Participation in Clubs Improves School Teams, Too : Volleyball Preview

Most of the high school girls’ volleyball coaches in San Diego High say this season could be the most competitive in history.

The reason, they say, is the growing number of girls playing club volleyball.

“It raises the high school level of play,” said Carola Herberg, coach at San Pasqual. “If they didn’t play all year-round, we couldn’t get the results like we get now.”

Dave Whittaker, coach at Mission Bay High and for the San Diego Volleyball Club, said that last year the SDVBC had 14 teams among three age groups, playing volleyball from December to the beginning of July.

“Some of best teams are the best because they have players who have gotten club experience,” said Debbie Kane, coach at Grossmont, the defending 3-A champs. “It’s a great advantage playing year-round. They are more confident and quickly adjust to different drills.”

The SDVBC’s top 17-under team, a collection of all-stars, finished third in a national tournament during the summer. The nucleus of that team is scattered throughout county high schools.

Alicia Turner, the 1987 2-A player of the year, is a senior at two-time 2-A champ University of San Diego High School. Blair Noonan is a senior at San Pasqual. Heidi West is a senior at Francis Parker. Angel Leath is a senior at Morse. And Amy Boyer, the only sophomore on the club team, is a junior at Poway. Most coaches feel Boyer is the best setter in the county, following in the footsteps of sisters who are setters in college, Ann at UCLA and Cheri at Hawaii.

The significance of the San Diego Volleyball Club and other clubs showing up in the North and East county is evident in the overall play and talent.

“The quality has gotten better without a doubt,” Poway Coach Lisa Reis said. “You can’t be competitive without at least several club players on your team. The better teams have kids playing club. All of a sudden it’s like the ‘in thing.’ I’ve got a lot of club volleyball players on my team. It’s very important.”

Reis has nine club players on her team, and that’s a big reason Poway might be the 3-A team to beat this season. It will be challenged by Serra, Mt. Carmel, Torrey Pines and Granite Hills, among others.

Defending 3-A champ Grossmont is in 2-A with the split in the Grossmont League. It will challenge USDHS for the 2-A title, as will La Jolla, San Pasqual, Mission Bay and San Marcos.

In the 1-A, John Cook left Francis Parker to be an assistant at the University of Nebraska. Cook, who also coached the SDVBC 17-under team last year, left Sabine Stork with the nucleus of the two-time state Division III champs.

Although these teams stand out in preseason, there’s so much talent in the county that teams winning in sections, won’t necessarily win their leagues.

Everybody will get a better idea of teams’ strengths during the Parker-Mizuno Tournament at UC San Diego this weekend. And the 40-team Serra Tournament is on successive weekends, Sept. 24 and Oct. 1.

Notes

Although teams were allowed to start practice Aug. 22, city school coaches didn’t get into their gyms that soon. Dave Whittaker, the Mission Bay coach, said that when gym floors of the 15 San Diego City schools were rewaxed this summer, the wrong chemical was apparently used, and the work had to be redone. This forced teams to practice outside or wherever they could find a gym. “I think the city school really got hurt by that,” said Whittaker, who didn’t get to use his gym until Tuesday. “(USDHS, a private school) didn’t have that problem.”