By John Klima
Staff Writer

This gym is a sanctuary. If there’s not a plaque with those words on it above the entrance of Mira Costa’s building, there should be, especially when its volleyball team is inside.

This is a place where the outside world can’t come in, a place where sadness and worry are locked out.

When Lisa Zimmerman held the CIF championship plaque in her hands Saturday night, it wasn’t the first time she had been part of a winning team. She had been there as a player, an assistant and now as a first-year head coach. She was asked why this particular championship carried significance.

She said it was a testament to implementing her own system, which is true. But she also won despite the loss of her mother, Lenore, who died earlier this month at the age of 67 after a battle with breast cancer.

"Especially when my Mom got sick and passed away, I had so many people around me,” Zimmerman said. “The girls stepped up and were OK with the fact that I was in and out. The seniors ran the show. It means so much to me.”

You talk to Zimmerman and you realize you’re not dealing with someone who does this job because she cares about seeing her name in the newspaper. You’re dealing with a volleyball mind that takes pride in designing her program. Her former coach, as well as mentor and friend, Dae Lae Aldrich, left her the pieces to the puzzle, but Zimmerman still had to make the team her own.

That process was more difficult when Zimmerman lost her mother, but it also helped her shape her team. Mira Costa hosted a breast cancer awareness night a few months ago, where players wore pink and Zimmerman thanked the crowd for its support. She might as well have been talking to her players.

On a team that is 34-0 and has more than a few future college stars, and probably a few destined for the pro tour, she got what she needed the most. She got, in short, herself. She got tranquility and effort. She got dedication. She got performance. She got the sanctuary.

Mira Costa needs three more victories to finish its first undefeated season since 1989 and defend its national and state championships. It won its CIF title last week, its only loss from a 34-1 season last year.

Under normal circumstances, this would be considered business as usual, but it wasn’t. The trick, however, was to create an environment that felt that way. So while Zimmerman’s players bought into her ideas, they also gave her the gift of a place to escape. While she coped with her mother’s illness, when she could come to practice, her high school players provided her with a professional atmosphere.

“As a team, we dedicated ourselves completely,” senior Lane Carico said. “It was such a hard time for Lisa and we were where she could come to get away from everything. We just wanted to be there for her and we wanted practice to be a place where she could escape. Everything that happened this year motivated us a lot.”

In turn, Zimmerman found solace in that motivation. Her team ran drills, prepared, came on time, and ran every last lap. Her players carried that to the court and are undefeated with modesty.

The truth is that these players are part of a rare high school sports dynasty, a team that is 136-6 since 2004 and is chasing its fourth consecutive state title, but they act like they’re just hoping someone put air in the balls.

Zimmerman had been the heir apparent to this job for sometime, and her mother did get a chance to see her play in high school, college and professionally. She saw her become a mother twice. The life experiences they shared ran deep.

As always, Aldrich was there. She would visit the team occasionally, and on the day Lenore died, she told the team and then let the practice go. Aldrich was the median, even though it wasn’t easy for her. But she also recognized that it helped the players.

“It did work out, I think, in many ways,” she said. “The kids stayed strong. I think they saw strength in Lisa that will help them as mothers, wives or in their jobs, or with their own families, to have the courage to carry on.”

Sympathy wasn’t what Zimmerman was looking for, Aldirch said. What she needed most was a volleyball team that would play with modesty, but deep down, take the court with the intention of playing so well that the other team would be inclined not to let the plaque hit them on the way out the door.

“Whatever personal things we were dealing with, we tried to leave out,” Aldrich said. “The gym is a sanctuary. I think Lisa needed that calm. She didn’t need them to be emotional. She didn’t need them to feel sorry for what she was going through. I think the players, in turn, respected her for the ability to walk in and be their coach. It helped Lisa and it helped the team stay together.”

Zimmerman had help from her veteran players, Aldrich and her assistant, Nancy Mason.

“Lisa has always had such great inner strength,” Aldrich said. “She’s been that kind of a person, always. She had shared a lot with her Mother, a lifetime. When you do that, you’re private in a sense that it’s the gift you have together. She’s got a wonderful husband, Andy, and she wanted to have her babies while her mother was able to be there. All of that helped Lisa cope. Because she is a private person, she was able to have volleyball here as an escape from home, and it was a good thing for her.”

If her team goes undefeated and wins another championship plaque, Zimmerman and her players will remember a season without a loss that was really marked by one loss. Display the next plaque outside the sanctuary, the place you leave the pain behind.