No More Digs? : Lynwood Earns Respect With Volleyball Title at Watts Games

Carl Buggs, “Papi” to his players, hates the reaction he often gets when he says he is the coach of the Lynwood High volleyball team.

“It’s important that people understand that in Lynwood we’re not all a bunch of taggers and gangbangers,” Buggs said. “You see all that stuff on TV. A lot of people haven’t heard of Lynwood and don’t know where we live.

“We say ‘next to Compton’ and they back away.”

Buggs will probably continue to see people back away from his team after the L.A. Watts Games volleyball tournament.

Not out of uneasiness or misunderstanding. Out of respect.

Lynwood topped a Watts Games field that included two 1994 Section champions. The Knights defeated City 4-A champion University in the June 19 final, 17-15.

Although Buggs, bound by summer rules to the role of spectator, sat in the stands, he was never far from his players’ thoughts.

“Every time you screw up you can feel him looking at you,” outside hitter Ananias Chairez said. “You look at him and he says, ‘What are you looking at me for? You know you screwed up.’ He’s just got this look.”

Said setter Ruben Santana: “Coach is real intense and real disciplined. But we know he wants the best for us.”

The triumph in the Watts Games ranks as a milestone for Buggs and the Lynwood program.

Although the Knights have won one San Gabriel League title and have been to the CIF playoffs in five of Buggs’ six years, they have never been past the second round. One of the main reasons, the players say, has been intimidation.

“We always draw a big team in the playoffs,” Buggs said. “It’s important for our guys to compete with these teams (in the off-season).”

Said outside hitter Albert Loya: “We won our summer league last year, but it doesn’t match the fierce competition (at the Watts Games). Playing against these big clubs helps us overcome that intimidation. Coach wants us to expand our vision.”

Buggs became a volleyball coach by accident. In the mid-1980s, the Lynwood girls’ team had no coach and no applicants to be one.

“I didn’t know too much about volleyball. I was a baseball man coming into it,” Buggs said. “But it was either me, or the girls would not have a coach.”

Lynwood started a boys’ team in 1987, and Buggs took over the program a year later.

Recruiting from his gym classes, Buggs hoped to find a few boys not already caught up in football or basketball willing to stick out a few lean years.

Those who have hung around have done so in groups.

“We have been fortunate enough to have ninth-graders come in together and stay together,” Buggs said. “This group didn’t know nothing about nothing when they started. They didn’t win any games on JV.”

Two years ago, a complete team that started as freshmen got to the CIF second round and the Watts Games semifinals.

The players who won the Watts title this year were all juniors this past season.

“To be honest, man for man, we might have been better athletically,” University Coach Neal Newman said. “But they were just a better team. When we beat them (in pool play), their defense kept them in it, and when they beat us, we couldn’t get the ball down.

“They have a lot of discipline and good coaching.”

“I don’t think we’ll be intimidated anymore,” Santana said. “We have to start leaving our mark. You know what they say about champion teams--first to be remembered, last to be forgotten.”