The young coach

Pajaro Valley High varsity boys volleyball coach Jamie Tsuji (center) leads a warmup session prior to the team's match against Gilroy last month in Gilroy. Tsuji, 18, graduated from Monte Vista Christian School nearly one year ago and soon joined the coaching ranks at Pajaro Valley High. (Glenn Cravens/Register-Pajaronian)

This past fall, the Pajaro Valley High School junior varsity girls volleyball team was getting ready to play a nonleague contest and huddled up to give each other words of encouragement.

At the last moment, Jamie Tsuji joined in the huddle, ready to offer her own motivational tidbits to the players.

The referee saw the 18-year-old Tsuji, who looked sort of dressed to play, and asked the team a simple question: where’s the coach?

The referee didn’t realize that Tsuji, as young as she is, was the coach.

That kind of exchange was normal for Tsuji, who almost a year ago graduated from Monte Vista Christian School and soon joined the coaching regime at Pajaro Valley High.

For the complete article see the 04-07-2012 issue.

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