All-Area Boys’ Volleyball Player of the Year: Flintridge Prep’s Dante Fregoso didn’t allow letdown

About the only known commodity for the Flintridge Prep boys’ volleyball team heading into the start of 2014 season was that there would be plenty of unknowns.

It appeared that the Rebels, who won their first Prep League championship in three years and only second this century in 2013, were due for a shake-up and potential letdown.

While a squad that finished 19-8 and advanced to the quarterfinals of the CIF Southern Section Division IV playoffs returned 17-year-veteran coach Sean Beattie, the Rebels graduated or lost 12 players from their 15-player roster.

The only returners were two seniors — outside hitter Kyle Law and middle blocker Trip Westmoreland — and a lanky 6-foot-3 outside hitter in Dante Fregoso, a sophomore..

“I didn’t think we were going to be bad,” Westmoreland said, “but a league championship seemed out of the question. I think our goals going into the season were to finish second in league and make the playoffs. That would have been good.

“It was going to be a new team, but I was back and so was Kyle. Plus, Dante wasn’t going to let us be bad.”

Perhaps lost among the dominance of senior middle blocker Kareem Ismail, the exploits of senior outside hitter Chadd Cosse and the leadership of senior setter Mike Lii in 2-10 was the play of Fregoso, a Prep League second-team selection as a freshman who actually finished second among the Rebels in both digs (205) and kills (200).

“I didn’t have any doubt that Dante would continue to grow and progress as a player, the talent was obvious his freshman year,” Beattie said. “But I will say I was curious to see how we’d do with almost an entirely new cast. Sometimes, despite your best efforts, it just doesn’t work out.”

Maybe that slight tinge of doubt serves to only underscore just how wildly successful the Rebels were in 2014 as Fregoso led a squad that defied its own expectations in winning 18 matches, clinching a share of the Prep League title and advancing to the second round of the playoffs.

Fregoso tallied an area-leading 398 kills, a team-best 286 digs and 37 aces along with 38 blocks in meriting a Prep League co-MVP honor and selection as the 2014 All-Area Boys’ Volleyball Player of the Year by the sportswriters of the Glendale News-Press, La Cañada Valley Sun and Burbank Leader.

“It really was a new team this year without that much experience,” Fregoso said. “[In 2013], we had a team full of seniors with experience and this year we didn’t have much experience. But the new guys picked it up pretty quickly and we became a team.”

Before the 2014 campaign began there were two central concerns for Flintridge Prep, one being that relative lack of experience.

“We may be a private school, but we’re not exactly like other teams filled with club players,” Beattie said. “We had a few players who had never picked up a volleyball before and that’s always a challenge. Sometimes with players who have been playing for years already, it’s tough to mix, but that wasn’t the case for Dante. He wanted his teammates to succeed and took pleasure in seeing them get better.”

Health issues were also at the forefront for Fregoso, a forward on the Prep League champion boys’ basketball team.

Unfortunately for Fregoso, his basketball season was cut short due to injuries, as the sophomore missed 11 of 25 games with a recurring back issue and an ankle sprain.

“I’m not sure what the issue is with my back,” Fregoso said. “We’ve had it checked out and haven’t been able to find something, but we took measures before the season to help control the pain and it worked out well.”

As for the volleyball season, the Rebels played through whatever concerns may have existed in winning their first five matches, including a 3-1 victory over Foothill Blvd. rival La Cañada in which Fregoso contributed 14 kills and 13 digs.

Yet, those good times quickly faded as the team lost four of its next five matches, with three of those defeats coming via sweeps in the lead-up to the start of Prep League play.

“That was kind of our worst and best times,” Fregoso said. “We didn’t play well, but we didn’t fall apart. I think we may have even grown closer as a team and really learned to play as a team. From those losses, we learned what it took to win.”

In a complete turnabout, the Rebels defeated visiting Webb School, 25-21, 25-12, 25-23 on March 18 behind 11 kills, nine digs, three aces and three blocks from Fregoso in a contest in which seven Rebels contributed at least one kill.

“We really learned to play off Dante and to pick our spots,” Westmoreland said. “He’s obviously on another level, but each of us knew what we could do to help the team.”

The win over Webb was the first of 10 straight victories ripped off by the Rebels, with the highlight of the run coming April 15 when the Rebels bumped off the league’s other power, Chadwick, 25-21, 25-21, 26-28, 25-17. In that contest, Fregoso led the way with 22 kills and 22 digs.

“It’s going to be hard to win a league title if [Fregoso] is going to be playing like that the next time we play them,” Dolphins Coach Michael Cass said after the match. “We’ll see what we can do.”

Cass’ Dolphins did respond, though, and not only snapped the Rebels’ winning streak with a 18-25, 23-25, 25-12, 25-19, 15-12 victory on May 2, but Chadwick also clinched a share of the league while momentarily leaving Flintridge Prep on the outside looking in.

“We didn’t close in that match and we almost lost league,” said Fregoso, who tallied 35 kills.

The defeat nearly turned catastrophic when the Rebels appeared catatonic four days later against archrival Pasadena Poly.

Despite the Panthers being clearly out of the playoff picture, Poly raced to a 2-0 lead behind 25-19, 25-23 wins in the season finale at home on May 6.

“I really don’t know what happened in that game, if we came out flat or what,” Westmoreland said. “After that second loss, Dante and [Beattie] let us know that we weren’t going to lose that game. We were going to come back and take our share of the league title.”

The senior duo of Westmoreland and Law tallied 13 kills each, while Fregoso paced his team with 31 kills as the Rebels rallied with three consecutive victories (25-19, 25-21, 15-4) that led to a come-from-behind 3-2 victory.

“We weren’t going to lose that game, no way,” Fregoso said. “It just wasn’t going to happen.”

The victory clinched Flintridge Prep a co-league championship with Chadwick, which marked the first time in school history that the Rebels’ program won back-to-back league crowns.

The win, coupled with a successful coin toss, also gave the Rebels the Prep League’s No. 1 seed in the Division IV playoffs, where Flintridge Prep opened with a relatively easy 25-12, 25-16, 25-8 win over visiting Nuview Christian on May 13.

Two days later, a season that extended well past expectations ended May 15 when visiting Damien defeated the Rebels, 25-22, 25-22, 24-26, 26-24 in the second round of the Division IV playoffs.

In his seasonal swan song, Fregoso finished with 23 kills and was anything but disappointed.

“You look at how this season started and where we were and where we’re at now, you can’t be disappointed,” Fregoso said. “We won one fewer game and lasted one fewer round in the playoffs than last year’s great team. Who would have thought that?”

While the Rebels maintain a strong core for 2015 that includes Fregoso, the group graduates two pillars in Westmoreland and Law.

Yet, Westmoreland finds himself repeating a similar sentiment.

“Dante’s not going to let that team be bad,” Westmoreland said. “Who knows, they’ll probably be better next year.”
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Follow Andrew J. Campa on Twitter: @campadresports.