St. Francis High’s Charles McCarthy nets volleyball All-Mission League accolade
Charles McCarthy isn’t one who will shy away from a challenge.
Never more so was that the case this season while serving as an outside hitter for the St. Francis High volleyball team. The senior found himself up to the task of handling the lion’s share of the offensive responsibilities for the Golden Knights.
He exceeded the expectations, finishing with a team-leading 362 kills en route to earning a spot on the All-Mission League first team.
“A lot of people depended on me to help get the job done,” said McCarthy, who added 16 aces and 28 blocks and will attend the University of Pacific in the fall. “I just went out there and kept trying to improve my game.
“It was a goal of mine to try to get on the first team. There are so many great players in our league and there’s respect out there. It’s definitely a tough league.”
St. Francis finished 7-12, 2-10 in league to tie for fifth place after qualifying for the CIF Southern Section Division I playoffs in 2012. But McCarthy’s individual play still shined through in a league that featured five teams that reached the CIF Southern Section Division I playoffs, including league champion Loyola, which finished runner-up in the Southern Section Division I tournament and in the CIF Southern California Division I Regional Championships.
“He was just so spot-on accurate,” St. Francis Coach Mark Frazee said. “He saw the court well and made very few mistakes.
“You could get the ball to him out there and rarely did he have a bad night. We were able to spread our offense out more last year with Charles, Wes Coffey and Michael Bacall. With Wes and Michael having graduated, we pretty much gave the ball to Charles. He could do it all with that great arm swing. There’s so much good ball in our league. The other coaches in our league understood what Charles meant to our team.”
St. Francis senior outside hitter/setter Chris Thompson was selected to the second team.
Thompson collected 226 kills, 35 blocks and 16 aces.
“He brought a lot of things to our team,” Frazee said. “He had that great leadership and he was so confident serving the ball to Charles because he and Charles just seemed to click all the time.”
