Cross country and volleyball: Fields pulls elite double duty for Alpine

In a manner of speaking, a perfect storm is raging through Alpine High School’s girls athletics program this weekend.

Alyssa Fields is right in the middle of it.

The junior played a major role for the Lady Bucks volleyball team that beat Shallowater on Tuesday night to earn a trip to the Region I-2A Tournament for the first time since 2003.

Three days earlier, she was the seventh-place finisher in the Region I-2A Cross Country Championships at Mae Simmons Park course in Lubbock and qualified for the UIL Class 2A State Championships.

Fields can’t be two places in once, which is a pleasant problem to have this weekend.

So, she’ll play with the Lady Bucks (33-7) at 6 tonight against Peaster (34-4) in the Region I-2A semifinals at Abilene Christian University before loading up for a drive over to Round Rock so she can run at 10 a.m. Saturday in the state meet.

“I really want to do my best in both,” Fields said. “I’m just trying to figure out how to give my all in both of them. I don’t want to let anybody down, so I’m trying my hardest.”

>> ALL THE WAY 

Fields isn’t necessarily one of the top attacking options for Alpine’s volleyball team, but she doesn’t step off the floor during the course of a match.

In Tuesday’s victory against Shallowater, her five aces were a key factor along with 12 digs and three kills.

If Alpine beats Peaster tonight, it would advance to the championship match at 1 p.m. Saturday.

Lady Bucks head volleyball coach Troy Canaba said the team devised a plan to play without Fields, which won’t be easy but will hopefully happen.

“She’s a great athlete and she’s just one of those kids who does good in everything,” Canaba said. “It’s one of those situations you never think you’ll be in, but we’re glad that we are.”

>> OUT OF NOWHERE

Running cross country wasn’t a conflict the last two volleyball seasons because Fields didn’t run until this year.

Fields is on the track and field team, however, and loves to run. So she talked with Rick Keith — the head coach who founded the cross country program in 2005 and also is the girls track and field head coach — about dabbling in the sport.

Keith gave her a summer workout program that Fields have little trouble fulfilling and came out for the team in August.

“I was just doing it for fun until the very first meet,” Fields said. “Then it started getting competitive and then I started to want to win and then I got here.

“When I started cross country, I didn’t even think I was going to be good enough and it just fell into place. In volleyball, we’ve been talking about going to regionals because we thought we’d be good enough. I expected it more than cross country.”

Call it two ways to feel a sense of accomplishment.

>> SAFETY IN NUMBERS 

Alyssa Fields might be the seventh-best runner in Region I, but she’s not even the best runner on her team.

Alpine freshman Rashae Skillern has been there all along and finished sixth place at the regional meet in a time of 12 minutes, 21.70 seconds. Fields followed right behind at 12:24.64 to give the Lady Bucks two runners in the state’s biggest meet.

“Coach and I had talked about, at the beginning of the year, what I needed to accomplish and what it would take,” Skillern said. “I kind of knew from the beginning of the year what I had to do.”

Skillern has been running competitively since she was a seventh-grader, so Keith had high hopes about what she would accomplish.

Having Fields emerge certainly didn’t hurt the freshman’s performances, either.

“It helps a lot and I think I do a lot better since I have something there and we push each other,” Skillern said. “It’s fun having friends on the team.”

>> TAKING OFF

Before he moved into the running world, Keith was Alpine’s head volleyball coach.

With a distance standout in Gillian Gatewood at Alpine High School, Keith got the ball rolling for the program.

It started in the fall of 2005 and Gatewood, then a senior, won the Region I-2A individual title and qualified for the state meet.

The hard work then came in recruiting kids to participate and building up the program, with a big payoff this season just by having the girls and boys teams both qualifying for the Region I-2A meet.

“Getting two teams out of district is just a big accomplishment for us and where we want the program to be,” Keith said. “To have two kids (qualify for state), it’s going to just be a great shot in the arm for the program and there’s no telling where it’s leading us. I’m excited about the whole thing.”

After all, there’s a lot to be excited about in Alpine these days.