Posted on Thu, Mar. 27, 2008

Sometimes, they call her Jessica. Or Jess.

They're not supposed to.

'She asks us to call her `Coach,' '' senior Jackie Rodriguez said.

That doesn't seem like much of a demand. Jessica Stinemire does, after all, run the boys' and girls' water-polo programs at Everglades High.

But there's a reason Rodriguez finds it a little weird calling her coach, well, ''Coach.'' Two years ago, Stinemire wasn't standing poolside and directing the Gators. She was one of them -- an Everglades junior and an All-Broward player.

Now? Stinemire is a Broward Community College freshman by morning, and a first-year varsity high school coach by afternoon.

Not bad for someone whose teaching of swimming lessons, Stinemire said, ''would probably be the closest thing to coaching'' she ever did before taking the job.

So how did someone with no experience end up leading her former school?

Maybe it's because, as Everglades athletic director Fred Azrak put it, ``When she played, she was a coach.''

Vocal and intense, Stinemire used her pre-high-school experience -- she had been competing for years -- to lead the new program when she arrived as a freshman.

And although Stinemire graduated early -- she left before last year's water-polo season, opting to save money for college -- she kept in contact with Azrak, expressing interest in coaching while she earned credits toward a physical-therapy degree.

When Gators coach Jennifer Shapiro left to have a child, Azrak wasted no time in picking his former star.

''Jessie's very organized -- she knows the game inside and out,'' Azrak said. ``As far as being a head coach, yeah, she's got to learn some things. [But] I could have gotten someone 30 years old, and they'd have to learn the same things.''

Mostly, Azrak said, the results have been good. Though two rosters filled primarily with new players have put her ''pretty much behind the eight ball,'' Azrak said, Stinemire's ability isn't reflected in her records (the girls are 1-8 and the boys 2-7).

Instead, it's in her relationships with her players.

''I really like playing [for] her, and I respect her as a coach,'' said Rodriguez, who had played alongside Stinemire since her junior-high days. ``She knows what she's talking about.''

''She's actually much more personable [than other coaches],'' said senior boys captain Naser Elsbihi, who also struggles to avoid calling Stinemire by her first name. ``[She's] easier to relate to. She actually gets in the water.''

And she does it every practice, showing off the intensity and enthusiasm from her playing days. It also comes out in games, when she often barks instructions from behind her team's net.

This isn't always easy on Stinemire.

''It's hard for me, because I want to jump in the water and show them,'' she said. 'I just want to be like, `OK, look: Do this.' So that's why it gets me aggravated, but then I know that they're learning at the same time.''

Stinemire said she might leave BCC after this year, hoping to play at an out-of-state school. While there, she wants to keep coaching at the high-school level.

''I want to go higher,'' Stinemire said. ``High school to start, to help me get acclimated to everything, and then eventually, I would like to [coach] college.''