Hall of Fame: Brooke Herrington (Corona del Mar)

Richard Dunn

When Brooke Herrington’s family moved from Michigan to Newport

Beach, she was 9 years old and all of her new friends, it seemed, played

volleyball.

“It was just part of living here. All the kids played volleyball at

recess,” Herrington said, recalling her first days at Harbor View

Elementary School.

Herrington, who would become one of the finest all-around players to

come out of Corona del Mar High, learned the inside game of volleyball at

an early age.

“I don’t know if it was inbred in me or what, but Charlie (Brande)

taught us how to be mentally tough,” said Herrington, a longtime former

pupil under Brande at the Orange County Volleyball Club.

Herrington, a 5-foot-11 outside hitter for CdM and the University of

the Pacific, goes by her married name these days (Truninger). But, for

the sake of continuity, the latest honoree in the Daily Pilot Sports Hall

of Fame will be referred to by her maiden name.

After a stellar collegiate career, Herrington went on to play two

years of professional volleyball in Europe.

“I loved playing defense,” Herrington said. “I played it well, because

I loved it so much. My favorite part of the game was defense, and,

without trying to sound too cocky, I think I ended up being very good at

it. Charlie taught us to be mentally tough, and taught us how to be super

hungry to win all the time.”

As a CdM senior, Herrington led the Sea Kings, coached by Brande, to

the CIF State Division I championship in the fall of 1984, after beating

Gahr in four games, 9-15, 16-14, 15-10, 15-6.

“We were the underdogs,” Herrington said, referring to the fact that

Gahr swept Corona del Mar earlier in the CIF Southern Section 5-A title

match. “(The Gladiators) were all over 6-feet tall and we were these

little beach girls all under 6-feet ... (the upset win) was huge for us.”

Herrington earned state MVP honors as CdM won its first of three State

Division I titles. (CdM captured back-to-back state championships in

1992-93, during which the latter year Herrington was an assistant coach

under Lance Stewart.)

Soon after graduating from high school, Herrington played in the U.S.

Olympic Festival in the summer of 1985, then attended UOP on a volleyball

scholarship. Deciding on UOP was easy for the heavily recruited

Herrington.

At the time, several former Orange County Volleyball Club members were

playing at UOP, while club teammate Elaina Oden, Irvine High’s 1984 CIF

4-A Player of the Year and future Olympian, had committed to UOP.

“UOP just rubbed me right,” Herrington said. “And, with a lot of the

girls there who played under Charlie, we all spoke the same language. And

there was Elaina Oden, too. We were in the same grade and I knew wherever

she was going, that school was going to win. If she was going to UOP, I’m

going to UOP.”

Herrington played on UOP’s back-to-back NCAA Division I championship

squads in the autumns of 1985 and ’86. She came off the bench and played

a lot as a freshman, then started at left-side hitter as a sophomore.

UOP reached the NCAA regional finals in 1987 and ‘88, and in the

summer of ‘87, Herrington played for the U.S. at the World University

Games in Yugoslavia.

“It was just like the Olympics,” she said. “It was awesome. My parents

(Jane and her late father, Bud) came and I saw them in the stands when

all the countries were marching in at Swan Stadium. It was cool. They had

fireworks and those jet airplanes that fly over across the arena.”

After graduating from UOP, Herrington signed with a French pro team

for the 1989-90 campaign, then played in Switzerland the following

season.

“That’s where I met my husband (Patrick),” Herrington said of her

season in Biel, Switzerland, a town of about 65,000 people. “He lived

there and was a team handball standout.”

They met at a large athletic facility where several teams trained,

including her volleyball team and his handball team, and were married in

1994. They live in Corona del Mar and have two boys: Hagen, 4, and

Matthew, 3.

Herrington’s younger brother, Matt, played on CdM’s 1989 CIF 4-A

championship team, also coached by Brande. Brother Bill Herrington is the

family’s oldest sibling. “(Bill) always gets left out,” she said.