By ERIK STORDAHL | Contributor
After making a splash in its first season as a volleyball club, Pacific Rim is doing more than an encore performance this go around.
Formed in August of 2010, the Pleasant Hill-based club burst onto the scene by going undefeated locally and making good showings at state and national tournaments.
Coach Roger Worsley has most of his players back for another season and his teams have begun right where they left off.
“Our 14U boys team won the NCVBA (NorCal Volleyball Association) tournament in September,” Worsley said. “Our 16s took ninth and secured a bid to Junior Nationals in Dallas July 1-8.”
Securing bids for the national tournament is typically considered a victory and a solid building block for a promising future. But Pacific Rim has its sights set on gold in Dallas.
To show they’re not kidding around, Pacific Rim’s 14U squad won another prestigious tournament after winning the NCVBA tournament, the Southern California Volleyball Association (SCVA) regionals. That victory secured another national bid, just for kicks.
Winning in Southern California was rewarding and gave the team a snapshot of what to expect in Dallas. Pacific Rim went up against the state’s top teams, some nationally-ranked, and dominated. They will likely be a favorite heading into July.
“We have strong coaching, but the players are good athletes to begin with,” Worsley said. “We were able to keep them on pace with where we felt we need them to be and they responded to that.”
When asked which players on his teams stand out most, Worsley quickly responded saying he’d be “remiss to exclude anybody” before singling out certain players. He added that, like any strong team, they’ve achieved their high-ranking status because of the sum of their parts.
Worsley went with his two sons, Joe and Gage, the former of which attends Campolindo-Moraga. He also included Jordan Ewert who will play for Deer Valley-Antioch in the spring. Those three are part of the USA Volleyball High Performance program.
Add to the mix Ygnacio Valley’s Sean Vaisima, a 6-foot-3 behemoth and only a freshman.
Worsley explained the big picture for the 14U and 16U teams is to have them all play 17U as soon as next season.
“The whole intention was I consider this a year of development,” Worsley said. “The intention is to bring them all back next year as 17U. “¦ Hopefully along the way we attract more boys into the club. At the conclusion of this year, we’ll look to combine the team into one nucleus; we’ll be looking to add a lot more next year.”
Recruiting shouldn’t be difficult with the two-year resume Worsley and his coaches have assembled. But what worries him most is when his players disperse for a couple months to play volleyball for their high schools. Coaching styles could potentially clash with teaching fundamentals and nuances to the game that Pacific Rim instills in its players year round.
Because of this potential shift, Worsley will have weekly open gyms set up which he encourages his players to attend.
“I think the trade off is they’re still touching balls on a daily basis,” Worsley said. “I’m confident they’ll continue to prevail.”
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