Athlete of the Week: Guyot stays goal-oriented for Eagles
As Delani Guyot dominated on the pitch last week for the Estancia High girls’ soccer team, her older sister watched through the wonders of technology.
Guyot’s aunt, Jaymi Ropp, was “Facetimeing” in the stands with Guyot’s older sister, Gianna, who also starred at Estancia and is now a freshman goalkeeper at Alabama State.
Delani was even more connected than that with her older sister that day. She was using Gianna’s old purple and neon yellow Nike cleats since Delani had lost her soccer bag.
Delani made her older sister proud, scoring two goals as the Eagles blanked Costa Mesa, 3-0, in the first Battle for the Bell game.
“She saw one of my goals,” Delani said with a smile. “She was like, ‘It must be the cleats.’”
Delani wasn’t wearing the cleats for too long that night. Her mom, Ricki, drove her and Estancia defender Sammie Haynes over to Costa Mesa High after the soccer match for their second Battle for the Bell game of the night.
“We walked up, and they were all ready to go up and warm up already, and we hadn’t even gotten dressed yet,” Delani Guyot said. “It was pretty stressful.”
Delani didn’t let it bother her. The junior had five points and four steals as the Eagles girls’ basketball team won that game, too, 55-35.
“The bus ride home was crazy,” Delani Guyot said. “We had such loud music and everyone was like screaming at the top of their lungs. It’s better in the second round, though, because then we can go get the ribs and stuff. [Ringing the bell] is the best part.”
That night, Jan. 14, was just a glimpse into the life of one of the busiest kids at Estancia High. Delani Guyot, the Daily Pilot Athlete of the Week, is excelling at both sports for the Eagles.
Soccer is her main sport, the one she plays club for Slammers FC. And she has been invaluable on the pitch this year for the Eagles, as she leads the team with six goals. Five have come off set pieces, including her strike off teammate Elizabeth Esquivel’s corner kick on Thursday in Estancia’s 4-1 win over Godinez. Guyot is not afraid to sacrifice her body on those plays.
“She gets in there,” Estancia Coach Josh Juarez said. “That’s a lot of what those set plays are, just a matter of getting there and beating your man to the ball and not being afraid of getting in there with contact. She does that. She wants to win the ball.”
Guyot said she is surprised to be leading the Eagles (9-5-3, 3-1-1 in league), ranked No. 4 in CIF Southern Section Division 5, in scoring. She sees her role as a center midfielder, where she has been starting for all three years, as more of a distributor. She believes Estancia can win its second straight league title, though it currently trails Calvary Chapel (4-0-1 in league) and Laguna Beach (4-1-0).
“We just have to get on board with each other,” she said. “Once people start recognizing that we need to sacrifice things, then I think we can all come together and win league.”
Her role on the girls’ basketball team (15-6, 5-0 in league), which is trying for its fourth straight Orange Coast League title, is one of the first players off the bench. But that’s a bit of misnomer too for the Eagles, ranked No. 12 in Division 4AA.
“If she was a senior, she’d be starting,” Coach Judd Fryslie said. “She’s been hitting shots. She’s gotten to be a real important part of the rotation.”
Guyot, who also played at No. 1 doubles with Julie Makley this fall in varsity girls’ tennis, is just a great athlete for Estancia. Fryslie and his former co-coach Xavier Castellano, who now coaches the boys, wanted her to come out for girls’ hoops as a freshman. But she didn’t.
“I thought I was done [with basketball] in middle school,” she said. “Xavy would always harass me at school. He was a security guard here, and he’d always like call my name in the hallways and tell me to play. I just never did it though. I’d watch Gianna play, and I’d be like, ‘They’re too good. I can’t keep up with that.’ But I’m glad I did it.”
Last year on the day of tryouts, Fryslie indeed saw a familiar face.
“[I said], ‘You don’t have to try out,’” Fryslie said. “But you want to play? Thank you.”
On the basketball court, Guyot doesn’t really have to be a leader. The senior co-captains and twins, Maya and Nefertiti Van Den Heever, take care of that. But she also doesn’t really have to play that sport for Estancia.
The practice schedules line up well, as she can be at soccer from 2-4 p.m. and basketball from 4-6 p.m. Even game days usually work out. On Tuesday, after she played in the girls’ soccer team’s loss at Laguna Beach, she ran to the Breakers’ gym and got into the fourth quarter of Estancia’s big 53-43 win that gave the Eagles outright first place in league. In a couple of minutes, Guyot grabbed a couple of rebounds.
So why does she do it? In some ways, she said she wants to live up to her older sister, who was also a three-sport star in soccer, basketball and softball for Estancia. Gianna had a successful freshman soccer season at Alabama State, making 131 saves and helping the Hornets make the Southwestern Athletic Conference title game.
The youngest Guyot, Nathan, is a freshman at Estancia and plays football and basketball.
“You can’t do this at a lot of other schools,” Delani Guyot said. “At times I think it’s way too much, but at the end I know it’s going to be way worth it. Out of high school, I’m never going to play basketball again. I’m hoping I’ll play soccer in college.
“I definitely want to fill Gianna’s shoes a little bit.”
She’s doing it, literally and figuratively.
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Delani Guyot
Born: Nov. 4, 1999
Hometown: Costa Mesa
Height: 5-foot-6
Sports: Soccer and basketball
Year: Junior
Coaches: Josh Juarez and Judd Fryslie
Favorite food: Sushi
Favorite movie: “The Breakfast Club”
Favorite athletic moment: Making her first three-pointer this year in basketball against Saddleback.
Week in review: Guyot helped the Eagles’ girls’ soccer and basketball teams beat rival Costa Mesa on Jan. 14. She had two goals in a 3-0 win in girls’ soccer, then scored five points and had four steals in a 55-35 win in girls’ basketball.
