It’s 6 a.m. at Loyola High. Students are supposed to be asleep unless they’re on the swim team doing early morning laps at the pool. So why in the name of beach, surf and sunshine is the volleyball team practicing in the gym?
Welcome to February’s gym crunch time, when winter sports teams such as basketball are busy with playoffs and spring sports teams such as volleyball are gearing up for the start of their season.
“It’s pretty brutal,” said 6-foot-8 volleyball standout Blake Fahlbusch, who would prefer surfing in the morning and practicing volleyball in the afternoon.
Veteran coach Michael Boehle, sipping coffee, understands the routine is only temporary and does his best to get his players focused on their early-morning routine.
The Cubs begin their season next week with the motivation that they have “unfinished business.”
Last year at one point they were the best team in Southern California, but there were too many distractions and too many obstacles to overcome. Players lost their home in the Palisades fire. Boehle found out he had prostate cancer. A well-known classmate, Braun Levi, was killed by a suspected drunken driver.
Boehle, feeling refreshed and excited after surgery removed the cancer, thinks the chemistry is better. Fahlbusch, a USC commit, is a candidate for best in the Southland because of his size and athleticism.
JP Wardy, a 6-4 Pepperdine commit, arrived from Newport Harbor to play his final year at Loyola, the school he was set to attend as a freshman until he moved to San Diego for family reasons.
“It feels great to be back,” Wardy said. “I missed being at Loyola. I feel growing up, this was supposed to be the school I would go to.”
Loyola’s libero, Matt Kelly, is the brother of UCLA standout Sean Kelly. He’s committed to Loyola Chicago and considering how well his big brother serves, practicing against him has gotten Matt ready for anything. There’s also 6-6 Lucas Posell, a Princeton commit with a 4.7 grade-point average.
The usual title contenders should be the teams to watch with Loyola — Mira Costa, Redondo Union, Huntington Beach, Corona del Mar and Newport Harbor.
There’s lots of top players, from juniors Teddy Mandelbaum and Mateo Fuerbringer of Mira Costa, both UCLA commits, to Taylor Boice of Redondo Union, a UC Irvine commit. Mira Costa has also added Jake Newman, a transfer from Mater Dei.
Boehle will be coaching in his 28th year, having won seven Southern Section championships. The Cubs have won every Mission League title since sharing the crown with Harvard-Westlake in 2007 and haven’t lost a league match since that season.
The annual Loyola-Mira Costa nonleague match that brings out fans en masse is set for March 20 at Mira Costa.
The Cubs open their season on Feb. 24 at home against Newport Harbor, so Wardy will be waving across the net to his former teammates.
As for his early impressions of his new team, Wardy said, “We’re good. I’m excited. Practices are competitive, which I really like because it helps us getting better.”
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