Boys’ Volleyball Preview: Will Flintridge Prep maintain league dominance?
Nine athletes who recently finished playing soccer or basketball have made their way to the Flintridge Prep gymnasium to add reinforcements to the boys’ volleyball team.
It’s quite a boon for Flintridge Prep, which will look to continue its impressive string of dominance in the Prep League. With the winter season now in the rear-view mirror, the Rebels are at full-strength in their quest to win a fifth straight league championship.
Flintridge Prep enters the season ranked eighth in the CIF Southern Section Division III poll. The Rebels reached the Division IV semifinals last season before moving up to Division III after the CIF realigned the divisions.
“We’ve got the whole team back and we’re ready to take another shot at league and make the playoffs,” Flintridge Prep Coach Sean Beattie said. “We had about 11 players combined from the varsity and junior varsity teams practicing while the others were playing soccer and basketball.
“I feel like we can have a strong team, but we just need to put the pieces together. The league will be tough again and we’ll give it our best shot. Everybody probably lost at least one key player [to graduation].”
Flintridge Prep lost a monumental talent in Dante Fregoso, a former All-Area Boys’ Volleyball Player of the Year who was named the league’s most valuable player last season after registering 444 kills and 265 digs, graduated.
Flintridge Prep brings back senior outside hitter Jonny Samuels, sophomore outside hitter AJ Nicassio and senior middle blocker Jake Althouse, who starred for the basketball team. They will be joined by junior outside hitter Majeed Ismail.
“You lose a lot when you don’t have somebody like Dante and he’s going to be very hard to replace,” Beattie said. “There are some spots to fill and we like the group of players we have to step in and contribute right away.”
At La Cañada, the Spartans will look vastly different.
It comes after winning the Rio Hondo League championship for the first time since 2006 and advancing to the second round of the Division II playoffs before succumbing to Capistrano Valley in five games.
La Cañada saw coach Otto Lacayo move on and the core of the team graduate. The Spartans lost Connor Walbrecht, the league’s most valuable player, along with all-league honorees Connor Belcher, Blake Cornell and Mel Schroeder to graduation.
The Spartans, who will continue in Division II, have since turned over the coaching responsibilities to Carrie Saks and David Simonyan.
“We’re starting from scratch from the coaching standpoint,” Saks said. “We’re trying to feel things out and get a better idea of the make-up of the team.
“We lost four key players, but we’ll look to see who can step up. We have a lot of guys moving up from the junior varsity team. We’ll look to compete again for league and there’s opportunities for the group to do that.”
La Cañada will sport a lineup that includes senior middle blocker Coleman Cornell and junior setter Nolan Sheow.
St. Francis just missed qualifying for the Division I playoffs after taking fourth in the demanding Mission League. The Golden Knights, who are now in Division II, will look for a more favorable outcome while trying to make the playoffs for the first time since 2012.
“I think we have a pretty good team in tact,” St. Francis Coach Mark Frazee said. “All of our returners started at some point last season, so they have more experience.
“Everybody is familiar with one another. So we have the potential to be even better. We lost some close matches, so we’ll look to fix things to put us in position to finish up strong.”
The Golden Knights will have a lineup that includes senior outside hitter Sean Stephen, sophomore setter Joey Thompson, senior opposite hitter Alejandro Moreno and senior outside hitter Hunter Gunski.
