Prep Column: Pillaged by Pirates
Barry Faulkner
The Corona del Mar High boys volleyball season ended with hugs,
handshakes, a few tears and a whisper of regret.
But the 85 minute massacre at the hands of Santa Ynez’s Pirates
Saturday at Cypress College, was anything but typical for this scrappy
band of Sea Kings, who appeared stunned by the severity of their CIF
Southern Section Division IV title-match defeat.
“We knew it would be tough,” senior setter Evan Burden said. “But it
basically wasn’t our day.”
Senior outside hitter Charlie Alshuler, who, like Burden, had watched
from the bench when the Sea Kings defeated the Pirates in five games for
the 1998 CIF Division III title, said his team simply didn’t click.
However, both Sea Kings, as well as Coach Steve Conti, credited Santa
Ynez, the best little volleyball dynasty most people have never heard of.
One particular target of their praise was 6-foot-8 junior Matt
McKinney, who bombed from the front row, hammered away from the back row,
blocked with bravado in the middle and also showed some quality
ball-control capabilities as well.
McKinney finished with 24 kills, eight blocks and the admiration of
all who witnessed one of the top juniors in the nation.
“Matt is one of the dominant players I’ve ever been associated with or
seen,” said Santa Ynez Coach Chip Fenenga, who has sent a bus load of
talent on to Division I college success. Included among Fenenga’s frame
of reference is former Stanford All-American and current national team
member Andy Witt, as well as NCAA Tournament MVP Mike Wall, who led BYU
to the Division I crown as a junior this season.
“He does the things (Witt and Wall) did as seniors and he’s only a
junior. And the thing most people don’t realize about him is how good a
passer he is.”
McKinney, the Los Padres League MVP in both basketball and volleyball
this season, also conducted himself as a champion, during and after the
match.
Santa Ynez also rode the talents of senior setter J.T. Gilmour, last
year’s CIF Division III Player of the Year.
The 6-7 Gilmour shared setting chores with junior Nate Alker, so he
could also provide a net presence, as well as his passing skills.
Yet another key for the winners was the play of 6-3 junior Jeff Urton,
whose return from a late-season ankle injury solidified what Fenenga
called the strongest defensive team he has had in years.
Urton, a beach player who won an amateur two-man tournament in
Australia over the summer, played in the front row for the first time in
about a month, Fenenga said. He chipped in six kills, while adding his
trademark passing acumen.
“His passing makes us so much better,” said Gilmour, who will join his
older brother Marcus, another former Pirate, next year at USC.
While Santa Ynez celebrated with a nonchalance fostered by winning six
section championships in the last seven years, including three straight,
the CdM players congratulated the victors, as well as themselves for a
noteworthy 15-7 campaign that included a share of the Pacific Coast
League championship.
This was a CdM team that lost three All-CIF standouts to graduation
after a 22-1 CIF Division I title season last year, including Division I
Player of the Year Kevin Hansen, now a setter Stanford.
“When we started the season, we weren’t sure we would even make the
playoffs,” CdM senior standout Brian Gallagher (a team-high 15 kills)
said. “And here we were playing in the CIF Finals.”
After the awards ceremony, Conti addressed his team for several
minutes in the corner of the gym, before they dispersed into a spirited
CdM crowd, which did its best rally the troops during a brief third-game
surge.
Conti exchanged hugs with many of the seniors and his embrace with
Alshuler included a thank you from the player to his coach, as well as an
apology.
“I just wanted to thank you for everything and I’m sorry,” said
Alshuler, who would have liked to have delivered Conti, coaching in his
fifth straight section title match, his third CIF crown.
Fenenga, who grew up in San Clemente and has long professed his
admiration for the CdM volleyball tradition, was gracious after the 15-9,
15-5, 15-8 verdict.
“That’s an incredible program, which is well coached and very
talented,” Fenenga said. “I’m thankful to have won, especially in three
straight. We just got into some rotations and served well enough to give
them some problems. If we played them again, they’d probably beat us
three straight.”
Fenenga called Gallagher “a stud horse hitting machine” and also
complimented the work of Burden (35 assists) and 6-7 senior middle
blocker Forrest Mack.
In light of the grief brought on by the death of Sam Johnson, the
father of Santa Ynez junior middle blocker Roy Johnson and a beloved
figure in the Santa Barbara County-based community, Fenenga said he was
relieved not to put his players through a five-game match.
CdM and Santa Ynez split five-game Division III title-match wars in
1997 and ’98. Further, CdM is the only school not to be swept by Santa
Ynez in a section title match. The Pirates surrendered just 16 points
last year to Chaminade and yielded just 15 against Laguna Beach in 1999,
both in Division III finals.
“I told the guys Sam was someone everyone admired for his strength and
now was the time for them to show theirs,” Fenenga said. “He died
Wednesday (after a battle with cancer) and there were a lot of tears
after we beat Northwood in the semifinals that night. There were about
1,000 people at Sam’s funeral Friday and the school basically shut down.”
The younger Johnson was inserted for one rally late in the third game.
His appearance generated rousing applause from the Pirates’ rooting
section.
What the Pirates did was tie Loyola for the most section titles (six)
in the 28-year history of volleyball as a CIF-sanctioned sport. Their
three-peat is the second the program has accomplished. Only Loyola has
won more crowns in a row with four from 1985-88.
CdM has four CIF titles in seven trips to the Finals.
And, with only one senior who received playing time Saturday, Santa
Ynez is primed to keep the steak going.
Not bad for a program that Fenenga began in 1993.
The logo on the back of the Santa Ynez players’ black jerseys is a
buffalo skull.
Explained Fenenga, “My brother works for a (beachwear company) and
they had a line of clothing called Pirate Surf. Originally, that featured
a cow skull, but we decided that wasn’t menacing enough. So, we went to
the buffalo skull.”
Menacing, indeed.
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