High School Volleyball: Ciarelli takes over reins at Newport

The Newport Harbor High boys’ volleyball alumni match on Saturday was unlike any in the past. Former players went up against a program coming off its first season without making the CIF Southern Section playoffs.

The Sailors’ string of 40 straight postseason appearances ended last season. Seeing that record go down affected not only the current Sailors, but also the ones who used to suit up for the school.

“There’s a little bit of, you know, a pain in your chest, because we all got our pride for all the hard work that’s put in, and continued to be put in by these guys, and you don’t want to see them miss an opportunity like that,” said Dan Thomassen, a 1993 graduate, who’s been the girls’ volleyball coach at Sage Hill the last 11 seasons. “But it’s time for them to start something new and build it back to greatness, and it’s not far off.”

The old Sailors met the new Sailors who plan to restore Newport Harbor’s rich playoff tradition. The program has turned to Rocky Ciarelli to lead the Sailors back to the postseason.

The PA announcer, who happened to be Charlie Brande, Newport Harbor’s coach from 1977 to 1980, introduced the new coach to the crowd, but Ciarelli really didn’t need an introduction. Ciarelli coached against many of the Sailors on the court during his time at Huntington Beach, where he guided the Oilers from 1985 to 2008, winning 500-plus boys’ and girls’ matches.

Two of those former Newport Harbor standouts went up against Ciarelli’s new high school team. And Wes Dunlap and Brett Perrine didn’t take it easy on the Sailors. They helped the alumni win the best-of-three match, 24-26, 25-20, 28-26.

The event brought out a nice-sized crowd and almost three dozen former players saw action. A handful of players from the Sailors’ first two CIF Southern Section championship teams, in 1980 and 1987, played. Pete Helfrich and Gary Crane, from the 1980 team, showed up and competed, along with two members from the 1987 team, Drew Sheward and Mike Curci.

The veterans got the better of the youngsters, but Ciarelli likes what he sees from his team. The Sailors open the season at home against Laguna Beach on Tuesday at 5:45 p.m.

“I haven’t learned all of their … last names,” Ciarelli said with a grin, before adding that he knows his players’ first names. “They’re a good group of kids. They’re working hard. We’ll see what happens as the year goes along.”

Ciarelli’s been around the team for a week, the first practice was on Monday. He has already addressed last season, when the Sailors finished 10-20 and 5-5 in the Sunset League, losing a league playoff tiebreaker to Edison, which earned the league’s third-and-final berth into the Division 1 playoffs.

Bryan Cottriel stepped down after the season, his first in charge of the Sailors. The team also lost seven seniors to graduation.

The Sailors are inexperienced, with only two seniors, outside hitter Grady Kimme and opposite Collin Schlesinger. The team has four sophomores and four freshmen. Ciarelli, who won three section titles at Huntington Beach, two in Division 1 with the boys in 1993 and ’94 and one in Division IIAA with the girls in ‘96, isn’t going to use youth as an excuse for not contending for one of the league’s three automatic postseason spots.

“That’s like people saying, ‘Oh, you’re rebuilding,’” Ciarelli said. “When you’ve been to CIF [40] years out of [41 at Newport Harbor], I don’t think it’s really rebuilding. I think every public school has, you know, … a year or two where it’s tough. I don’t care what public school you are. Last year was just tough. Bless Danny [Glenn], he stopped coaching [the boys at Newport Harbor four] years ago [as the head coach], and you get some new [head] coaches, new things going on, it’s not easy. We’ve got … a good core group of players and we’ll be all right.”

Glenn, who led the boys at Newport Harbor for a quarter of a century, from 1987 to 2011, will be Ciarelli’s assistant. The two began coaching together at Edison in 1982. Ciarelli joked that he and Glenn are from the dinosaur era.

The old coaches have talented young players in sophomore setter Landon Monroe and sophomore middle blocker Spencer Lawrence, as well as freshman outside hitter Cole Pender. Last summer, Pender helped the Balboa Bay Volleyball Club Asics boys’ team win the 15-and-under open division at the USA Junior National Championships.

“Tough season,” Glenn called last season, when he served as an assistant under Cottriel. “Well, it’s going to be a tough one this year, too. We had a great group of seniors last year that graduated, and it’s just a very competitive league. Then our nonleague [matches] are [against Manhattan Beach Mira] Costa and [rival] Corona [del Mar], which are two of the top teams [in Division 1]. It’s going to be a tough road this year, too, but it’s kind of fun to work with such a young group. They’re really receptive to Coach Ciarelli and all the things he has to say.”

Kimme said he likes Ciarelli’s mellow demeanor and the tone he sets in practice. The former players also appreciate Ciarelli.

“He’s super-well respected, not as just a volleyball coach, but a trainer of athletes,” Thomassen said. “You can see when you walk in here that that respect they had for Dan, they immediately have it for Rocky. The program’s continuing and it’s going to great for a long time.”