Chemistry Lesson Spurs Sailors : 4-A final: Undisciplined early on, Newport Harbor takes 13-game winning streak into title game.

Beau Sheward traces the Newport Harbor High School volleyball team’s drive to the Southern Section 4-A finals to its worst practice of the season in March.

“We were shanking everything,” Sheward said. “Nothing went right.”

Coach Dan Glenn stopped practice.

“He kicked the whole team out,” Sheward said. “He told us we didn’t deserve to be in the gym and to get out.”

Said Glenn, “You hope you don’t have to resort to doing that. But sometimes, you have no choice.”

Glenn made his point. And the Sailors haven’t lost since.

The third-seeded Sailors take a 13-match winning streak into the championship game against top-seeded San Marcos at 8 tonight at Cerritos College.

After a rough start this season, few figured the Sailors (17-3) would be playing for their third section title since 1980.

During the nonleague season, the players got along about as well as a cat in a kennel. It showed in their play.

The Sailors, playing one of the toughest nonleague schedules in the county, dropped early-season matches to Huntington Beach and Edison.

Arguments started. Tempers flared.

“We didn’t support each other at all,” Sheward said. “There were a couple of times where Matt Sherwood and I got into a yelling match. It wasn’t right for us to do that.”

Sheward said the change in attitude came from Glenn. He preached concentration and teamwork. He constantly rode players during matches.

“We messed around early in the season and we saw what happened,” Sheward said. “The chemistry just wasn’t there. Coach Glenn had to take us apart and put us back together.”

Glenn knows a thing or two about preparing players for the playoffs. He coached Drew Sheward, now a junior at USC, and Jason Gan to the 4-A title in 1987.

Now he hopes to coach their brothers, Beau, a 6-foot-2 outside hitter, and Russ Gan, a 6-foot setter.

“That has always been my dream,” Sheward said, “to repeat what Drew, Hugh (Foster) and Jason did in ’87. Ever since we were little kids, we made a great team.”

Sheward and Gan, both juniors, developed their skills in Charlie Brande’s Balboa Bay Club program, just as their brothers did. They began playing in the fifth grade.

“We started playing club ball the exact same day,” Sheward said. “We’ve been around the sport all our lives. I grew up watching guys like Hugh Foster.”

Sheward and Gan played on the the Balboa Bay teams that won two Junior Olympic age-group titles in three years. That experience has been valuable this season for the Sailors, who start five underclassmen.

“Russ and I started to feel that old spark again from Junior Olympics,” Sheward said. “We had just been playing steady ball up until the semifinals, then Russ got us going.”

Gan is setting for one of the most balanced hitting teams in the county.

Junior Justin McIntee, a 6-4 middle blocker, averages about 20 kills a match. Middle blocker Frank Griffo, a 6-7 junior, came off the bench for 16 kills in a four-game semifinal victory Wednesday night at Santa Barbara.

Outside hitters Sherwood, a senior, and Mark McAnlis, a sophomore, are averaging double figures in kills. Louie Baker’s solid defensive play in the back row gives Gan the chance to run the offense.

And the Sailors have depth. When McIntee twisted his ankle in the second game of the Santa Barbara match, junior Pardis Ghorbani came off the bench with four kills.

But Gan and Sheward have set the team’s standard in the playoffs. Gan had 99 assists and Sheward added 39 kills in a five-game victory over Loyola in the quarterfinals. Sheward had 34 kills against Santa Barbara.

“Beau played his best match of the year against Santa Barbara,” Glenn said. “He has been our roller coaster player this year. He has been getting a lot of kills, but he also has a lot of errors. It’s sort of a crapshoot with him. You don’t always know who’ll show up.”

Knowing Beau, he’ll be there for the finals.