

“She understands the game more now [than at the beginning of the

season] and her body is able to do the things she asks it to do.

Before, she didn’t move a lot around the ball. Most of the action had

to come with her waiting for something to happen. Now she moves along

the net and she understands where to be and how to move. It makes her

game more solid.”

Improvement is what drives Drozd, whose father died when she was

11.

“I can never do enough,” Drozd said. “There is so much more I need

to work on. I need to work on blocking and defense, which is so

important.”

Drozd played middle blocker recreationally before Cutenese moved

her to outside hitter.

She is relishing the switch.

“I don’t expect the best, but want to give my best,” Drozd said.

“I want to learn as much as I can and be a team player.

“Volleyball is one aspect of life. The friendships will last for a

lifetime.”

*

The women’s soccer team has struggled to repeat the success it had

last season, when Coast went 21-2-2 and advanced to the Southern

California regional final.

The Pirates (5-8-2, 4-7-2 in the Orange Empire Conference) are

made up nearly entirely of freshmen (only three sophomores dot the

roster).

Despite the miscues they might make, Barbara Bond, in her 22nd

year as OCC’s coach, has noticed the forces that occasionally work

against her players.

“We’re just not getting any breaks,” she said after a tough 3-2

loss to conference foe Saddleback Tuesday after Coast took a 2-0

lead. “It makes it easier to coach when you win every so often.”

The Pirates will most likely miss the playoffs for the first time

since 2000, but it won’t be for lack of effort, Bond said.

“They have not let down,” Bond said. “They are still improving and

that is impressive.”

What is impressive is the new field Coast should have for the

start of next season.

Synthetic turf will replace the natural grass and the field will

be configured to regulation standards (120 yards by 80 yards), Bond

said. Plans also call for a lighted scoreboard and additional

bleachers.

LeBard Stadium is also set to get the synthetic turf installed for

next fall.

The grass will indeed be looking a little greener, and shinier,

when these renovations are made.