Time flies when you’re having fun and for Palisadians Oliver Deutschman and Matt Bagnard the last five years have been a blur. They have formed the backbone of a boys’ team from the Pacific Palisades Volleyball Club that has enjoyed unprecedented success since they joined the program. “Just by chance, their parents decided to get their kids involved in the local program and everything blossomed from then on,” said Matthew Diaz, their coach at PPVBC for the past four years. “Our program stresses the fundamentals of the game, so when the opportunity presents itself to play at the next level (JV, varsity, college, professional or in the Olympics), our athletes are ready, willing and able to succeed at that level. We’ve been around for 22 years now but the accomplishments over the last few years are merely byproducts of the dedication and loyalty these boys have and instilled in their teammates.” Deutschman, Bagnard and their team, now called ‘Pali 18 Kaepa’ have enjoyed quite a run, taking the silver medal at the U.S. Junior Olympic Championships in 2005, winning the gold in 2006, winning the bronze in 2007, winning the gold in 2007 and taking the bronze again this year. The 2008 Youth National Team captain, Deutschman was the Most Valuable Player of the 15s and 17s age divisions at the Junior Olympics and made the All-Tournament team in the 16s and 18s divisions. He was voted best setter at the NORCECA championships last year and will attend UC Santa Barbara this fall. He was captain of his high school team at Crossroads in Santa Monica. Bagnard, meanwhile, has been the team’s starting outside hitter for five years and made the All-Tournament team in 2006. Harvard-Westlake High’s star was a key component for the USAV’s A2 Member Phoenix last year and will attend USC this fall. Rounding out the Pali 18 Kaepa roster were fellow Palisadian Robert Feathers, a junior-to-be at CIF Division I and state champion Loyola High; Matt Hanley, a First-Team All-City hitter at Palisades High, who moves on to UCLA; Jake Kneller of Westlake Village who is bound for Stanford; Eric Dates of Los Angeles, now headed for Ohio State; Evan Mottram of Leona Valley (USCB); Ryan Kachold of Quartz Hill (UCLA); Ian Satterfield of Manhattan Beach (long Beach State); Scott Kevorken of Westlake Village (UC Irvine); Hunter Horn of Quartz Hill; and Westlake Village sophomore Travis Magorian. Of the 10 seniors on the local 12-player squad, nine are going on to play at Division I universities and the other (Horn) is playing Division II football. The two sophomores (Magorian and Feathers) enter their junior years in high school as top recruits to watch. Amazingly, five of the 19 boys picked to train for the U.S. Youth National Team were on the PPVBC squad (Deutschman, Satterfield, Kevorken, Feathers and Mottram). Mottram was the only one to make the traveling team competing in the World Championships in Italy this month. Eight players (Deutschman, Bagnard, Kneller, Kevorken, Satterfield, Dates, Mottram and Kachold) made Volleyball Magazine’s ‘Fabulous 50’ underclassmen list.
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