UPDATE: Boys’ volleyball continues to work hard throughout their season.
By Kayla Iles, Staff Editor
Last year, a new sport was born at Poly: boys’ volleyball. At first, this sport developing as a program at Poly was just an idea, but eventually it turned into a reality. Though the team is still evolving, it has exceeded expectations this season. The players have been putting in the time and effort to put boys’ volleyball on the map.
Most sports participate in preseason games, practices, and/or scrimmages to help them prepare for the season. This year the team took part in “preseason practice [which gave them] a good idea of how [they would] perform in league matches,” Co-Captain Joey Paulo (11) noted. There is a total of 14 boys on the team: four sophomores, seven juniors, and three seniors. “Everyone all around has positive energy and that helps a lot,” Alec Quintero (11) commented. Although this group doesn’t have as many players as soccer, water polo, swimming, basketball, or football, there are still enough members to bring home some wins for Poly.
Many other surrounding schools don’t have a boys’ volleyball team— or at least we don’t hear of them. However, Poly’s team still competes against high schools such as Roosevelt, Hemet, Chaparral, San Gorgonio, San Jacinto, Tahquitz, Citrus Valley, and Corona. Their league standing so far is four wins and one loss and their overall standing is ten wins and five losses; the team has immensely improved from last year seeing as how they only won a total of three games. “This team right now has a major upside because all we can do is get better. All we can do is build more team chemistry and improve our skills,” Quintero said.
The boys have put in a lot of effort to win games and gain recognition. “We have stronger coaching and new players that help out the team a lot,” Paulo explained. As with every sports team, their goal for the season is to “make it as far in the playoffs as possible. [The team] anticipates going far in CIF (California Interscholastic Federation) next year while hopefully making it to the finals,” Paulo expressed.
Despite the fact that the team is in its infant stages, there are still high hopes and expectations for boys’ volleyball to become another prominent program on campus.