Surf Spike Gold at Jr. Nationals

Palisadians Power Manhattan Beach Club to Volleyball Title

When the chips were down at the USA Volleyball Boys’ Junior National Championships, Manhattan Beach Surf Coach John Beckwith knew he could turn to Steven Irvin and Robert Feathers–and the Pacific Palisades pair responded, leading their squad to the 18 Open Division championship July 5 in Austin, Texas. Beckwith, Irvin and Feathers all went to Corpus Christi back in the day. Now, they are taking their prep and club programs to unprecedented heights. Surf rallied from early deficits in the first and third sets to upset top-seeded Outrigger of Hawaii, 25-23, 21-25, 15-13, in the gold medal match and Irvin was selected Most Valuable Player of the tournament. “Without a doubt it helped having John [Beckwith] coaching us because I’m already so familiar with his style and I know exactly what he expects,” said Irvin, an outside hitter headed for Stanford. “We joked around with him when we fell behind, saying that it was our strategy.” The victory served as a measure of revenge for Surf players and their coach, for Beckwith was an assistant at Loyola High in the spring when the Cubs won their second consecutive CIF Southern Section Division I and state regional championships. Early in the season, however, Loyola had lost at the Best of the West Tournament to Punahou of Hawaii, which also defeated CIF finalist Mira Costa to supplant Loyola as the No. 1 ranked team in the country according to ESPN Rise. Since most of Surf’s squad consisted of players from Loyola and Mira Costa, and the Outrigger team was made up primarily of Punahou players, the significance of the rematch in Texas was clear: national bragging rights. “It was a huge deal for everyone on our team–not just those of us from Loyola but the Mira Costa players, too,” said Feathers, a middle blocker who is undecided on college but is considering USC, UCLA, Pepperdine, UC Santa Barbara and UC San Diego. “There was definitely a motivation to get those [Hawaii] guys back because they had beaten both of our teams. When we got to Austin we really came together and felt we were the best despite not being the top-ranked team on paper.” The championship was just as satisfying to Beckwith as it was to his players because he experienced the same thrill when he was their age. Beckwith, who grew up in the Alphabet Streets, was a middle blocker at Loyola and played alongside fellow Palisadian Curt Toppel on the Los Angeles Athletic Club’s 18 Open team that won the gold medal at the Junior Olympics in New Orleans. “It’s great to see Robert [Feathers] and Steven [Irvin] doing so well because I took the same track as them,” Beckwith said. Outrigger led 19-16 in the first set, but Surf came back to win it on a block by Kevin Donohue. In the third set, the Surf took its first lead, 13-12, on a kill by Vaun Lennon. Then, on match point, Christopher Heppell and Bryce Miller combined for a block… and the celebration began. “We only had 11 guys on our roster, which is very rare because most teams have 14 or 15,” Beckwith said. “Maybe that’s why we became so close-knit. Every player had an important role and felt like the team was counting on him when his number was called.” Joining Irvin on the all-tournament team were Feathers, Donohue and Miller. UCLA-bound Kene Izuchukwu, fresh off winning the Post Cup Award as the outstanding senior athlete at Palisades High, amazed both the crowd and his teammates with his 41-inch vertical leap and his array of thunderous spikes. “Kene made some plays that were just crazy,” Irvin said. “We’d be like ‘Did he really just do that?'” The Manhattan Beach club beat Envol Elite of Puerto Rico, 25-21, 25-21, in the quarterfinals and beat Pittsburgh Volleyball Club of Keystone, 25-13, 25-22, in the semifinals. “Kene [Izuchukwu] and I came over from the Pacific Palisades Volleyball Club,” Feathers said. “We were on different teams last year, but we made the switch to play with Steven this year for Manhattan Beach and it worked out.” Feathers, who lives minutes away from Irvin in the Highlands, has enjoyed quite a run over the last five club seasons (four with PPVBC and one with Manhattan Beach), claiming two golds, one silver and two bronze medals. Irvin, meanwhile, grew up in a volleyball family (his older sister Kelly and younger sister Christine both play indoor and beach and his father played on two national championship teams at UCLA). He played for PPVBC in ninth grade and joined the Southern California Volleyball Club as a sophomore before switching to Manhattan Beach. “There’s something special about winning for your school and in front of a huge crowd, but this is just as big because it’s a higher level,” said Irvin, who was named 2010 CIF Division I Player of the Year. “It’s pretty hard to imagine having a better year than this.” Two other Palisadians, Tommy Stoeckinger and Kyle Houge, were also on Loyola’s 2010 championship squad and both played significant roles for their clubs in Texas. Stoeckinger, who will be a senior at Loyola in the fall, led SCVC Quiksilver to the bronze medal in the 17 Open Division, defeating Piterres of Puerto Rico in the third-place match, 25-16, 22-25, 15-13. Houge led Pali Black 18 Kaepa to fourth place in the 18 Club Division, the division right below Open. The team posted a 7-6 record, falling to High Line of Southern California in a marathon semifinal, 25-23, 19-25, 18-16, then being edged by Spectrum 18s of Southern California, 20-25, 25-14, 15-11, in the bronze medal match. Another Palisadian who left Texas with a gold medal around his neck was Jackson Bantle, an outside hitter for the SCVC Quiksilver 15 Open team, which swept Southern California 949 Black in the final, avenging a 25-18, 26-24 loss earlier in the tournament. SCVC trailed 8-4 in the second set of the championship match, but Bantle served an ace to tie the score 10-10 and Quiksilver never trailed again.