Former Weakling Now Kicking Some Sand : Woodbridge’s New Inland Empire Bullies the Sea View’s Beach Powers

If you’re looking for the Woodbridge High School boys’ volleyball team these days, you won’t find it in its usual spot somewhere in the middle of the Sea View League standings.

Things have progressed so well for the Warriors this season under second-year Coach Steve Stratos that they may now be found in the stratosphere, in a manner of speaking. That happens when you vault to the top of the league standings.

Going into this week’s action, the Warriors were tied for first with Corona del Mar and are in excellent position to make the playoffs for the first time in the school’s five-year history.

Woodbridge’s record (7-1 in league, 9-1 overall) has been noticed not only in the volleyball-wise Sea View League, but in the entire Southern Section as well.

“They’re already one of the best teams in the CIF,” said Tom Pestolesi, Estancia coach. “Woodbridge, Corona del Mar, Santa Barbara and Dana Hills are the best bets for the (Southern Section) title right now.”

Traditionally such high praise is reserved for the beach schools such as Santa Monica, Mira Costa of Manhattan Beach and Sea View League power Laguna Beach.

Woodbridge, however, gained recognition when it beat Laguna Beach in two league matches this season. The Artists edged the Warriors for first place of the Orange County Tournament, but those matches do not count in overall records because of its abbreviated format.

So, what’s the big secret behind the success of the volleyball program at Woodbridge--a school without much of an athletic tradition, volleyball or otherwise?

Well, if you think they are busing volleyball players from the beach to the affluent subdivision in Irvine where Woodbridge High School is nestled, think again.

The formula for success for Stratos is a familiar one: Good students with reasonable athletic talent + hard work = success, given a season or two.

If all that sounds familiar, that’s because it has worked well in Orange County--most notably, Mark Trakh’s girls’ basketball program at Brea-Olinda and, to a certain degree, Mark Schubert’s Nadadores swimming team at Mission Viejo. Each follows the same basic principles.

And if all that sounds trite for a high school athletic program in the 1980s, rest assured that Stratos adheres to those beliefs so closely that he goes as far as checking the grade point averages of students during team tryouts--encouraging only the students with good grades to pursue the sport.

“The Sea View League is the best high school volleyball league in the country,” Stratos claimed, “so when we first started out, we learned by getting thrashed. To win in this league, you have to be extremely dedicated, so we looked for students who were willing to make that kind of effort.”

Stratos came to Woodbridge in 1982 to assist Brian Quinn, an assistant principal at the school. Quinn quit the team to concentration on his administrative responsibilities, and Stratos took over the program. The team finished 8-6 overall with Stratos in charge last season.

A 1971 graduate of Torrance High, Stratos was a basketball player at El Camino College before a leg injury forced him to forsake his athletic career. Stratos received a degree from San Diego State and then took up the beach volleyball game at his hometown of Manhattan Beach as a form of therapy for his leg.

Stratos soon found himself back at Torrance, where he was the head volleyball and boys’ basketball coach before leaving in 1980.

“It was the ‘Welcome Back, Kotter’ syndrome,” Stratos said of his decision to teach at Torrance. “I had fun and learned a lot there, but I had to leave because falling enrollment there meant that my job would’ve eventually been terminated.”

Stratos taught at El Toro for a year before becoming the assistant coach at Woodbridge, a school that he now likes to call home, in spite of the daily, one-hour commute from Manhattan Beach.

Despite some big losses early last season, Stratos and his team, a senior-dominated team with only one junior, are reaping the benefits of the work ethic.

“For the Laguna Beach match,” Stratos said, “we had one side of the bleachers packed. About one-fourth of the crowd was Laguna’s and three-fourths were ours. And most of our fans were students, too.”