Once around the LBC, aka Volleyball Nirvana:
• It will be a few months before people stop talking about Long Beach State’s back-to-back NCAA Men’s Volleyball Championships, rightfully so given they became rock stars in the sport, especially seniors TJ DeFalco, Josh Tuaniga, Kyle Ensing and Nick Amado.
What’s next? DeFalco and Ensing will rejoin the men’s national team squad in Anaheim in preparation for the 2019 schedule, which features the Volleyball Nations League, a round-robin tournament featuring the 12 top-ranked teams in the nation. Tuaniga is also expected to join the men’s program.
Besides the VNL competition, there are the Pan Am Games, various friendlies and the beginning of competition to qualify for the 2020 Olympic Games on Tokyo.
It needs to be noted that as reasonable as it may sound for DeFalco and Tuaniga to make the Olympic team, it’s not a slam dunk. Olympic competition is a big step up and the philosophies of team building have a lot more to do with size and adaptability to the international style than pure talent.
DeFalco and Tuaniga had offers to leave college and play professionally in Europe as far back as 2018 but decided to stay in school. Should the Olympic opportunities not bear fruit, they could easily find superb financial renumeration in the Euro pro leagues.
You may recall Misty May-Treanor was the 1998 NCAA Player of the Year after leading the 49ers to the national title, but she and the Olympic indoor coach had some serious conflicts on style and position.
She left the U.S. camp and started a career on the beach and, despite a late start, made the 2000 Olympic Games, the first of four, and the rest is beach volleyball legend.
• So what will the 2020 49er men’s team look like? Two starters return in middle blocker Simon Anderson and outsider hitter Ethan Siegfried. Carlos Rivera is the top candidate to replace Tuaniga at setter, and a host of tall young men are expected to compete for hitting and middle spots — 6-foot-9 Shane Holdaway, Ryan Poole, 6-foot-8 Alex Anastaddiades and 6-foot-6 Spencer Olivier. Alan Knipe also has a much-praised freshman class coming in that includes 5-foot-6 outside hitter Zack Schneider from New York, who hits with both arms, and Knipe’s son Aidan, a 6-foot-3 setter.
• The LBC doubled up on titles this month. While the 49ers were winning the NCAA title, the Long Beach City College’s men’s team won the CCCAA State title, and the women’s indoor and beach teams, coached by May-Treanor, both won conference titles.
• The 49ers’ basketball team lost six seniors from last season’s team, and now two expected returnees have decided to move on. Demetrius Mims has filed to transfer, and Edon Maxhuni is headed back to Finland so he can start a pro career.
• Defending Big West champ UC Irvine has lost one of its top returning players. Max Hazzard has transferred to Arizona, where he has family working in basketball and entertainment-related jobs in Arizona. One will have to wait and see how things play out with Sean Miller’s job at Arizona, which is under investigation, again, as part of the FBI’s investigation into payoffs to college players.
• Cal State Fullerton head coach Dedrique Taylor has lost two of his top assistants, John Smith leaving to become the Cal Poly coach and Danny Sprinkles doing likewise at Montana State.
• Sources say Fullerton has decided to increase the men’s basketball budget significantly, most likely at the expense of the most successful sort at Fullerton, baseball.
As bad as things have been for Long Beach State baseball in 2019 — woeful record, the firing of Troy Buckley — Cal State Fullerton likewise has fallen to its nadir. The Titans are 20-24 overall, and will have their streak of 27 straight NCAA tournament bids snapped.
Their remaining games are against UC Riverside, Long Beach and Northridge, so they’re capable of finishing with a winning record. But if they don’t, it will be the first time in school history the Titans have had a losing record. The Titans are also 8-15 at home this year and are 6-9 in league play.
• This will bother Long Beach State baseball alums who want the next head coach to have Dirtbag roots, but the latest name to pop up is Dave Serrano, the former Fullerton coach who left for big bucks at Tennessee but was fired after making no impact in the SEC.
Hiring a former Titan coach would pretty much end the Dirtbag era. Former players would stop attending alumni events and boosters would redirect any money they give to the school to other sports, if at all.
The hope here is that a Dirtbag alum gets the job, and is announced as the new guy on May 25 at the season finale against Hawaii, which is also the day the 1989 Dirtbag team — the first, which went to the College World Series — will be honored in pregame ceremonies.
Sounds almost as perfect as the men’s volleyball team winning a NCAA title on its home court.
• So Long Beach State now has a new nickname, Sharks, and will add a fluffy mascot. What’s weird is that the official release noted that the school can still be identified with other nicknames, including Dirtbags for baseball; Beach, for athletics in general; and 49ers, for alumni of a certain age.
I predict you’ll never, ever see a Long Beach State athletic jersey with the name Sharks on it.
