Coach Lemenager earns honor

Erika Lemenager's compulsiveness kicks in during warm-ups. When the clock shows two minutes, her players have to start serving. At 1:30, they have to head to the bench. When she takes stats during the game, she has to use that exact same clicky pen.

Same routine, all season. Twenty eight games of meticulousness from the middle school science teacher helped her to be named this year's Appeal-Democrat All-Area Volleyball Coach of the Year. Even her motto's pure geek chic: "Greater than or equal to."

"I'm a math nerd, too," she said.

But it all works well. In her second season leading the Redskins, she helped the team win its first postseason game since 2004. Colusa earned a first-round bye and topped University Prep in the Northern Section Division V playoffs before losing to Hamilton, a powerhouse who made a run at the state title.

Peel away that shroud of superstition and quirkiness and there's a player's coach who learned from one of the area's best on how to teach, lead, and compose herself during matches. Lemenager went to state in 2001 as a member of the Yuba College volleyball team and soaked up the style of then 49ers coach Thea Post.

"You wanted to play well for her, you respected her, so you wanted to play well for her," said Lemenager, who still e-mails her former coach for tips. "That's the same way I want my players to feel about me when I'm out there." Step one to achieving her goal: Don't get angry. She remembers having coaches who yelled, and how a message never really seemed to sink in when it's screamed. So when her players hit a rough spot in a game, she'd call a timeout and use her library voice to relay them simple messages, like "there's nothing I can say or do, it's up to you."

Her nine-girl roster heard that message during their own tournament. Earlier in the day, the host school had played its worst volleyball of the season, an unforced error-riddled upset loss to Maxwell. When they were reeling against Wheatland, Lemenager uttered that line.

The Redskins went on to win the whole thing.

"I found that you get through a bit more if you just sort of relax and sit back and watch," she said. "They don't turn you off as quickly and want to please you a little bit more."

Coaching was an idea Lemenager threw around after leaving Yuba for Chico State and becoming a seventh grade science teacher at Egling Middle School. At her day job, she taught nearly her entire roster biology. When she arrived in 2009 looking to change the "just hit it over the net mentality" culture of the team, the players had already spent hours in a classroom with their new coach.

"She's always been really easy to talk to and I loved having her around," said Redskins middle blocker Caroline Meyers. "I liked her a lot."

And that whole aspect resonated through the entire roster. Like carefully timed drills and token writing utensils, the Colusa girls had strict rules on cutting hair and deemed zebra print a necessary part of the uniform.

As for next season, though, Lemenager plans to switch it up. That beloved pen, which marked down all the stats from the team's 18-10 run is out. It's currently resting on the counter at her house, but won't see the gym next season.

New year, new superstition.

"The pen is retired," she said.