Newport Harbor’s boys volleyball team has something new and something familiar.
The “new” is a new head coach. Matt Johnson was promoted from assistant coach to head coach when Andrew Mabry left Newport Harbor to accept an assistant coaching position at Kansas State.
The “familiar” is the high-quality roster. The Sailors again have an outstanding group of players.
Jack Berry was All-Orange County second team last season as a junior. He is a 6-foot-3 middle blocker who also has been an excellent basketball player for the Sailors.
Other top contributors are junior outside hitters Henry Clemo and JP Wardy, senior outside hitter Wyatt Nichols, junior middle blocker Zachary DeMaio and junior setter Charlie Von Der Ahe.
“We have a lot of good pieces,” said Johnson. “Zach and Berry are unreal players… We should get really good production out of the middle.”
The Sailors again are playing a challenging schedule. Newport Harbor is 5-3 going into Friday’s match against Clovis East in the Best of the West tournament in San Diego.
Johnson is in his fourth season in the Newport Harbor volleyball program with experience coaching in boys and girls volleyball. He is getting help from assistant coach Eric Vallely, who was Mabry’s predecessor as Newport Harbor’s head coach and has coached at Vanguard University and UCLA.
In recent seasons there was an eight-school Sunset Conference that split those eight schools into two four-team leagues. This season there are seven teams in the Sunset League: Corona del Mar, Edison, Fountain Valley, Huntington Beach, Los Alamitos, Marina and Newport Harbor.
“It’s such a competitive league,” Johnson said. “Anybody can beat anybody in this league.”
NOTES
One of the top tournaments in California is this week’s Best of the West tournament at Alliant University in San Diego, hosted by Poway High School. The Orange County teams in it are Beckman, Corona del Mar, Huntington Beach, Mater Dei, Newport Harbor, San Clemente, Santa Margarita, Servite and Tesoro. The event begins Friday and concludes Saturday. …
As in many other CIF Southern Section team sports, teams will be placed in playoff divisions at the end of the regular season. The Massey Ratings System will be used to rank the teams and those rankings will determine the playoff divisions. The first rankings will be posted March 18 and every Tuesday thereafter until the final rankings are posted April 23. …
The first-ever CIF State Championships in boys volleyball will happen this season. The CIF State finals are May 31 at a site to be announced. …
The CIF Southern Section playoffs begin April 30 with the finals May 16-17. Some division finals will be played at Cerritos College and the others at sites to be determined. The CIF Southern California Regional playoffs will be held May 20-24 followed by the CIF State Championships.
ORANGE COUNTY TOP 10
1. Newport Harbor (5-3): The Sailors have wins over Laguna Beach and Servite.
2. Huntington Beach (9-1): The Oilers have wins over Servite and San Clemente with their only loss to Mira Costa, a CIF-SS Division 1 finalist last season.
3. Beckman (11-0): The Patriots have defeated Santa Margarita twice and Tesoro once.
4. San Clemente (8-4): The Tritons have wins over Mater Dei and Tesoro.
5. Tesoro (6-4): The Titans have defeated JSerra and Mater Dei.
6. Corona del Mar (2-2): The Sea Kings are playing a challenging schedule. They have defeated Marina and Servite, have lost to Loyola, which was last season’s CIF-SS Division 1 champion, and Mira Costa.
7. Santa Margarita (8-2): The Eagles, last year’s CIF-SS Division 2 champion, have lost to Beckman (twice) and have victories over Edison and Dana Hills.
8. Mater Dei (4-4): The Monarchs have defeated St. Margaret’s, have lost to Redondo, San Clemente and Tesoro.
9. JSerra (10-2): The Lions have wins over Newport Harbor and St. Margaret’s.
10. St. Margaret’s (4-3): The Tartans, last season’s CIF-SS Division 3 champions, have beaten Tesoro and Capistrano Valley Christian.
PLAYERS TO WATCH
Jack Berry, Newport Harbor, Sr., middle blocker: Berry, a middle-blocker, was All-Orange County second team last season and All-Surf League first team.
Jackson Cryst, Sage Hill, Sr., outside hitter: Cryst, who signed with Long Beach State, is a 6-foot-10 net presence who had 54 kills in the Lightning’s win over San Marino in last season’s CIF-SS Division 5 championship match. He was the Division 5 player of the year.
Dylan Gallagher, Mater Dei, Sr., middle blocker: Gallagher was All-Trinity League last season; signed with Pepperdine.
Kai Gan, Huntington Beach, Sr., setter: Gan is 6-foot-5, which is unusually tall for the position; committed to Harvard.
Brogan Glenn, Corona del Mar, Sr., libero: Glenn was the only non-senior on last season’s All-Orange County first team; was on the All-CIF-SS Division 1 team.
Logan Hutnick, Huntington Beach, So., outside hitter: Hutnick, one of the sport’s top recruits of his class, was All-Surf League second team last season.
Brooks Ignosci, Santa Margarita, Sr., outside hitter: Ignosci was All-County fourth team and All-CIF-SS Division 2 last season.
Jack Loper, San Clemente, Sr., outside hitter: Loper last season was a South Coast League MVP, was All-County second team and was named to the All-CIF-SS Division 3 team.
Luke Morrison, Beckman, Sr., opposite hitter: Morrison, who signed with Stanford, was the Pacific Coast League MVP last season and All-CIF-SS Division 2.
Chase Wallin, Santa Margarita, So., setter: He was All-CIF-SS Division 2 and All-Trinty League first team last season after helping the Eagles win the CIF-SS Division 2 championship.
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