Bart’s Decision to Play Key to Oilers’ Success : Boys’ volleyball: He nearly didn’t pursue the sport until he practiced with a club. Now he is among the best players in the section.

Jeremy Bart never gave a second thought to volleyball, the sport that has opened the door to a Stanford education and an athletic scholarship.

“I always played baseball, basketball, football, soccer, everything else,” said Bart, a 6-foot-4 senior on the Oiler boys’ volleyball team. “I used to hate volleyball. I never liked it. It just didn’t look like any fun.”

His attitude changed in the seventh grade, when Bart attended some practices for the Kokoro volleyball club and became hooked.

Five years and two Southern Section championships later, Bart is regarded as one of the top players in the section.

Although Bart might not have the power and flamboyance of Laguna Beach’s Dan Styles or possess the huge potential college coaches see in San Clemente’s 6-10 outside hitter Gabriel Gardner or 6-5 setter Brandon Taliaferro, he is one of the best all-around players.

“With his all-around game, Jeremy is one of the best I’ve had,” said Coach Rocky Ciarelli, in his 11th season. “I’ve had some great ones, like Matt Taylor, Chris Jones, Mike Grave . . . “

“But I could find a small weakness in all of those guys’ games,” Ciarelli said. “There’s no weakness in Jeremy.”

Bart, who starts at right side hitter this season, has played every position during his high-school career. Next year at Stanford, he might be asked to move to the one he’s least familiar with--setter.

“That’s where it sounds like they want to play me,” Bart said. “I haven’t set regularly since the seventh grade. But we’ll see what happens when I get up there.”

Although his size and versatility initially attracted college recruiters, he could be most remembered for his winning record.

Huntington Beach is 55-3 in Bart’s three years on the varsity, including an 11-1 mark this season. The Oilers have won two Sunset League titles and are on track to win a third this season.

“He’s only lost (three) matches since he was a sophomore,” Ciarelli said. “That’s hard to do and we don’t play an easy schedule.”

Ciarelli challenges his players from Day 1.

“In the first meeting of the season with the players, Rocky has a speech every year,” Bart said. “He writes all the winning records, the CIF and league titles on the board and talks about the winning tradition.

“Everyone has that winning attitude here. But since we’ve been so successful, he also reminds us that everyone is gunning for us.”

Why shouldn’t they?

Huntington Beach has reached the section Division 4-A and Division I championship match in the last three seasons and is looking for a fourth consecutive appearance in the final. The Oilers’ Division I titles in ’93 and ’94 are one shy of tying a county record for consecutive titles. Laguna Beach (‘81-’83) and Whittier Christian (‘91-’93) won three consecutive section titles.

“I think we can do it,” Bart said. “The team is more together than last season. We have the potential.”

According to area coaches, Bart’s potential to succeed in college appears to be at setter.

“With the emphasis on the power game, colleges need big setters,” said Charlie Brande, who coaches at the Orange County and Balboa Bay Volleyball Clubs. “Stanford Coach Reuben Nieves saw Jeremy at a camp and liked what he saw.

“Reuben thought he might be able to be a setter and asked what I thought. I told him if there’s anyone who can go from being a middle blocker to an outside hitter to a setter, Jeremy is the guy.”

Ironically, Bart was a setter when he started playing volleyball in the seventh grade for the Kokoro club team.

He moved to the Balboa Bay Volleyball Club in the eighth grade and began to work with Brande, who moved him to middle blocker. Bart played the middle and was a reserve on the 1992 Huntington Beach championship team before Brande and Ciarelli moved him outside.

Last season at Huntington Beach, Bart started at outside hitter with Jody Cook-Fisher, but it was senior captains Mike Grave and Nick Ziegler who stepped forward to lead the Oilers to their second consecutive title.

Now it’s Bart’s turn.

He had 40 kills to help Huntington Beach rally from a 2-0 deficit to beat Fountain Valley earlier this year. Cook-Fisher and Bart tried to bring the Oilers back from the same deficit against the Barons Friday, but Fountain Valley broke the Oilers’ 61-match Sunset League winning streak with a four-game victory.

It broke up a potential perfect season for Huntington Beach, but the team wasn’t perfect last season either, finishing 21-2. And with Bart, the Oilers’ chances for a section title are just as good as any county team this season.

“Jeremy is very unique in that he can play every position well,” Brande said. “And he will step in and say, ‘You need a setter, I’ll set.’ or ‘You need a middle, I will play middle.’

“I’ve never seen a high school kid that mature.”