MISSION VIEJO – Capistrano Valley coach Ryan Gustafson didn’t expect his team’s season to unfold the way it did.
“I knew that we had the capability of doing really well,” Gustafson said. “But we needed a lot of things to go our way, and at the beginning of the season it did.”
The bounces kept breaking in the Cougars’ favor as the season progressed.
The Capistrano Valley girls lacrosse team went 17-1, won the Sea View League, spent a majority of the season atop the Register’s rankings, and reached the U.S. Lacrosse Southern Section South Division semifinals.
The season full of highlights and his coaching effort has earned Gustafson recognition as the Register’s girls lacrosse coach of the year.
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“This was probably the most fantastic season I’ve been a part of,” Gustafson said. “Just the senior leadership we had, all the way down to the four freshmen we had playing for us, it was just a total team effort.
“It was a pretty special year, it was pretty exciting for us.”
Gustafson just completed his sixth season as the Cougars’ coach, but all of that experience hasn’t stopped him from trying to adapt and learn from his players.
“We can go to him with any problem we have,” said Cougars senior Riley Eggeman, who is the Register’s player of the year. “We’re like, ‘Oh Guf, I don’t feel like this was working,’ and he’s like, ‘Oh yeah, let’s change this and do that.’ So he works with us really well.”
Capistrano Valley will lose four seniors from this season’s team – Kayla Gerbershagen, Courtney Smith, Alli Ramirez and Eggeman. Gustafson acknowledges he relied heavily on the team’s seniors, and their departure will leave a void.
But the Cougars will return 14 players from this year’s team, which gained valuable experience in league and the postseason play, so Gustafson could end up leading the Cougars to new heights next season.
Contact the writer: amorales@ocregister.com
