JASON PERKINS

Richard Dunn

Highlighted by an amazing two-year span of championships, the

career of former Corona del Mar High and USC men’s volleyball star

Jason Perkins could be summed up perhaps in a quote.

“It was a wonderful experience,” Perkins said. “It made me the

person I am today. It gave me confidence I never had before.

Volleyball really changed my life.”

Even though his dad, Bob, taught him skills early, Perkins was a

late bloomer for the Sea Kings, for whom he’d later help win the 1989

CIF Southern Section 4-A championship.

The next season, as a USC freshman, Perkins garnered Freshman

All-American honors and made the NCAA Final Four team as the Trojans

won the national championship.

A 6-foot-4 middle blocker for USC, Perkins said he “never dreamed

of having such a two-year stretch” of titles.

“It really continued my sophomore year,” he added. “Until the

final game (against Long Beach State in the NCAA championship match),

we were unstoppable.”

Perkins grew up in a volleyball family with his mother, Michael,

and sister Prentice, who starred at CdM and Long Beach State, but he

didn’t start playing club volleyball until the summer before his

sophomore year at CdM.

Perkins, who had played organized soccer and baseball, was

initially pretty good once volleyball caught his interest, but he

“wasn’t super coordinated, per say. But through Charlie Brande (at

the Balboa Bay Club Volleyball Club) and his skill-development

coaching style, I learned the fundamentals and the mental discipline

of the game, and, by my senior year, I really blossomed and came into

my own.”

Before his senior year, Perkins was “an average player,” but the

spring of ‘89, everything came together, including the Sea Kings’

second CIF championship.

With Perkins in the middle, along with Matt Cwiertnia, Chris

Pliha, Chad Steelberg, Matt Herrington and CIF 4-A Player of the Year

Ty Price at setter, Coach Brande’s Sea Kings roared through the CIF

Playoffs, defeating rival Laguna Beach (with Dain Blanton) in the

semifinals and powerhouse Mira Costa (featuring Canyon Ceman and

David Swatik) in the finals.

“We definitely weren’t expected to win (CIF),” said Perkins, a

first-team All-CIF 4-A choice. “That was truly an exciting year, and,

for me, it was a breakout year. I really matured. I just had a really

wonderful year that year -- with school and volleyball.”

Perkins was joined at USC by Herrington, and later Price, who

transferred from San Diego State. “At USC, we had two guys on the

team who I’d played with for years,” said Perkins, who led the nation

in hitting percentage his freshman year, when he was joined on the

USC court by future U.S. Olympians Bryan Ivie, Nick Becker and Dan

Greenbaum.

“I was surrounded by phenomenal talent, so I wasn’t keyed on by

other teams,” said Perkins, whose Trojans repeated as Western

Intercollegiate Volleyball Association champions his sophomore year,

before losing to the 49ers in the NCAA title match.

“My junior and senior years, I went from being the young guy with

a bunch of old guys to an old guy with a bunch of young guys.”

Perkins, who majored in public administration at USC, said

volleyball “changed who I was, mostly for the best ... it really

changed my life.”

Perkins, the latest honoree in the Daily Pilot Sports Hall of Fame

who works for a financial services firm in Newport Beach as a

stockbroker and insurance salesman, lives in Irvine with his wife of

seven years, Marianne, and 3-year-old son, Connor. They’re expecting

their second child in May.