Written by Mike Guardabascio
From LBPOSTSports.com: When head coach Leland McGrath took over the Long Beach Poly girls’ volleyball program this season, he knew he was looking at a very young roster—this year the Jackrabbits have just two seniors playing, and only three juniors. McGrath needed to find a leader on the court to help his emerging team shape its identity, and he found one in Nailah Waterfield, the team’s libero and one of those two seniors. “Nailah isn’t ‘like’ an assistant coach, she is my assistant coach,” McGrath says. “She’s gone above and beyond what anybody could expect from a high school athlete. She even did our uniforms and our shoe orders.”
It isn’t for lack of other responsibilities that she’s stepped up—Waterfield is what’s known as a PACE athlete, a one-person embodiment of the school’s slogan, “Home of Scholars and Champions.” As a member of PACE, one of the nation’s most demanding public school magnets, Waterfield will take a total of nine AP classes in high school, including five her senior year, and she’s maintained a 4.0+ GPA through her first three years. Still, in addition to being an emotional leader and captain of the volleyball team, she’s also a captain of the soccer team. “I’m just a captain,” she says. “I’ve always been a captain, it would be weird not to be.”
And despite all the balls Captain Waterfield keeps in the air (figuratively and literally, since she’s had over 25 digs in every Poly match we’ve covered), McGrath says it never affects her focus. “She’s as present as any other athlete we have. She’s always here, mentally, she’s never spaced out. It sounds funny, but for a high school player to be that consistent is amazing.”
Waterfield’s had plenty of time to develop that focus, since she got interested in volleyball in fourth grade, when she and Poly’s other senior, Dana Banh, would play together after school. Then they played at Whaley Park, and Waterfield soon joined Long Beach Mizuno, a club team—she’s continued to play club ball throughout middle and high school. That experience, and the fact that she’s in her third year as libero for Poly’s varsity, have helped her become a vocal figure on the team. “I definitely think I’m in a natural leadership position,” she says, and then adds with a smile, “Well, leader or team mom.”
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