COURTING SUCCESS : Laguna Beach’s Volleyball Team Returns as Powerhouse With Experienced Players Hoping to Relive Glory Days

To understand what drives the Laguna Beach High School boys’ volleyball team, one should travel near the windmills of the collective minds of this team so conscious of its past.

Laguna Beach has won five Southern Section championships in the sport, including a three-peat from 1981 to 1983. There have been Olympians who have passed through--Scott Fortune and Dusty Dvorak to name just two--as well as a bevy of other stars who went on to play in college.

After Coach Bill Ashen left Laguna Beach for UC Irvine in 1986, the team didn’t fall on hard times, but it has not reached another final since that 1983 championship. It’s a fact not lost on many of this year’s players who grew up rooting for Laguna Beach volleyball the way other kids rooted for the Dodgers.

“Growing up, I thought to play volleyball at Laguna Beach would be the greatest thing,” said Sean Stafford, Laguna Beach outside hitter. “We all dreamed about our senior years and winning it all.”

The we are the guys who Stafford, Orange County’s best all-around player, grew up and played volleyball with on the beaches and on club teams.

Most notably there are outside hitter Dain Blanton, middle blockers John McKeown and Jonathan Cummings and setter Pat Quigley, who make up the nucleus of a team that is 18-1, Pacific Coast League champions and, with the exception of one week, has been the No. 1-ranked team in Orange County. The team figures to be seeded-second behind Mira Costa when the 4-A playoff bracket is announced today.

Those five players are on the court nearly all the time. Coach Lance Stewart rarely substitutes, because of the rather complicated offense he runs--it’s called a swing--and because of the amazing chemistry and experience shared by his starters. Stafford, Blanton, McKeown and Cummings played on a club team that won a junior national championship.

“We’ve been together so long it’s like playing with your brothers,” Cummings said.

But things at Laguna Beach really started looking up again when a father figure dressed in cowboy boots took over the team last year. Stewart, named Southern Section player of the year in 1981 when he led Laguna Beach to the Southern Section title, took over and brought with him an appreciation for the program’s history, a mania for hard work and a phrase to play by: “Be cool.”

“I tell the kids, ‘If you make a kill, that’s what you were supposed to do, why get all excited?’ ” Stewart said. “Volleyball is a game of momentum. After every high, there’s a valley coming. You’ve got to keep your cool.”

Words easier said than followed by Stewart, who achieved much of what he did athletically--he was a three-sport star at Laguna Beach--with a turbo-charged intensity. Last year he spent parts of the matches off the bench and red in the face. This year, there is a kinder, gentler Lance Stewart . . . kind of.

“I’m trying to work on it,” Stewart said. “It’s good to show them an example. But I will yell at them if they’re not having a good time. I yell at them to have fun and to stay under control.”

And so Laguna Beach’s players have played almost every point this season like it was their last, and spent the time between points looking like they’re waiting for a bus.

“They just out-steady people, nothing shakes these guys,” said Dan Glenn, Newport Harbor coach.

There’s a few mid- to high-fives. But no jumping around, no screaming or yelling.

“Steady,” Blanton said. “Steady.”

In fact, most Laguna Beach verbiage before and after points are jabs directed at teammates. The most conspicuous feature of this team, beside its talent, is the amazing number of people talking out of the sides of their mouths.

“If you get blocked at the net, someone will probably come up and say ‘Pretty weak,’ and laugh at you,” McKeown said.

When things have gone wrong, Stewart has been known to call a timeout and gather his players around and, instead of going over strategy, tell them to close their eyes and think back to better times. Times when they were playing volleyball and playing it well.

McKeown thinks about an eighth-grade game in which he “couldn’t be stopped.”

Cummings recalls last year’s first-round 4-A playoff game against North Torrance when he was “unstoppable.”

“My number-one thing is that the game should be fun,” Stewart said. “I think it’s fun when you’re playing well.”

And Stewart and his team hopes the party continues through the playoffs.