Oakdale High School

Athlete Of The Year

Jaci Powell: Best Of The Best For 2009-10


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July 16, 2010

By Ike Dodson


 Jaci Powell wasn’t exactly the happiest teenager in the world when her parents said they were making the move from Napa Valley to Oakdale during the summer before her eighth grade year.But the worries of making new friends in a new town with scorching summer heat didn’t last long for a student who would go on to deliver one of the most impressive four-year athletic careers in Oakdale High history.“To be honest, I was really upset and was close-minded to liking the new town,” Powell said on Sunday. “But as soon as I started school and met friends I began to love Oakdale.”And for good reason, Oakdale loved her back.Powell’s exploits on the volleyball court and the Mustang track are the stuff of legends, leading to an incredible senior year and easy selection as the Oakdale Leader’s Female Athlete of the Year.Her dynamic hitting at the net led the girls volleyball program to huge success, especially from Powell’s sophomore to senior seasons, when she accumulated an astounding 837 kills and 183 service aces.Oakdale amassed at least 20 wins in each of Powell’s varsity seasons, with a total record of 77-19 across the three years. She was the team MVP as a sophomore, and nabbed first team All Valley Oak League honor as a junior. This past fall, Powell’s career high 322 kills led to a selection as co-VOL MVP.Oakdale saw postseason trips in each of Powell’s varsity seasons, including Sac-Joaquin Section Division III runner-up status in 2008. That year, Powell witnessed some of the most exciting athletic moments of her life.“During my junior year we had a great volleyball team,” Powell said. “One game that really stands out to me is the game during playoffs when we played Del Oro, who we had lost to the previous season at their gym.“Now they were at OHS and walked in thinking they had it. The gym was packed full, people who didn’t know a single person on our team and came to watch because they saw us in the paper. There is nothing like having a gym full of people yelling for you when you go up and slam a ball down on their side of the court.”Powell played with her twin sister Juli in 2008 and enjoyed sharing a court with both Juli and sophomore Domi in 2009. Juli, a standout libero for the program, will also be greatly missed when the team begins action later this year.“Jaci is an incredible, dynamic athlete who truly motivated her teammates to rise above,” Oakdale volleyball coach Shelli Ponce said. “We will definitely miss both her and Juli, and I am sure the (VOL) is going to glad that Jaci and her hard hitting has graduated.”A few months after Powell’s final run on the court, she carried her tenacity to track and field. She leapt to a school record 38 feet, 7 inches in the triple jump to earn the program’s first ever SJS Masters title. The jump propelled Powell to entrance in one of two events at the California Interscholastic Federation State Championships.Powell had qualified to Masters in two events as a junior, four events as a senior and has won SJS Division III titles in three different events (triple jump, 100 hurdles, long jump).“She is just a terrific athlete with a great competitive edge,” Oakdale track coach Dave Bacigalupi said. “She has a determination and competitiveness that you just can’t coach, but you love it when you get a kid that has it.”Powell will continue her athletic career with Golden West Community College in Huntington Beach, where she plans to use the Rustlers successful track and field squad to blaze a path toward NCAA competition.“My expectations are that it is going to be hard and that the competition will be much higher than in high school, so I will need to focus,” Powell said. “I want to transfer to a Division 1 school in either a year or two so to do that I will have to perform really good during my first year.”It won’t be easy for Powell to say goodbye to the friends and coaches she has come to love since her reluctant adoption to Oakdale life in the summer of 2005.“There’s so much that I will miss,” Powell said. “I have made my best friends through OHS sports. I am very lucky to have been at a school that has such competitive sports.”Powell is currently enjoying an extensive vacation to Europe with her sister Juli and fellow 2010 Mustang graduate, Nate Madsen. The trio will spend two weeks with Oakdale exchange student Leonie Knorr in Goslar, Germany, before trekking to a town outside of Copenhagen, Denmark, where Madsen has family.“The country is very green and lush, the food is so good and I had the best ice cream I have ever had in my life yesterday,” Powell said via email. “So far it has been amazing.”
 

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