HIGH SCHOOL : Highland Set for Another Run at Championship

Before the volleyball season began, Highland High stumbled into an unusual losing streak.

The Bulldogs weren’t losing matches, they were losing setters.

As they prepped for the upcoming season, the defending Southern Section boys’ Division II finalists experienced a precision outage.

Brandon Kimball, who owned the job of setting up the healthy supply of Bulldog bashers, quickly did a bash number on himself.

Angered during practice, Kimball slammed his fist into the floor and broke his right hand. Six weeks in a cast.

No problem for sixth-year Coach Mike Bird, who perused his lineup and moved versatile outside hitter Iain Bagnall to setter.

Bagnall promptly went down because of a broken nose suffered in an auto accident.

Bird looked at his lineup again and named the new setter:

Himself.

A setter for Cal State Northridge from 1983-87, Bird assumed the position for the Bulldogs’ practices.

“It was a roller coaster,” said Bagnall. “Setting is so important. If you don’t have a good setter, you don’t have a good team.”

Bird eventually handed over the reins to J.J. Sides.

Sides, a first-year varsity player, stepped in and set the Bulldogs to victory in their season-opener against Antelope Valley.

“It was fine,” said Bird.

Then Kimball, crawling the walls after nearly six weeks of inaction, came back for the Bulldogs’ second match against Burroughs, and there was another victory.

“It stunk,” said Kimball. “Even with the cast on, I played sometimes.”

But the patience award goes to 6-foot-8 All-American middle blocker Ryan Millar, who has survived the cycle of three setters.

“It was weird, but it’s made them better,” Millar said. “They know they’ve let us down and they want to get better. They’re now setting awesome.”

The chaos has made the team more stable. The players had to become prolific passers to get the ball to whomever was setting. Bird said ball control has improved markedly.

His Highlanders, who lost to Royal in the division final last season, are expected to challenge for the title again. Especially since Royal has moved up to Division I.

“If we played for the CIF championship today, I don’t know if we’d be ready,” Bird said. “We need to get a lot more game experience, but we’re going to be contenders.”