Post by Admin on Jun 15, 2024 21:00:32 GMT -8
I had some thoughts about the season still rattling away in my brain that I hadn't yet committed to writing. Here they are in brief essay form.
Relative geographic strength
So we've had a couple of Section champions come out of the southern half of the Section (essentially south of Stockton) in recent years. Ripon Christian won back-to-back Division 4 championships in 2022 and 2023. And Lathrop won the Division 3 championship in 2022. But there were no Section champions from outside the greater Sacramento area this year. Rio Americano, Christian Brothers, and Futures all have Sacramento addresses, while Pleasant Grove is in Elk Grove. But Vanden (D3) and Ben Holt Prep (D4) did make it to championship matches in the Section playoffs this year. Neither won, but either of them could have. In fact, the matchup between Ben Holt and Futures in the D4 final was probably much closer than I would have imagined at any point before or during the season. And Ben Holt returns almost everybody next season (it will be tough to replace libero Gabriel Fernandez, who I will talk about a bit more farther down this page). I would consider Ben Holt even-odds to at least return to the D4 championship match again next year.
The problem, though, is that, with the exception of those two finalists this year, the southern half of the Section (I do consider Vanden part of the southern half; look at a map and see much farther south Fairfield is than Sacramento) took a bit of a step backwards. Weston Ranch was an early darling in the rankings, and Sierra and Manteca fought it out for the VOL title. Lathrop was again very strong. Enochs continued to dominate the early history of the CCAL, and CCC teams Buhach Colony and Golden Valley were also very strong. But none of those teams, save Lathrop, went as far in the playoffs as you could have expected. I think a big part of the problem is that those teams don't face enough other strong teams during the season to boost their strength of schedule for the rankings. The rankings are pivotal for teams to draw higher seeds, and thus easier playoff matchups, in the playoffs. Strength of schedule is almost as vital, if not moreso, than a team's overall record in the rankings. So it would seem incredibly important for the southern schools to try to schedule more matches with the norther schools, not only to challenge themselves, but also to boost their own schedule strength. I know some coaches are already doing that. Coach Dalston Spencer really challenged his Vanden squad with a strong non-conference schedule. They also got a boost from being placed in the Metro Conference this year. They won't have that advantage next year, so he'll have to shoot for even more difficult non-conference matches. Eli Anderson at Ben Holt really challenged his team as well, going after many D3, D2, and even D1 schools. I expect he'll do that again next year.
As I said above, I expect Ben Holt to be very strong. I think Lathrop is on track for another Section championship run, as well. There are some other southern schools that will be strong next year, but I think they need to be more selective in how they schedule their matches next year. Selfishly, I've been wishing for more north vs. south matchups every season. I really want to see all the teams from throughout the Section mixing up with teams from outside their small corner of the world. I know it's tough to do too much of that due to the distances that have to be traveled. But I know Coach Thomas Spells of Grant not only scheduled a match with Merced HS this season, but agreed travel to Merced for the match. I would like to see more of that attitude pervade the Section. After their Division 1 playoff play-in game, I heard the coaches from Hiram Johnson and Pitman discussing a non-conference matchup next season. I sure hope that comes off. And I would love to see more of it.
I found the setters
Prior to the start of the 2024 season I wrote an essay titled "Where have all the great setters gone?" that I included in a post called "Themes". The premise was that there weren't that many great setters to be found in the Sac-Joaquin Section. Boy, was I ever wrong! I identified a list of setters who I considered the top of the list in the Section. That (short) list was:
• Andrew Taylor, Senior, Woodcreek HS
• Alex Zimmerman, Senior, Ponderosa HS
• Kinilo Sumait, Senior, Patterson HS
• Primo Estandarte, Senior, Sierra HS
• Samson Vang, Senior, Merced HS
• Armaan Prakash, Senior, Franklin (Elk Grove) HS
• Jack Reynolds, Junior, Oak Ridge HS
• Tavas Spencer, Junior, Vanden HS
• Andre Suico, Sophomore, Enochs HS
I did a pretty good job with this list. Taylor, Estandarte, Reynolds, and Suico were all voted onto this year's All-Section team. Zimmerman was hurt by the fact that he didn't have as talented a team at Ponderosa as they are used to. But he showed off his skills to their fullest at the recent Optimist All-Star matches, as did Sumait and Vang. And Spencer lead his team to a Section championship match. The only "miss" on that list was Prakash, who never got the chance to show what he could do for his new school, because the CIF deemed him ineligible due to his transfer.
But this list was far short of identifying all the great setter performances that happened this year. One of the questions I had in that early season essay was whether some of the very talented teams in the Section would get adequate setter play to put them over the top to success. One player I mentioned specifically was Rio Americano's Shane Newberry. For the last two years, I've been referring to Newberry as an outside hitter who is forced to set for his team. That was an insult to Newberry and he showed this year why he should be considered one of the best setters in the Section, not just this year, but in any year. Rio's team this year was as good as any team the Section has ever produced, and much of that success is owed to Newberry's performance. The same could be said about Andrey Galagot of Futures HS. Galagot rounded into a very fine overall setter for his senior year and lead his team to a Section championship. About the only reason I could have seen for Futures not a win the D4 crown this year was if Galagot didn't hold up his end of the bargain. He did far more than that. He had a special season, culminated by a superb performance in the Section championship match against Ben Holt. It's a shame he didn't get more acclaim for his performance this year. Some would think Galagot was made to look good by having such great attackers, like Alex Esir and Julian Bodnar, but I might argue that Esir and Bodnar were so good because of Galagot. I also mentioned teams like Pleasant Grove and Del Oro, who I thought might be searching for setters this year. Brendon Nguyen from PG was masterful this season and much of the reason why his team won their own Section championship. He has one more year to do it again, and I like his odds. As for Del Oro, they found gold with a couple youngsters, James Learn and Nicholas Tarabetz. Both of them have a ways to go to be fully considered great, but they did well enough to team up in leading their team to a Section championship final.
Then there is Christian Brothers’ junior setter Nolan Nguyen. Nguyen is small in stature, but he is as skilled as anyone in the Section at the setter position. His size isn't really a blocking liability (he can get up there), but even if it was, he is too valuable running their offense to take off the court. So it's a 5-1, and not a 6-2, for CB. There is also Joseph Tran from Vacaville Christian, who wasn't even on my radar at the start of the season. That's not because I didn't already know how good Tran is, but because I didn't know he was going to be playing high school volleyball in the Section. Tran, a former home-schooled student, joined Vacaville Christian to help him get accepted by colleges to play volleyball. Tran, a junior this year, has already committed to attend and play for The Master's University in two years. If you have not had the pleasure of watching Tran play, I recommend any reading this try to get out to a VC match next year. He may be the most physically-gifted of all the setters mentioned here.
Next, I have to mention, Jesuit's special freshman Nolan Marks. I'm not sure the Section has seen anything the likes of Marks, a freshman who could be argued was the best setter in the Section. (That would be a fun debate to compare Marks to Taylor and Zimmerman). He has three more years to show just how good he is. I knew of Nolan for a couple years before he even got to high school. Knowing how successful his older brothers (Taylor and Colin) were at the setter position, you would say he has big shoes to fill. However, I have thought for some time that Nolan will be the best of the bunch. He has his older brothers (he oldest, Logan, a non-setter, included) for that. They have prepared him for this and now they'll probably get to see him exceed their high school accomplishments. It's going to be fun to watch.
There are a few others, some graduating seniors and others with more years to show off their skills, that I feel I should mention, in no particular order:
• Brandon Fulks, Wheatland HS, Senior
• Mark Bondoc, Manteca HS, Junior
• Elijah Savala, River Valley HS, Senior
• Eleazar Nava Valenzuela, Weston Ranch HS, Senior
• Thomas Hoffman, El Capitan HS, Junior
• Cayden Phan, Stone Ridge Christian, Junior
• Rodolfo Rocha, East Union HS, Sophomore
• Jimmy Decker, John Adams Academy (Roseville), Junior
• Alexander Vere, Lathrop HS, Senior
• Aidan Wong, Laguna Creek HS, Sophomore
• Jayden Ku, West Park HS, Senior
• Mark Lin, Monterey Trail HS, Senior
• Rylan Sanchez, Downey HS, Sophomore
There are a number of other young setters I saw this season who I feel I will be mentioning more prominently next year. But that's enough for now. It's plenty to demonstrate that the setter position is well-manned in the Section.
Year of the Libero
So my low expectations for the setter position were proven wrong, but there was one other position that really stood out for me this season, the libero position. I have to admit that before I started this forum, I didn’t pay much attention to the libero position. Since then, someone I am very close to excelled at that position, so I’ve started paying more attention to those who play it. I also think that once you start watching as much volleyball as I do, you really do see and appreciate what a good libero brings to his team. It’s an underrated and underappreciated position, but I don’t think teams can really be good without a competent libero. It was also interesting that only two liberos from the entire Section were voted onto this year’s All-Section team and both only earned Honorable Mention. Some might think it’s because there wasn’t much talent at the position. It’s not the last couple years when Ben Cohen of Woodcreek and Lorenzo Crisol were the consensus two best liberos in the Section. There were no superstars at the position this year, but I think that’s because there were so many really good ones that none of them rose above the rest. I’ll touch on that a little later in this essay.
I don’t know if anyone else noticed it, but I was blown away this year by how many standout liberos there were in the Section. Many of them were seniors this year, but some of the most impressive players I saw at this position this year were underclassmen. That includes a couple of freshmen, most particularly Jacoby Rugnao of Christian Brothers HS. He was a freshman who looked even younger than he is. I think a strong wind might knock him down, but don’t let his size and stature fool you. This young man can play. He’s an above average passer on serve receive, which means he has some work to do to be truly special. But where he really excels is his floor defense. I cannot think of any other liberos this year who were as adept at reading plays, covering for his hitters, and just flat-out getting to balls that he really had no right to get to. He plays with a reckless abandon that you want to see, and only see in the very best at this position. I can’t wait to see how he progresses with more experience and as he progresses physically.
In the sophomore class, the standout for me was St. Mary’s HS’s Dylan Neves. Neves may have been arguably the best libero I saw this year. He is so solid at all aspects of the position. His passing off serve receive is absolutely spot on. When I saw them play, St. Mary’s offense was in-system much of the time and that was due to Neves. And he’s as fearless as Rugnao or any other libero. I would recommend to anyone to watch him play. He has two years of high school ball left, and I think he will do nothing but get better and better.
In the junior class, the top guy in my opinion was Kenneth Mua of El Capitan HS. Most of the fans in the Section would not have had a chance to see him play with El Cap being so far south and really coming very far north. But I watched him play early in the season at the Orestimba HS tournament. Not only was he the best libero in the gym, I think he was the most valuable player of that tournament, as El Cap won it. I don’t recall him making a mistake during the matches I saw him play. And that goes for later, when I saw him at the Golden Valley HS tournament. He certainly made a good enough impression on a sufficient number of coaches to be one of the two liberos to earn Honorable Mention to the All-Section team. I hope more people get to see him play next year.
As for the other libero making it on to the All-Section team, that was Woodcreek HS’s senior Sutter Swope. There were a ton of really good senior liberos in the large school conferences on the north side of Sacramento. And every coach I talked to, with one exception, told me their libero was the best. The only coach who never said a thing about his libero was Woodcreek’s Brian Jew. I think Jew knew that he didn’t need to talk up Swope. He knew Swope’s game would do the talking for him.
So that was one libero in each of the four classes, but they were hardly the only ones. Here are a few more liberos by class that I thought were very good this year:
Freshmen:
• Bhar Chintaluri, Folsom HS
• Naryan Banarjee, Jesuit HS
Sophomores:
• Gavin Roeker, Whitney HS
• Benjamin Lee, Mesa Verde HS
• Miguel Montoya, Westlake Charter HS
Juniors:
• Aveon Kao, Grace Davis HS
• Caden Pancoast, Del Oro HS
• Kayden Downey, Stone Ridge Christian HS
• David McCarl, Rio Americano HS
Seniors:
• Gabriel Fernandez, Ben Holt Collegiate Prep Academy
• Ian Yang, Natomas HS
• Dylan Hoang, Vanden HS
• George Buljan, Oakmont HS
• Gavin Sweyd, Oak Ridge HS
• Jacob Delrosario, River City HS
• Jayden Sagaral, Pleasant Grove HS
• Jeshua Rivera, Bear Creek HS
• Wyatt Nunes, Kimball HS
There are so many others. In fact, when talking about the voting for the All-Section team, there were 19 liberos who earned at least one vote, including Mua and Swope. I think all those votes kind of cancelled each other out. Like I said above, when Crisol and Cohen were around, there were not many other liberos earning votes. This year, so many got votes that only a couple got enough to actually make it onto the team. I think that may happen again next year to some extent. But I know one thing, I’m going to enjoy watching all these talented players play this position.
Coach Recognition
So one coach, Gabe Gardner of Rio Americano HS, was highlighted as the Coach of the Year in the Section, and deservedly so. However, Gardner was not the only standout coach in my opinion. I wanted to take a few minutes to call out a few other coaches who did, and continue to do, a tremendous job coaching their teams. First, I would be remiss in not naming the other coaches who lead their teams to Section championships. Those coaches were Brian Contreras of Pleasant Grove HS, Charles King of Christian Brothers HS, and Samuel Yun of Futures HS. Contreras has been around from the very beginning at PG and has built it into a great program. King is proving to be one of the best coaches in the Section, after having been one of the best players I’ve ever seen in the Section. And Yun did an absolutely remarkable job in his second year of molding his team into a championship team.
Speaking of Yun, he is among a group of really young, passionate, and energetic coaches who have emerged in the last few years. I would include the following coaches in that category: Eli Anderson of Ben Holt Collegiate Prep Academy, Zach DeBoer of West Park HS, Alicia Borges of Vacaville Christian HS, Bradley Tran of Sheldon HS, Zeeshan Sevilla-Ahmad of Folsom HS, Gil Pascua of Natomas HS, Sabrina Ballin of East Union HS, Lauren Leonardo of Buhach Colony HS, Regan Green of Golden Valley HS, Carlee Felber of Orestimba HS, Anthony Brockman of Elk Grove HS, and Katie Haley of Del Oro HS.
Other, let’s say, more experienced coaches who did a great job this year, many of whom seem to be in this list every year, include: Toa Fa’ali’i of Lathrop HS, Kevin Tameling of Ripon Christian HS, Tara Maruyama of Ripon HS, Joe Wortmann of St. Mary’s HS, Rob Wortmann of River City HS, Brian Jew of Woodcreek HS, Kingsley Claudy of Monterey Trail HS, Dalston Spencer of Vanden HS, Prima Glorioso of Granite Bay HS, Range Larson of Oak Ridge HS, Spencer Barclay of Enochs HS, and Rebecca Kinlaw of Weston Ranch HS, among so many others.
There are two other coaches I would like to mention. These are a couple coaches who have distinguished themselves over the last few years, one in particular who should go down as one of the best boy’s volleyball varsity coaches even in this Section. I want to mention them both in particular because it seems likely that neither will be coaching next year. The first is Rachel Hinojosa from Davis Senior HS. Coach Hinojosa has been leading the Blue Devils since the days of COVID. The year after COVID, her team were mainly freshmen and the team was not so good. Fast forward four years and many of those freshmen from 2021 were senior this years, including Liam Langley and Ethan Wells. Coach Hinojosa had actually moved out of California, but came back from her new home in the Midwest just to finish up the job with these boys that she had been coaching since they were freshmen. They had really high hopes coming into the season, as did I for them. But it didn’t quite work out for them, although they did make it to the quarterfinals of the Division 1 playoffs. As I mentioned, it seems unlikely that Coach Hinojosa will be back at Davis next year, but she should be very proud of the job she did with her team. She will be missed in this area if she indeed does not return.
The other coach I want to recognize is Sara Marks from Jesuit HS. Coach Marks has also lead her team since pre-COVID and in years when they had Section playoffs, her teams had never finished earlier than the semi-finals in Division 1. For two years when there were no playoffs, her teams were arguably the best in the Section. Coach Marks won two D1 Section titles, lost in the D1 final this year, and also lost two NorCal championship matches in the last three years. Coach Marks has told me that 2024 was her last year coaching the boy’s volleyball team at Jesuit. She still has one son on the team at Jesuit, but her three older boys are all playing college volleyball, and in fact, the two oldest just announced their intentions to transfer to the new men’s volleyball program at William Jessup University in Rocklin. Coach Marks wants to be a volleyball parent instead of a coach, so she can watch all of her sons play. She will be sadly missed amongst the ranks of the coaches in the Section. Her shoes will be extremely large to fill, but we should all wish her well going forward.
A final word, especially after I’ve written about Coaches Hinojosa and Marks. Theirs are among the names of quite a few women coaches I’ve mentioned in this essay. It is extremely gratifying to see so many women succeeding on the boy’s volleyball side in the Sac-Joaquin Section. I hope the boys who play for women coaches realize the value of doing so. I am a big fan of women coaching on the boys/men side of volleyball. No offense to the many great male coaches in the Section, but there is something about playing for a female coach that I believe can be very beneficial to these boys. It’s what makes it especially sad when coaches like Rachel Hinojosa and Sara Marks step away from coaching. We’re very lucky to have them and all the other great women coaches in this Section.
With that, I think that well and truly wraps up the 2024 boy’s high school season. It was another great one. I’m enjoying the relative relaxation of covering the few summer club tournaments, but I’m already thinking about the start of the 2025 high school season. February will roll around before we even know it.
Relative geographic strength
So we've had a couple of Section champions come out of the southern half of the Section (essentially south of Stockton) in recent years. Ripon Christian won back-to-back Division 4 championships in 2022 and 2023. And Lathrop won the Division 3 championship in 2022. But there were no Section champions from outside the greater Sacramento area this year. Rio Americano, Christian Brothers, and Futures all have Sacramento addresses, while Pleasant Grove is in Elk Grove. But Vanden (D3) and Ben Holt Prep (D4) did make it to championship matches in the Section playoffs this year. Neither won, but either of them could have. In fact, the matchup between Ben Holt and Futures in the D4 final was probably much closer than I would have imagined at any point before or during the season. And Ben Holt returns almost everybody next season (it will be tough to replace libero Gabriel Fernandez, who I will talk about a bit more farther down this page). I would consider Ben Holt even-odds to at least return to the D4 championship match again next year.
The problem, though, is that, with the exception of those two finalists this year, the southern half of the Section (I do consider Vanden part of the southern half; look at a map and see much farther south Fairfield is than Sacramento) took a bit of a step backwards. Weston Ranch was an early darling in the rankings, and Sierra and Manteca fought it out for the VOL title. Lathrop was again very strong. Enochs continued to dominate the early history of the CCAL, and CCC teams Buhach Colony and Golden Valley were also very strong. But none of those teams, save Lathrop, went as far in the playoffs as you could have expected. I think a big part of the problem is that those teams don't face enough other strong teams during the season to boost their strength of schedule for the rankings. The rankings are pivotal for teams to draw higher seeds, and thus easier playoff matchups, in the playoffs. Strength of schedule is almost as vital, if not moreso, than a team's overall record in the rankings. So it would seem incredibly important for the southern schools to try to schedule more matches with the norther schools, not only to challenge themselves, but also to boost their own schedule strength. I know some coaches are already doing that. Coach Dalston Spencer really challenged his Vanden squad with a strong non-conference schedule. They also got a boost from being placed in the Metro Conference this year. They won't have that advantage next year, so he'll have to shoot for even more difficult non-conference matches. Eli Anderson at Ben Holt really challenged his team as well, going after many D3, D2, and even D1 schools. I expect he'll do that again next year.
As I said above, I expect Ben Holt to be very strong. I think Lathrop is on track for another Section championship run, as well. There are some other southern schools that will be strong next year, but I think they need to be more selective in how they schedule their matches next year. Selfishly, I've been wishing for more north vs. south matchups every season. I really want to see all the teams from throughout the Section mixing up with teams from outside their small corner of the world. I know it's tough to do too much of that due to the distances that have to be traveled. But I know Coach Thomas Spells of Grant not only scheduled a match with Merced HS this season, but agreed travel to Merced for the match. I would like to see more of that attitude pervade the Section. After their Division 1 playoff play-in game, I heard the coaches from Hiram Johnson and Pitman discussing a non-conference matchup next season. I sure hope that comes off. And I would love to see more of it.
I found the setters
Prior to the start of the 2024 season I wrote an essay titled "Where have all the great setters gone?" that I included in a post called "Themes". The premise was that there weren't that many great setters to be found in the Sac-Joaquin Section. Boy, was I ever wrong! I identified a list of setters who I considered the top of the list in the Section. That (short) list was:
• Andrew Taylor, Senior, Woodcreek HS
• Alex Zimmerman, Senior, Ponderosa HS
• Kinilo Sumait, Senior, Patterson HS
• Primo Estandarte, Senior, Sierra HS
• Samson Vang, Senior, Merced HS
• Armaan Prakash, Senior, Franklin (Elk Grove) HS
• Jack Reynolds, Junior, Oak Ridge HS
• Tavas Spencer, Junior, Vanden HS
• Andre Suico, Sophomore, Enochs HS
I did a pretty good job with this list. Taylor, Estandarte, Reynolds, and Suico were all voted onto this year's All-Section team. Zimmerman was hurt by the fact that he didn't have as talented a team at Ponderosa as they are used to. But he showed off his skills to their fullest at the recent Optimist All-Star matches, as did Sumait and Vang. And Spencer lead his team to a Section championship match. The only "miss" on that list was Prakash, who never got the chance to show what he could do for his new school, because the CIF deemed him ineligible due to his transfer.
But this list was far short of identifying all the great setter performances that happened this year. One of the questions I had in that early season essay was whether some of the very talented teams in the Section would get adequate setter play to put them over the top to success. One player I mentioned specifically was Rio Americano's Shane Newberry. For the last two years, I've been referring to Newberry as an outside hitter who is forced to set for his team. That was an insult to Newberry and he showed this year why he should be considered one of the best setters in the Section, not just this year, but in any year. Rio's team this year was as good as any team the Section has ever produced, and much of that success is owed to Newberry's performance. The same could be said about Andrey Galagot of Futures HS. Galagot rounded into a very fine overall setter for his senior year and lead his team to a Section championship. About the only reason I could have seen for Futures not a win the D4 crown this year was if Galagot didn't hold up his end of the bargain. He did far more than that. He had a special season, culminated by a superb performance in the Section championship match against Ben Holt. It's a shame he didn't get more acclaim for his performance this year. Some would think Galagot was made to look good by having such great attackers, like Alex Esir and Julian Bodnar, but I might argue that Esir and Bodnar were so good because of Galagot. I also mentioned teams like Pleasant Grove and Del Oro, who I thought might be searching for setters this year. Brendon Nguyen from PG was masterful this season and much of the reason why his team won their own Section championship. He has one more year to do it again, and I like his odds. As for Del Oro, they found gold with a couple youngsters, James Learn and Nicholas Tarabetz. Both of them have a ways to go to be fully considered great, but they did well enough to team up in leading their team to a Section championship final.
Then there is Christian Brothers’ junior setter Nolan Nguyen. Nguyen is small in stature, but he is as skilled as anyone in the Section at the setter position. His size isn't really a blocking liability (he can get up there), but even if it was, he is too valuable running their offense to take off the court. So it's a 5-1, and not a 6-2, for CB. There is also Joseph Tran from Vacaville Christian, who wasn't even on my radar at the start of the season. That's not because I didn't already know how good Tran is, but because I didn't know he was going to be playing high school volleyball in the Section. Tran, a former home-schooled student, joined Vacaville Christian to help him get accepted by colleges to play volleyball. Tran, a junior this year, has already committed to attend and play for The Master's University in two years. If you have not had the pleasure of watching Tran play, I recommend any reading this try to get out to a VC match next year. He may be the most physically-gifted of all the setters mentioned here.
Next, I have to mention, Jesuit's special freshman Nolan Marks. I'm not sure the Section has seen anything the likes of Marks, a freshman who could be argued was the best setter in the Section. (That would be a fun debate to compare Marks to Taylor and Zimmerman). He has three more years to show just how good he is. I knew of Nolan for a couple years before he even got to high school. Knowing how successful his older brothers (Taylor and Colin) were at the setter position, you would say he has big shoes to fill. However, I have thought for some time that Nolan will be the best of the bunch. He has his older brothers (he oldest, Logan, a non-setter, included) for that. They have prepared him for this and now they'll probably get to see him exceed their high school accomplishments. It's going to be fun to watch.
There are a few others, some graduating seniors and others with more years to show off their skills, that I feel I should mention, in no particular order:
• Brandon Fulks, Wheatland HS, Senior
• Mark Bondoc, Manteca HS, Junior
• Elijah Savala, River Valley HS, Senior
• Eleazar Nava Valenzuela, Weston Ranch HS, Senior
• Thomas Hoffman, El Capitan HS, Junior
• Cayden Phan, Stone Ridge Christian, Junior
• Rodolfo Rocha, East Union HS, Sophomore
• Jimmy Decker, John Adams Academy (Roseville), Junior
• Alexander Vere, Lathrop HS, Senior
• Aidan Wong, Laguna Creek HS, Sophomore
• Jayden Ku, West Park HS, Senior
• Mark Lin, Monterey Trail HS, Senior
• Rylan Sanchez, Downey HS, Sophomore
There are a number of other young setters I saw this season who I feel I will be mentioning more prominently next year. But that's enough for now. It's plenty to demonstrate that the setter position is well-manned in the Section.
Year of the Libero
So my low expectations for the setter position were proven wrong, but there was one other position that really stood out for me this season, the libero position. I have to admit that before I started this forum, I didn’t pay much attention to the libero position. Since then, someone I am very close to excelled at that position, so I’ve started paying more attention to those who play it. I also think that once you start watching as much volleyball as I do, you really do see and appreciate what a good libero brings to his team. It’s an underrated and underappreciated position, but I don’t think teams can really be good without a competent libero. It was also interesting that only two liberos from the entire Section were voted onto this year’s All-Section team and both only earned Honorable Mention. Some might think it’s because there wasn’t much talent at the position. It’s not the last couple years when Ben Cohen of Woodcreek and Lorenzo Crisol were the consensus two best liberos in the Section. There were no superstars at the position this year, but I think that’s because there were so many really good ones that none of them rose above the rest. I’ll touch on that a little later in this essay.
I don’t know if anyone else noticed it, but I was blown away this year by how many standout liberos there were in the Section. Many of them were seniors this year, but some of the most impressive players I saw at this position this year were underclassmen. That includes a couple of freshmen, most particularly Jacoby Rugnao of Christian Brothers HS. He was a freshman who looked even younger than he is. I think a strong wind might knock him down, but don’t let his size and stature fool you. This young man can play. He’s an above average passer on serve receive, which means he has some work to do to be truly special. But where he really excels is his floor defense. I cannot think of any other liberos this year who were as adept at reading plays, covering for his hitters, and just flat-out getting to balls that he really had no right to get to. He plays with a reckless abandon that you want to see, and only see in the very best at this position. I can’t wait to see how he progresses with more experience and as he progresses physically.
In the sophomore class, the standout for me was St. Mary’s HS’s Dylan Neves. Neves may have been arguably the best libero I saw this year. He is so solid at all aspects of the position. His passing off serve receive is absolutely spot on. When I saw them play, St. Mary’s offense was in-system much of the time and that was due to Neves. And he’s as fearless as Rugnao or any other libero. I would recommend to anyone to watch him play. He has two years of high school ball left, and I think he will do nothing but get better and better.
In the junior class, the top guy in my opinion was Kenneth Mua of El Capitan HS. Most of the fans in the Section would not have had a chance to see him play with El Cap being so far south and really coming very far north. But I watched him play early in the season at the Orestimba HS tournament. Not only was he the best libero in the gym, I think he was the most valuable player of that tournament, as El Cap won it. I don’t recall him making a mistake during the matches I saw him play. And that goes for later, when I saw him at the Golden Valley HS tournament. He certainly made a good enough impression on a sufficient number of coaches to be one of the two liberos to earn Honorable Mention to the All-Section team. I hope more people get to see him play next year.
As for the other libero making it on to the All-Section team, that was Woodcreek HS’s senior Sutter Swope. There were a ton of really good senior liberos in the large school conferences on the north side of Sacramento. And every coach I talked to, with one exception, told me their libero was the best. The only coach who never said a thing about his libero was Woodcreek’s Brian Jew. I think Jew knew that he didn’t need to talk up Swope. He knew Swope’s game would do the talking for him.
So that was one libero in each of the four classes, but they were hardly the only ones. Here are a few more liberos by class that I thought were very good this year:
Freshmen:
• Bhar Chintaluri, Folsom HS
• Naryan Banarjee, Jesuit HS
Sophomores:
• Gavin Roeker, Whitney HS
• Benjamin Lee, Mesa Verde HS
• Miguel Montoya, Westlake Charter HS
Juniors:
• Aveon Kao, Grace Davis HS
• Caden Pancoast, Del Oro HS
• Kayden Downey, Stone Ridge Christian HS
• David McCarl, Rio Americano HS
Seniors:
• Gabriel Fernandez, Ben Holt Collegiate Prep Academy
• Ian Yang, Natomas HS
• Dylan Hoang, Vanden HS
• George Buljan, Oakmont HS
• Gavin Sweyd, Oak Ridge HS
• Jacob Delrosario, River City HS
• Jayden Sagaral, Pleasant Grove HS
• Jeshua Rivera, Bear Creek HS
• Wyatt Nunes, Kimball HS
There are so many others. In fact, when talking about the voting for the All-Section team, there were 19 liberos who earned at least one vote, including Mua and Swope. I think all those votes kind of cancelled each other out. Like I said above, when Crisol and Cohen were around, there were not many other liberos earning votes. This year, so many got votes that only a couple got enough to actually make it onto the team. I think that may happen again next year to some extent. But I know one thing, I’m going to enjoy watching all these talented players play this position.
Coach Recognition
So one coach, Gabe Gardner of Rio Americano HS, was highlighted as the Coach of the Year in the Section, and deservedly so. However, Gardner was not the only standout coach in my opinion. I wanted to take a few minutes to call out a few other coaches who did, and continue to do, a tremendous job coaching their teams. First, I would be remiss in not naming the other coaches who lead their teams to Section championships. Those coaches were Brian Contreras of Pleasant Grove HS, Charles King of Christian Brothers HS, and Samuel Yun of Futures HS. Contreras has been around from the very beginning at PG and has built it into a great program. King is proving to be one of the best coaches in the Section, after having been one of the best players I’ve ever seen in the Section. And Yun did an absolutely remarkable job in his second year of molding his team into a championship team.
Speaking of Yun, he is among a group of really young, passionate, and energetic coaches who have emerged in the last few years. I would include the following coaches in that category: Eli Anderson of Ben Holt Collegiate Prep Academy, Zach DeBoer of West Park HS, Alicia Borges of Vacaville Christian HS, Bradley Tran of Sheldon HS, Zeeshan Sevilla-Ahmad of Folsom HS, Gil Pascua of Natomas HS, Sabrina Ballin of East Union HS, Lauren Leonardo of Buhach Colony HS, Regan Green of Golden Valley HS, Carlee Felber of Orestimba HS, Anthony Brockman of Elk Grove HS, and Katie Haley of Del Oro HS.
Other, let’s say, more experienced coaches who did a great job this year, many of whom seem to be in this list every year, include: Toa Fa’ali’i of Lathrop HS, Kevin Tameling of Ripon Christian HS, Tara Maruyama of Ripon HS, Joe Wortmann of St. Mary’s HS, Rob Wortmann of River City HS, Brian Jew of Woodcreek HS, Kingsley Claudy of Monterey Trail HS, Dalston Spencer of Vanden HS, Prima Glorioso of Granite Bay HS, Range Larson of Oak Ridge HS, Spencer Barclay of Enochs HS, and Rebecca Kinlaw of Weston Ranch HS, among so many others.
There are two other coaches I would like to mention. These are a couple coaches who have distinguished themselves over the last few years, one in particular who should go down as one of the best boy’s volleyball varsity coaches even in this Section. I want to mention them both in particular because it seems likely that neither will be coaching next year. The first is Rachel Hinojosa from Davis Senior HS. Coach Hinojosa has been leading the Blue Devils since the days of COVID. The year after COVID, her team were mainly freshmen and the team was not so good. Fast forward four years and many of those freshmen from 2021 were senior this years, including Liam Langley and Ethan Wells. Coach Hinojosa had actually moved out of California, but came back from her new home in the Midwest just to finish up the job with these boys that she had been coaching since they were freshmen. They had really high hopes coming into the season, as did I for them. But it didn’t quite work out for them, although they did make it to the quarterfinals of the Division 1 playoffs. As I mentioned, it seems unlikely that Coach Hinojosa will be back at Davis next year, but she should be very proud of the job she did with her team. She will be missed in this area if she indeed does not return.
The other coach I want to recognize is Sara Marks from Jesuit HS. Coach Marks has also lead her team since pre-COVID and in years when they had Section playoffs, her teams had never finished earlier than the semi-finals in Division 1. For two years when there were no playoffs, her teams were arguably the best in the Section. Coach Marks won two D1 Section titles, lost in the D1 final this year, and also lost two NorCal championship matches in the last three years. Coach Marks has told me that 2024 was her last year coaching the boy’s volleyball team at Jesuit. She still has one son on the team at Jesuit, but her three older boys are all playing college volleyball, and in fact, the two oldest just announced their intentions to transfer to the new men’s volleyball program at William Jessup University in Rocklin. Coach Marks wants to be a volleyball parent instead of a coach, so she can watch all of her sons play. She will be sadly missed amongst the ranks of the coaches in the Section. Her shoes will be extremely large to fill, but we should all wish her well going forward.
A final word, especially after I’ve written about Coaches Hinojosa and Marks. Theirs are among the names of quite a few women coaches I’ve mentioned in this essay. It is extremely gratifying to see so many women succeeding on the boy’s volleyball side in the Sac-Joaquin Section. I hope the boys who play for women coaches realize the value of doing so. I am a big fan of women coaching on the boys/men side of volleyball. No offense to the many great male coaches in the Section, but there is something about playing for a female coach that I believe can be very beneficial to these boys. It’s what makes it especially sad when coaches like Rachel Hinojosa and Sara Marks step away from coaching. We’re very lucky to have them and all the other great women coaches in this Section.
With that, I think that well and truly wraps up the 2024 boy’s high school season. It was another great one. I’m enjoying the relative relaxation of covering the few summer club tournaments, but I’m already thinking about the start of the 2025 high school season. February will roll around before we even know it.