Kayjanai Gatlin leads Rialto into the CIF-SS volleyball finals

RIALTO — It is a match the Rialto High girls volleyball team loses. But then adversity is a frequent traveling companion of the Knights and star middle blocker Kayjanai "Kay Kay" Gatlin.

Down two sets in the match and tied 6-6 in the third set, Gatlin takes a perfect set from freshman Priscilla Diaz and pounds the ball between the Aquinas High defense. The Knights celebrate.

Aquinas wins anyway, but no sweat. Rialto this season loses seven consecutive matches at one point and nine of 10, but rebounds to its current lofty status.

Thursday at 6 p.m., the Knights (12-14) play host to St. Pius X-St. Matthias Academy (16-17) for the CIF Southern Section Division 9 championship.

"I'm determined to win CIF and get a ring," Gatlin says. "We'd like to raise a banner."

Match deficits and losing streaks are small potatoes for Gatlin. At just 16, she lives with her aunt, Nadia Woods. Her parental situation is complicated, but just know that she lived in three foster homes in her young life with addresses in San Bernardino, Fontana, and Pomona.

"I wasn't with my family, and it was hard not to see them every day," Gatlin says. "I was mostly treated good, but one of the homes wasn't so good. She was verbally abusive to me and my siblings. It didn't make me feel good."

The experience turned the Rialto player inward and made her timid.

"She's shy except maybe when she's around her friends," Woods says. "She gets easily embarrassed. She was socially awkward when I first got her. But now she speaks up."

RISING UP

Gatlin gets cut from the volleyball team in eighth grade but is not discouraged. At Rialto High she takes physical education from her current coach Carla Sittniewski and is inspired.

"She asked if I'd be committed to stick with it and I said I be very committed," Gatlin says.

"She was a little awkward but wanted very much to be good, so she tried hard," Sittniewski said.

Gatlin plays freshman ball, then junior varsity as a sophomore. By the end of her sophomore year, she is elevated to varsity. Now the 5-foot-9 team captain averages eight kills per match. She also has a 4.0 grade point average.

"I used to be a very shy, closed-off person, but now I'm more out there and more open," Gatlin says. "I've improved so much that people are noticing and complimenting me. It's been good for my self-esteem."

MAKING A NAME

It is 5 p.m. on Tuesday, two days before the championship match. Sittniewski has the Knights form a line and sends the ball over the net.

Almost all the Knights are 5-foot-7 or smaller and are not sky walkers. But Gatlin's height easily allows her to reach up and rocket the ball to the ground.

"Yeah, Kay Kay," a teammate yells.

So it goes for a girl who got off to a shaky start in life but persists.

"I'd like to play D1 volleyball in college and major in criminology," Gatlin says. "People didn't know my name or how to pronounce it. But now I'd like to leave my name somewhere."