Tritons’ Luck Has Improved

Mike Hurlbut, San Clemente volleyball coach and a glutton for punishment, sticks his chin out again Wednesday.

The Tritons face Manhattan Beach Mira Costa in the Southern Section Division I semifinals. Another chance for San Clemente to be a volleyball superpower.

It has been a long time between volleyball banners for the Tritons. The one from 1976 is getting a little faded. Still, section championships of any kind hit about once a decade around San Clemente. There have been three in the school’s 30-year history--only one in that vacuum between “Three’s Company” and “Melrose Place.”

Ah, but this time the Tritons have something going for them. A few breaks.

Laguna Beach is nowhere to be found, Triton Gym is the site and everyone is healthy.

“It’s been a bit rocky,” Hurlbut said. “But I realize now every team has a rough road. We just had ours early in the season.”

Good timing.

Mira Costa’s road isn’t rough, just long. The second-seeded Mustangs get to play freeway bingo: I-110, I-405, I-5 . . .

Hurlbut will take any edge offered. In fact, he’s getting used to the luck.

Brandon Taliaferro, the team’s standout junior setter, was supposed to be a spectator after shoulder surgery in March. He returned two matches ago after some accelerated rehab.

Taliaferro’s 45 assists in Friday’s victory over Fountain Valley must have had Triton fans dreaming of a season that might have been. Instead, they get virtual reality.

“I knew I would see Brandon in a Triton uniform again, but I thought it would be next season,” Hurlbut said. “He didn’t have his shoulder ‘scoped. It was hot lights and cold steel. I saw the scar.”

And Hurlbut knows his scars.

This is his fourth year as coach, but his place in Triton volleyball folklore stretches back. It hasn’t always been a happy tale.

Volleyball, like life, evolved from the beach. It was another way to dig in the sand. San Clemente seemed to have the location. But the neighborhood was upwardly mobile.

Up the road was Laguna Beach, a program all would kill for. No matter what San Clemente did, Laguna Beach did it better. The Artists have five section titles, more than any other school. The Tritons have one.

San Clemente has raged against that machine a long time.

Even in that 1976 championship season, the Tritons finished second to Laguna Beach in the South Coast League.

In the 1981 section final, the Tritons had the Artists down, 2-1, in games and were at match point. They couldn’t put them away.

Hurlbut was a sophomore on that San Clemente team. He was a senior in 1983, the last time the Tritons reached the semifinals.

Hurlbut dared to think his 1995 team could climb back, until it lost its way. From No. 2 with a bullet, to oblivion, Hurlbut watched the Tritons’ Division I ranking slide.

“In February, I thought we would go this far,” Hurlbut said. “In March, I was just hoping we’d make the playoffs.”

Taliaferro was missing from the first serve. Back-to-back losses to Capistrano Valley and Trabuco Hills sent the Tritons reeling into spring break. Practices weren’t going well after that.

And Laguna Beach loomed next on the schedule. Just the nudge needed for total collapse.

It didn’t happen. Oh, Laguna Beach won the match. But San Clemente survived and has won 10 in a row.

Meanwhile, Laguna Beach, with its best player academically ineligible, was bounced in the first round. The Artists’ second round opponent would have been San Clemente.

Yup, it’s better to be lucky than good. In the Tritons’ case, being both is killer.