Los Alamitos Finds Its Drive With Kolovos

Ask Cameron Kolovos of the Los Alamitos High boys’ soccer team what his height and weight is and he’ll say 5 feet 7 and 140 pounds.

Pose the same question to Griffin Coach Trey Scharlin and he’ll tell you Kolovos is 5-5 and “a buck thirty-five.”

There is no dispute, however, about the large role the senior midfielder played in Los Alamitos’ drive to the Southern Section Division II title.

The Griffins (27-1-1) posted 19 shutouts and gave up a minuscule 12 goals to earn a No. 3 ranking in Student Sports magazine’s latest national winter soccer poll. But Kolovos directed an offense that averaged nearly three goals a game.

“He’s beautiful to watch,” Scharlin said of The Times’ player of the year. “He’s very talented on the ball. He sees the field better than anyone.”

That talent and vision make Kolovos a very dangerous player, according to Huntington Beach Marina Coach Jeff Schofield. His Viking squad handed Los Alamitos its only loss of the season, 1-0, in a semifinal of the Long Beach Millikan tournament in December, but dropped 3-1 and 5-1 decisions to the Griffins in Sunset League play.

“He just makes things happen,” Schofield said. “When he gets the ball, something is going to happen.”

That wasn’t always the case.

Kolovos, who has committed to the University of San Francisco, was often knocked off the ball by bigger and stronger defenders during his first varsity season as a sophomore.

“He was fine going forward,” Scharlin said. “But he had problems with his back to a defender.”

Los Alamitos failed to make the playoffs two years ago, but things began to change last season when the Griffins won the league title and advanced to the semifinals of the Division I playoffs before losing, 3-2, in double overtime to eventual champion Millikan.

Moving Mike Munoz from his outside midfield position to forward and giving Kolovos more responsibility at center midfield played a big part in Los Alamitos’ improvement. The two worked very well together, as did Kolovos and forward Jon Bornstein this season.

“My coaches did a real good job teaching me how to break down defenses,” Kolovos said of his improvement. “About 80% of it was mental. All the tactical stuff and skills came really easy to me.”

Los Alamitos was 13-1-1 after its first 15 games, but Kolovos said a 3-1 victory at Marina in the second game of Sunset League play and a 4-0 victory over Anaheim Esperanza in the fifth league contest set the tone for the rest of the season.

“Once we beat Marina on the road, everything started clicking,” Kolovos said. “And when we beat Esperanza, we made it a goal to try and go 10-0 in league play.”

The Griffins capped a perfect league season with a 4-1 victory at Esperanza before beating Valencia, 4-0, Newport Harbor, 4-0, and Riverside Rubidoux, 2-0, in the first three rounds of the playoffs.

That was followed by a 3-1 victory over La Puente Nogales in the semifinals and a 1-0 defeat of powerful Irvine Woodbridge in the championship game at La Mirada High.

“We never looked ahead,” Kolovos said. “But after [going 10-0 in league play], the team attitude and spirit was definitely to win [the Southern Section title]. Anything less would have been a disappointment. Anything less than a [Southern Section] title would have been unacceptable.”