By Rick Assad
If everything goes swimmingly, and there lies the proverbial rub, this could be a special season for all three local boys’ volleyball teams.
The skill and desire are there for Burroughs High, Burbank and Providence.
Now it’s all about execution and maybe even some luck.
The Bears have always been strong under Joel Brinton, the longtime coach and were last season finishing 25-10 overall and 8-2 in the Pacific League for second place.
The Bears took out South Pasadena in five sets in a CIF Southern Section Division III first-round match but lost to St. Margaret’s in three sets in the second round.
“I hope we will get back to being league champs and be able to make a deep run in the CIF,” Brinton said. “But our primary goal is to help these boys, and this team find the best version of themselves.”
While the Bears have been a top-contender and even the best team in the league, Brinton hopes for the best.
“The league will be a bit of the unknown this year,” he said. “Arcadia and Crescenta Valley will be strong as always and we expect Glendale, Pasadena and Burbank will be improving as well.”
These players should shine for Burroughs and include Benji Ly, Noah Duffield, Caiden Shrode, Ryder Tafoya and Skyy Alston.
There will be a great deal asked of this group, but they are poised and ready for the challenge.
Brinton wants to see leadership on the floor from many players.
“We have a lot of strengths but this year we are hoping our leadership really starts to show as we have a great senior class that is ready to lead us back to where we want to be,” he said.
The rest of the team includes Jae Kung, Adam Holcombe, Nathan Kameya, Riley Brinton, Nathan Spratt, Luke Kang, Adrian Dubrow, Ronen Ziegert, Devon Romo, Jack Szaras, and Marco Santiago-Dorn.
The Bulldogs went 4-17 in all matches and 2-7 in the Pacific league for fifth and failed to make the playoffs.
Coach Brandon Villaflor remains hopeful and wants to see improvement.
“I think we have a great group of guys this year. Our program graduated four key seniors, and this season, our program now consists of only one senior,” he pointed out. “The rest are juniors and sophomores. It is a completely different dynamic this year, and it’s refreshing to have such a young group that are willing to get better each day and always looking for new ways to grow as a team.”
The lone senior is Jordan Ribas, and there are five juniors that include Caiden Kai Abarabar, Jun Angel, Rilen Ixtlahuac, Kaden Moore and Tyler Tran.
There are five sophomores on the Bulldogs’ squad, and they are Finian Cassada, Brandon Chong, Michael Becker, Aidan Casey and Ryan Villaflor.
Villaflor continued: “We worked hard this offseason on our fundamentals, and coming off my first year as a head coach, I immediately looked for more experiences to further my development, and look at different philosophies of different coaches, in which I did with the girls’ program at La Canada, as well as at San Gabriel Elite Volleyball,” he added.
Villaflor spoke about the league specifically.
“With the Pacific League, I think it’s a well-balanced league,” he said. “Our program is aiming to compete with the best and hopefully get our way in the [CIF] playoffs.”
Providence is coached by Mario Adriano, and he said this will be the last year the Pioneers will be members of the Prep League.
The team went 7-20 and 1-7 in league for fifth place and missed the postseason.
“This will be our final year in the Prep League, as Providence as a whole has decided to move back into the Liberty League that it was previously in,” Adriano said. “We hope to make an impact in our final season with the league and clutch an opportunity to go to the playoffs, and we’re optimistic about our chances this year.”
Adriano will have ten players on the team with four seniors and they are Preston Komisar, John Sarmiento, Nathan Mullin and Ronin Pingul.
The juniors on the squad are Jacob Jimenez, Nathan Mendez and Parker Neibert.
Three are sophomores and they include Luca Darakjian, Jaden Casal and Joshua Estrada.
