A Designated Hitter Sparks Granada Hills : Highlander Hopes Ride on DiSimone’s Spikes

How hard does Mike DiSimone hit a volleyball?

Let us count the ways:

* Hard enough that Granada Hills High substitutes joyously ran onto the court during an early-season match to celebrate a particularly emphatic DiSimone spike. The Highlanders were assessed a sideout penalty.

* Hard enough that DiSimone ended a tournament game by spiking the ball off the head of an opposing blocker and having the ball carom off the gymnasium ceiling and out of bounds. The ball ricocheted to the floor, where the blocker lay cradling his head in his arms.

* Hard enough to earn DiSimone All-City honors, a spot on a Pacific Palisades club team and a scholarship to San Diego State.

* And hard enough to make Granada Hills the top City Section team in the area for the past two seasons and to lead the Highlanders to a City Section 4-A Division quarterfinal match against visiting Venice today at 3 p.m.

“When he’s on, he’s the most dominating hitter I’ve ever coached,” Granada Hills Coach Tom Harp said. “He makes spikes that you (normally) don’t see at this level.”

Clearly, the 6-foot-5 senior with the 38-inch vertical leap could point to his volleyball resume and puff out his chest.

He is the school’s career leader with 585 kills, and is 39 away from breaking the school single-season record of 285, set in 1991 by Danny Asaoka. He averages 5.3 kills per game and is the team captain.

But for someone with much to crow about, DiSimone demurs.

When asked whether he is the Highlanders’ go-to player, he hesitates. It is obvious to anyone watching a Granada Hills match that DiSimone is the main man.

“You see, that’s the kind of question where you say, ‘Yeah I’m the big hitter,’ but people read it and say, ‘This guy’s a (jerk),’ ” he said. “I wouldn’t want to say that, because that’s the whole cocky part of the whole thing.”

Cockiness comes with a price, in his mind. Last season, it cost his team a shot at the City championship.

The Highlanders were the top-seeded team in the City playoffs in ’93 but were upset in the semifinals by Roosevelt, a team they defeated handily earlier in the season.

“Last year, the problem was everyone told us we were going to do so well, and that’s why we ended up losing,” he said. “We were looking ahead.”

Now, as DiSimone leads this year’s team into the playoffs, he allows himself to look ahead--but only to see the pitfalls.

“Everything leads in the direction for us to get cocky,” he said. “We’re seeded third, so every game will be at home, the final will be right down the street (at Cal State Northridge), and every team we’ve played already.

“I hope we don’t get wrapped up in all that because if we do, that’s going to be a problem for us.”

The Highlanders have had surprisingly few problems this year, considering DiSimone and setter Victor Chang were the only two returning varsity players.

But the newcomers from the junior varsity, such as Earnest Yun, Dan Elbert, Mark Muir and Ryan Kamins, have performed well and spurred Granada Hills to a 13-1 record and the Northwest Valley Conference championship.

“All those guys played (on the junior varsity) last year, and JV compared to varsity is just a joke--it’s all free balls or whatever,” DiSimone said. “But these guys have really stepped up their level, learned a lot and played well.”

Learning quickly comes naturally for DiSimone. He didn’t start playing volleyball until he was a ninth-grader at Holmes Junior High in Northridge, but rapidly picked up the sport and started at middle blocker for Granada Hills as a sophomore.

His junior year, he moved to outside hitter and played for the South Seas Volleyball Club team, run by Taft Coach Doug Magorien.

His performance for Granada Hills that year, while pock-marked with inconsistency, was dominating in stretches, and he began to attract college attention.

Before his senior season, he left Magorien’s South Seas program and joined Palisades Reebok, hoping to increase his exposure. Magorien said such moves are not unusual for club players but he was hurt by DiSimone’s switch.

“I was definitely a little disappointed,” Magorien said. “I stuck with him and put a lot of time into him, and my club had to pay the price a little bit. But I like Mike, he’s a really nice kid.”

And this Valley guy really loves the beach. DiSimone is a surfer who looks the part, growing out his curly hair and throwing his longboard in the back of his powder-blue 1971 Volkswagen bus.

“I put all my money into gas,” he said. “I go to the beach whenever I can.”

He had to go three times a week in the fall for club team practice at Palisades High, which would have been fine except for the traffic.

“It takes an hour and a half to get there, and 50 minutes to get home,” he said. “You can think of a lot of negative things when you drive an hour and a half in traffic.”

Traffic won’t be a problem when he goes to San Diego State, which he chose over UCLA, Cal State Northridge and UC Irvine. San Diego State was the only school to offer DiSimone a scholarship, and DiSimone liked its location--close to the ocean and far from home--and the chance to play as a freshman.

“The change will be great,” he said. “It’s just the college experience, living away from home in the dorms. It’s much more of an experience than if I was just living at home and playing locally.

“Plus, from here it’s 40 minutes to the beach and in the summer it’s 110 degrees and dry and hot. In San Diego, it’s 10 minutes from the beach and it’s the same weather the whole year-round. Everything about it fits my life style.”

Now that he made his college decision, the only uncertainty in DiSimone’s volleyball life is whether he can lead Granada Hills to the City title.