As coaching transitions go, this one should be easier than most.
Brenda Somoza begins her first season as Patagonia High School head volleyball coach with a couple of important assets working in her favor: Familiarity and Consistency.
It also helps that her daughter was an all-conference player last season as a sophomore.
Somoza, who played two seasons of volleyball at Patagonia High, assisted the coaching staff the past three seasons – two years under Stephanie Padilla and last season with Andres Cuevas. Now she finds herself as the person in charge.
“I’m excited for the challenge,” she said. “I’ve been an assistant for a few years now and I feel like I’m ready. Last year I feel like Mr. Cuevas and I had a really good partnership, so I kind of just feel like this is the next step for me.”
Given the strong role she played last year in helping organize practices and setting the Lobos’ strategy, the team should benefit from operating the same system, with many of the same players. The Lobos return six of their top seven players from last season, when they went 15-8 and qualified for the Class 1A state playoffs for the first time since 2016.
The players are familiar with her, and she with them.
Return rotation players from last year are seniors Brianna Majalca, Emma Lewton, Lulu Donnelly and Ximena Gonzalez, junior Amaya Somoza, and sophomore Monique Snell. Amaya Somoza, Brenda’s daughter, has been the starting setter for the past two seasons and was one of seven players chosen for the 1A South all-region team. Majalca and Lewton were second-team selections, while Snell and Donnelly both earned honorable mention.
“My starting varsity team is going to be really strong,” Somoza said. “I have a lot of returning players. I’m not sure what the freshman class is going to look like coming in, so we’ll see. We have one freshman that’s showed up for open gym (over the summer), and she’s very promising.”
The one starter to be replaced is graduated middle blocker Alexis Fimbres.
“Those are big shoes to fill, but I think we’ve got some potential to fill that role,” Somoza said.
Patagonia athletic director Nate Porter said she was an obvious choice to fill the position.
“We’re very excited to have Brenda as our head volleyball coach,” he said. “She brings a wealth of volleyball knowledge to the program. She is great at building healthy relationships with her athletes while holding them accountable.”
Somoza said improving upon last season’s first-round loss in the state tournament is a realistic goal.
“I would love to go further than we did last year,” she said. “In order to not play such a hard team right at the beginning, we’ve got to place in the top 10, so really that’s my goal, to end the season in the top 10 in our conference, get a better seed and a better chance to go beyond the first round.”
2025 Volleyball Schedule
Aug. 27 – Bisbee, 6 p.m.
Aug. 28 — at Tombstone, 6 p.m.
Sept. 3 – at San Manuel, 6 p.m .
Sept. 4 – ASDB, 5 p.m.
Sept. 6 – Hayden, 3 p.m.
Sept. 9 – Baboquivari, 5 p.m.
Sept. 11 – at Ray, 6 p.m.
Sept. 23 – St. David, 6 p.m.
Sept. 26 – The Gregory School, 5 p.m.
Oct. 2 – at North Phoenix Prep, 5 p.m.
Oct. 8 – at San Simon, 6 p.m.
Oct. 14 – at Valley Union, 6 p.m.
Oct. 15 – at St. David, 5 p.m.
Oct. 18 – Superior, 3 p.m.
Oct. 20 – at Lourdes Catholic, 5 p.m.
Oct. 21 – ASDB, 5 p.m.
Oct. 24 – San Simon, 5 p.m.
Oct. 28 – Valley Union, 5 p.m.