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.