Orange County Prep Review : Newport Harbor Volleyball Is Head of the Class

Dan Glenn is a slightly built blond who talks in a soft, nasal voice, is quick with a smile and who, from what people are saying, coaches the 1927 Yankees of boys’ high school volleyball.

Glenn is in his first year as coach at Newport Harbor. He chose a very good year.

He has a team that is the class of Orange County. Newport Harbor stormed through the very competitive, very prestigious Orange County championships Saturday and destroyed everything in its way.

“Well, Marina kind of gave us a tough time in the semifinals,” Glenn said.

The score was 15-10.

But Marina did get closest to the Sailors (4-0). In the final, Newport Harbor disposed of El Toro, 15-4, 15-0.

“That’s about as well as we have played this season,” Glenn said.

And it’s only the start for this team. Many coaches think that the Southern Section 4-A championship is a mere formality. Mike Jagd, El Toro coach, compared Newport Harbor with Palisades, last year’s highly touted City Section champion, and found Palisades sadly lacking.

“There’s no comparison,” he said.

Newport Harbor advanced to the 4-A semifinals last season. The Sailors have returned the core of that team--outside hitter Jon Alstrom, setter Drew Sheward and middle blocker Mike Curci. Now add Hugh Foster. He is a two-time National Sports Festival participant--he was most valuable player in 1985--a three-time Hawaiian all-state selection and Hawaii’s state player of the year as a junior. He is 6-feet 5-inches and 210 pounds and may be the top recruit in the nation.

Glenn acknowledges that his team has the best talent around.

“Oh, I think if you just look at rosters, we’re the best,” he said. “But there’s a lot more that goes into making a great volleyball team. I don’t feel that we have totally meshed yet. This weekend was a big step in the right direction, but I think there’s plenty of room for improvement.”

Which isn’t something that other coaches want to hear, and it may not be true. Glenn says the expectations surrounding this team put him in a no-win situation.

“If we win the 4-A championship, we were supposed to, it was expected, no big deal,” Glenn said. “If we don’t, I’m an idiot.”

Stand up and cheer: Cheerleading is a noble activity. A vocation that, at its roots, has the unselfish aim of inspiring fellow humans through hand clapping, foot stomping and cadence control.

But beyond the pompons, the uniforms and the metric tons of styling mousse, cheerleading is like anything else. Filled with ups and downs and somersaults and splits and double flips with half twists.

Just going out for a high school cheer team is a pretty harrowing experience. Kids practice acrobatic moves and dance routines, and on top of that are judged on such qualities as spirit, demeanor and appearance.

All of which makes going out for the Mater Dei cheer squad about as huge a task as trying out for the Mater Dei boys’ basketball team--this season’s Division I state champion.

Well, actually, it’s a little harder.

Being the state champion is very nice, but it’s pretty constricting. You see, the Mater Dei cheer team is the 1987 national champion.

“We really don’t have a lot of people coming out for the team,” said John Merino, vice principal and team adviser. “People kind of eliminate themselves. To be on this team you almost have to have a background in dance or gymnastics, and I think some people are just plain intimidated by the team.”

Mater Dei won the title a few weeks ago in Orlando, Fla., competing against teams from every state in the continental United States. A few days before that, the Mater Dei songleading team won its part of the competition and also became national champion, making Mater Dei the first school to win both events the same year.

What makes the 18-person squad (12 girls, 6 boys) special this year is an incredible floor routine that has brought down the houses at the Los Angeles Sports Arena and the Oakland-Alameda Coliseum Arena and, maybe most impressive of all, received a standing ovation from the fans at rival Servite High.

“That surprised me,” said Lonna Theis, a three-year member. “You expect to get booed at Servite. Well, actually we did when we went out on the floor. But when we were done, they cheered.”

What goes on is amazing. Music blares, cheerleaders are flipping in every direction and those who aren’t flipping are being launched. The movement and the music overwhelms the observer. It’s a lot like Las Vegas.

“We get a lot of nice comments after a performance,” said Paul Marks, the head of Mater Dei’s alumni services department who runs daily practices. “But I think the best compliment is when you watch the people watching us. You see their eyes light up and they get all excited. That makes all the work worthwhile.”

Ah yes, the work. The team works three to six hours a day, usually six days a week, all year. It’s during these sessions that all the spectacular stuff becomes grunt work. Stunts are practiced over and over. Routines are run through, criticized, torn apart and run through again.

“It isn’t what you would call fun,” said Rob Loughran, head cheerleader. “It can get pretty boring. People don’t see that, but I guess it’s better they don’t. We consider ourselves the same as any athletic team. We work hard, probably harder than anyone on this campus.”

In fact the team used to practice on Sundays, which didn’t sit well with the school administration. The cheerleaders were excused from Sunday practice, which wasn’t exactly a relief.

“It just turned out we practiced longer and harder on Saturday,” Theis said.

No rest for the peppy.

Prep Notes

Woodbridge High School, the state Division II boys’ basketball champion, has accepted an invitation to compete in the 28-team Las Vegas Holiday Prep Classic next season. The event is one of the top national tournaments in the nation and also will feature Santa Ana. . . . Kurt Kersten has resigned as basketball coach at Esperanza High after four seasons and has been replaced by assistant Chris Lee.