Daily Pilot High School Female Athlete of the Week: Lynch a leader for Sailors
Before Jessica Lynch became serious about throwing a water polo ball into the back of a net, she was more worried about throwing a runner out at second base.
Lynch played both water polo and softball growing up, as well as soccer.
“My softball coach liked that I was playing water polo because he thought that it was helping with my arm, getting better at throwing,” she said.
Water polo became the focus before too long for the Newport Harbor High junior. It helps when your dad, Jason, was the Newport Harbor High boys’ water polo coach for 11 years. Jason and Kim didn’t really push the sport on their two daughters, Kristen and Jessica. Kristen actually didn’t end up liking water polo, and instead she played soccer and ran cross country and track at Capistrano Valley High.
For Jessica, however, the chlorine became a constant in her life. The family moved to Newport Beach when she was 9, and soon after that she started playing club water polo at SOCAL, where Jason coaches.
Jason, who remains a science teacher at Newport Harbor, had his daughter in his health class when she was a freshman. He remains an influence in her water polo career, too. At the Sailors’ upset win over Foothill earlier this season, Jason talked to Jessica as she waited on the lane line to take the fourth quarter sprint.
“Most of the time he just tells me that I need to drive more, be more active and move to get them kicked out,” Jessica Lynch said. “A lot of girls’ teams hold and stuff, so it’s important to keep driving and move in order to earn kickouts. In the back of the mind, I know I need to do that, [but] it’s good reassurance to hear it from him too.”
Jessica needs less and less of those. Even as a junior, she is arguably the most well-rounded player on the Newport Harbor squad. And the Daily Pilot Athlete of the Week has helped the Sailors to an undefeated start.
Newport Harbor is 6-0 headed into Friday night’s Battle of the Bay game. Besides the victory over last year’s CIF Southern Section Division 1 finalist Foothill, the Sailors also have notched wins against Coronado, Long Beach Wilson, San Clemente, Corona Santiago and Riverside Poly.
The Sailors have just three seniors in co-captain Lissa Westerman, Quincy Morgan and goalie Chloe Schilling. But Lynch has helped the hot start, leading the team in goals (21), assists (seven) and steals (13).
The latter two categories mean more to Lynch than the first one.
“I try to be the most well-rounded player that I can be,” she said. “To me, it’s more important to make good passes and assists rather than scoring goals. A good pass that leads to a goal, to me, that’s more rewarding than scoring a goal myself ... [and] I think everyone on our team is capable of scoring. I know right now I need to do my role in scoring, but I didn’t think it was like super-important.”
What’s important in Lynch’s success is her increased strength. At 5-foot-5, she’s not exactly physically imposing, but she’s put in a lot of time in the weight room and it shows. Her perimeter shooting has gotten even more deadly. Against Foothill, she had an impressive goal from about 10 meters out.
“She’s the entire package,” Newport Harbor Coach Brian Melstrom said. “She’s much stronger than last year. She shoots the ball harder, a little bit more accurate. Her game is still continuing to develop because of her improvements in her strength. She was very accurate last year, she just missed that little zip on the ball that was able to beat some of the better goalies. Now, she’s starting to develop that.”
Lynch did impress as a sophomore, earning Daily Pilot Dream Team honors while finishing third on the team in scoring. But overall, it was a tough season for Newport Harbor in Melstrom’s first year at the helm, with Katie Kearns as the only returning starter. The Sailors aren’t exactly used to finishing with a record like 14-16 and losing in the first round of the Division 1 playoffs, but both happened last season.
Newport Harbor is still relatively young, with sophomores like Kili Skibby, Karis Couch, Annie Rankin and Linnea Kelly all playing roles. Still, the Sailors are winning, even if they aren’t necessarily getting a lot of respect yet. They remain just out of the top 10 in the Division 1 poll. A win over rival CdM, who is ranked No. 7, could change that.
“We’re definitely on people’s radar more than we were before,” Lynch said. “As far as rankings, I mean, it’s a little bit bothersome being so low. But it just shows that we really have nothing to lose, in a way. We just have something to show people and prove to people.
“We’re really happy with how everything’s going. It’s an awesome feeling, going into Battle of the Bay being 6-0, knowing that we don’t have a loss under our belt and just going in to win it. I think we’re all really excited and looking forward to the game. There’s going to be a bunch of people there. For me, I think it’s just a really fun experience. We’re all friends with all of those [CdM] girls. It’s just playing against all your friends.”
The atmosphere should be great, with Olympians Kaleigh Gilchrist and Maddie Musselman acting as honorary team captains.
If the score is close going into the fourth quarter, guess whose voice Jessica might hear in her ear before the sprint?
“I take it as my coach saying it, rather than my dad saying it,” she said with a smile. “It’s just little pointers.”
Jessica Lynch
Born: Dec. 13, 1999
Hometown: Newport Beach
Height: 5 feet 5
Sport: Water Polo
Year: Junior
Coach: Brian Melstrom
Favorite food: Chocolate
Favorite movie: “The Last Song”
Favorite athletic moment: Winning gold medals twice at the USA Water Polo Junior Olympics, in the 12-and-under and 18-and-under divisions, with SOCAL.
Week in review: Lynch had six goals in an 11-8 win over San Clemente and four goals, two assists and three steals in a 13-5 win over Corona Santiago, helping Newport Harbor stay undefeated this season.
