Sayler named Bonsall's student-athlete of the year

Joe Naiman

Village News Reporter

The San Diego High School Sports Association annually honors a male athlete and a female athlete from each CIF San Diego Section member school. The award is called the Senior Student-Athlete, but Bonsall High School had no senior girls on any of the Legionnaires' 2020-21 athletic teams, so freshman Mahala Sayler was chosen as Bonsall's girls student-athlete of the year.

"It was a real honor and honestly a real surprise for me," Sayler said.

The award is based on athletic, leadership, and academic criteria. "She came in not having played tennis at all but by the end of the season turned into a tennis player," said Bonsall High Athletic Director Eric Hendy, who also took over as the Legionnaires' tennis coach after Mark Roback moved to South Carolina.

Sayler moved from Escondido to Fallbrook when she was 6 although she continued elementary school in Escondido through fifth grade. She attended both Calvin Christian Elementary School and Escondido Christian Elementary School. Sayler was a Sullivan Middle School student from sixth grade through eighth grade.

"I joined the Bonsall High School team as a complete beginner," Sayler said. "I wasn't involved in school sports."

Sayler was active in dance although with the North County Academy of Dance rather than through a school program.

"Going into high school I was only planning on doing tennis just because they said they were allowing beginners," Sayler said.

Bonsall High School has never had a girls tennis team, so the girls play on the boys team. The 2021 Legionnaires consisted of eight boys and four girls.

"It was really hard at the beginning, but I feel like I learned really quickly and I actually ended up winning a couple of games, so I was really proud of my effort," Sayler said.

The coronavirus shutdown compressed the three normal CIF seasons into two for 2020-21, and boys and girls tennis were combined including formal mixed doubles sets for the first time in San Diego Section history. In a normal boys or girls season three singles players from each school play sets against each of the other school's singles players while three doubles tandems from each team face each of their doubles counterparts.

The 2020-21 format consisted of three boys singles sets, three girls singles sets, three boys doubles sets, three girls doubles sets, and five mixed doubles sets with a boy or girl limited to two sets in a match. For some matches, the coaches agreed to use the round-robin format rather than the format which requires seven boys and seven girls.

"One highlight was playing with another beginner, so it was just us two beginners against another more experienced team and we won that game, so we worked very well together," Sayler said.

That was not only a highlight for Sayler but a demonstration of her leadership and her ability to work as part of a team. Such activity not reflected in the set scores contributed to Sayler's student-athlete of the year award.

"I feel really, really honored," Sayler said.

Although Sayler was not a senior, the 2020-21 season was likely her last at Bonsall High School and as a high school tennis player. She is transferring to Mission Vista High School, which does not have tennis. Sayler intends to be involved in various clubs at Mission Vista High School.