Daily Pilot High School Male Athlete of the Week: No stopping Monroe
Dan Glenn calls Landon Monroe “SARS” sometimes because of how often he gets sick. Monroe just laughs.
Monroe said he loves Glenn, an assistant coach with the Newport Harbor High boys’ volleyball team. Glenn has been there for Monroe since he came to the program as a freshman. It took Monroe his first semester to adjust. He came from a private school, Mariners Christian, where his teachers knew him and his condition.
Monroe said he has a weak immune system and he is prone to getting sick a lot. He missed time because of this during his freshman year at a public high school.
Whereas his teachers at his previous school emailed him his schoolwork when he was out ill, he learned that wasn’t how it worked at Newport Harbor.
“They expected me to email them first, and I just wasn’t used to it,” Monroe said of his teachers. “I started getting on it after a while. I learned my lesson. It was my fault. It wasn’t the teacher’s fault. It was just me not being prepared for the responsibility.”
Monroe picked it up his second semester of his freshman year, and he has excelled in the classroom. It wasn’t as though he was performing badly as a freshman, as Monroe said he finished with a 3.5 grade-point average.
Nevertheless, Monroe prefers to look at his GPA from his sophomore year to now, his senior year. He said he has a 4.3 GPA.
While Monroe has had sick days, missing time at school and at practice, his weak immune system has not forced him to miss a match during his four years. Coach Rocky Ciarelli knows he can depend on Monroe. This is his third year coaching Monroe at Newport Harbor, and he understands how vulnerable he is to getting the flu or cold.
“Whenever I am sick, he says, ‘Get better. We need you healthy,’” Monroe said.
“[My weak immune system] hasn’t affected me much. Whenever I’m on the court, the adrenaline is pumping and I forget about everything else.”
Monroe said he is doing well, and so are the Sailors (15-2) because of his health and his versatility. Monroe helped Newport Harbor claim the Orange County Championships Division 1 tournament, beating host Edison, 21-25, 25-15, 15-8, in the best-of-three final on Monday.
Monroe, a setter and opposite, earned the all-tournament MVP award. He amassed 89 assists, 40 kills, 19 digs, 12 blocks and three service aces during the three-day tournament. The Sailors won each of their six matches, sweeping Los Alamitos and Dana Hills last Friday, and the next day, they swept Fountain Valley and Mater Dei to win pool 1 and earn a bye in the quarterfinals.
The semifinals on Saturday featured Newport Harbor and Huntington Beach, which shared the Sunset League crown a year ago. Monroe turned in one of his better efforts to down the Oilers. He finished with 18 assists, eight kills, three blocks and two digs in Newport Harbor’s 25-21, 21-25, 15-8 win.
After the Sailors clinched a berth into the finale, Monroe expected to see rival Corona del Mar on Monday. Those plans of playing the Sea Kings before the Battle of the Bay match on April 1 changed. He and the Sailors watched as Edison upset the Sea Kings, 11-25, 25-21, 15-12.
“I was kind of glad that Edison won because I didn’t really want to face CdM without being at full strength,” said Monroe, whose team played in the tournament without senior Spencer Lawrence, a 6-foot-5 middle blocker who was out with a triceps injury. “It just takes a little bit away from the Battle of the Bay, to play CdM before that. We were pretty happy with that.”
What would delight Monroe and the Sailors more is ending a losing streak to CdM in the annual contest. The Sailors have dropped the last three Battle of the Bay meetings, and unlike in years past, the schools aren’t going to play in the regular-season finale.
The match is on April Fool’s Day at CdM. When Monroe says this year’s affair is a toss up, he is not messing around.
“They got a little bit of height on us because they got two big guys [6-7 Jake Meyer and 6-7 Clay Dickinson], and we only really got one big guy [Lawrence] on our team, but I think we’re pretty similar. In all positions, we’re about equal,” Monroe said. “In the last couple of years, I … could kind of tell that winning was in their favor, but this year it’s really going to be close.”
Monroe is also close with players at CdM. He plays with four of them, Dickinson, Meyer, Mitch Haly and Grant Shaw, on the top Balboa Bay Volleyball Club under-18 team. From Newport Harbor, Lawrence and Cole Pender are on that team as well, and the team is coached by Ciarelli.
Many of those players are going to major colleges to play, Dickinson and Haly to USC, Lawrence to Ohio State, and Pender, a junior, is committed to UCLA. Ciarelli doesn’t understand why no schools have offered Monroe a spot.
“He’s a very good all-around player,” said Ciarelli, whose uses Monroe in his 6-2 offense at Newport Harbor, along with sophomore setter Joe Karlous. “Some kids can set or they can hit, but you don’t very often get a kid that can set and hit like he can. Not to mention, he can block and he plays pretty good defense. He’s one of the better all-around players that I’ve ever coached.”
Monroe is also a leader. The day after winning the OC Championships, the Sailors had a challenge. Monroe, a four-year starter, made sure the team came ready to play.
Newport Harbor, ranked No. 4 in the CIF Southern Section Division 1 poll, traveled to No. 7 Manhattan Beach Mira Costa. The Sailors swept, 25-18, 25-22, 26-24.
“Being involved with coaching as long as I have, a lot of times after a tournament there’s a letdown because it’s a lot of volleyball you play over the weekend,” said Ciarelli, who is in his 30th season at the helm of a boys’ program. “They focused and they played pretty well. We’re still not really that old of a team. There are only two seniors on the court right now, with Spencer being hurt.
“For them to win that tournament and come back the next night, and be ready to go, that’s impressive. I don’t think too many teams have gone into Mira Costa and swept. It’s a tough place to win.”
The next day, Monroe said he had a little stuffy nose. He wasn’t too worried, knowing some rest would do him some good.
Monroe said he would be ready for Newport Harbor’s league opener at home against Marina on Friday.
Twitter: @ByDCP
