Tuesday Time Machine: The 2014 Men's Volleyball Team
From May 5, 2020
For Orange Coast College men's volleyball coach, Travis Turner, he has MORE than held up his end of the bargain on carrying the illustrious history of the Pirate program forward throughout his 14-year tenure.
But, for a stretch between 1994 and 2014, the Pirates had trouble crossing the finish line first. Over that two-decade span -- including the first six years of Turner's Pirate coaching career -- OCC reached the championship match on seven different occasions and the Pirates saw the other team run off with the hardware all seven times.
Finally, in 2014, the Pirates found a way to grab the gold and win the team's sixth men's volleyball state title and they did so with a team rich in talent and character.
"That team had a great core of sophomores and we were able to add two high school All-Americans and that kind of completed the pieces of the team," Turner said. "The team was extremely close and I think that people tend to say that a lot, especially when that team wins. But that team was thinking thieves and still are. I still talk to almost every guy on that team at least once every few months."
After a rare third-place finish and an opening-round playoff exit in 2013, the Pirates came out with a vengeance and ripped off 10 wins in a row to kick off the 2014 season. Led by freshman slugger Jim Webb (264 kills), sophomore outside hitter Ty Hutchins (257 kills) and freshman Nick Amado (151 kills), Coast ripped through its first 10 matches with minimal stress. Golden West (a five-set win for OCC) was the only opponent to give the Pirates any type of nervous energy throughout the early portion of the season.
Sometimes it takes a bit of adversity for a team to bring out its best play and that adversity came on March 12 against Grossmont. There, Hutchins made the trek to El Cajon without his jersey top and Turner benched his star player, allowing the Griffins to pull of a five-set upset.
It was just the wake-up call a talented team like the 2014 Pirates needed as they they proceeded to lose just three SETS the rest of the season against the best teams the state had to offer.
"There's something I'll never forget from our match at home against Golden West," Hutchins recalled. "It was the end of the set and we were on serve-receive. (OCC setter Brendan) Duff gave me the back set and I swung down the line and hit it out. He set me again and I hit it out again. It might've even happened a third time so, of course, Travis calls timeout and he doesn't scold me like I expected him to. Instead, he told Duff to set me again and looked at me and said, 'The whole (expletive) gym knows where the ball is going so you better put it away.'
"As we walked back onto the court I thought about something Travis always said, which was, 'If you're in a fight and you keep getting punched in the face, you better change something' so I got the set again and, instead of letting my pride get in the way and try to finally get my swing down the line, I swung cross-court and put it away. I still have some of those Travis anecdotes burned into my brain."
After a rematch win over Grossmont to grab first place in the Pacific Coast Conference, OCC earned the No. 1 seed and swept past rival Irvine Valley in the state semifinals, putting the Pirates back into the title match against a Santa Monica City College squad that shocked No. 2-seed El Camino in the semifinals, 25-19, 25-19, 25-19.
The Corsairs were squashed by the Pirates during the opening week of the regular season and they headed into that championship match with absolutely NOTHING to lose. Some early-match nerves got the better of them as OCC grabbed a 2-0 lead in the match with 25-18, 25-13 wins in the opening two sets.
As everyone knows, the hardest set to win for a state championship is that final set and the Pirates watched this SMCC squad gain confidence with a 25-17 win in the third set and a 25-21 triumph in the fourth, setting up a winner-take-all, 15-point fifth set to decide the state championship.
"Yeah, I'm sure there a little bit of doubt crept in there, but we believe in each other and we trust each other -- we always have," sophomore middle blocker Scott Metrakos said following that match. "We knew we had one more set to win this and we gave it everything we had."
Coast got the early upper hand in the fifth set with a 7-2 lead, but the Corsairs -- playing with no fear -- battled back to even the set at 8.
A quick kill by Duff gave OCC a 9-8 lead and from there, Coast regained the momentum from back-to-back kills by Metrakos and a Hutchins kill which put OCC up 12-8.
"Metrakos went off in the finals for us that year," Turner said. "He had his best match of the year and it came at the best possible time for us."
Hutchins recalled about that 2014 team, "We were all gas and no brakes. Travis has had some great teams since us, but none of them can say they won him his first championship. We absolutely took it to any team we faced. Our rivals at the time were GWC, IVC and Long Beach and we didn't lose to any of them."
Once the Pirates got that lead, it was smooth sailing from there as both teams traded points until the finish line, when Hutchins dropped an ace on the Corsairs for match point to send the 2014 Pirates into the history books forever.
"I can't believe how loaded our team was," Hutchins said, looking back. "Jimmy Webb at opposite, Nick Amado and Scott Metrakos in the middle, Brendan Duff setting, Ryan Manoogian and Trevor Burr at libero and Brandon Dau on the outside with me. Then, you have the guys backing us up. They always brought energy and support for us, but more importantly, they kept gunning for our spots during practice every day. They always made sure we stayed sharp."
In addition to our history, the 2014 Pirates made history on behalf of Santiago Canyon College as well, breaking in the Hawks' new gymnasium and winning the first-ever state championship in the building!
While Hutchins' recounts of that 2014 team remain sharp, his best quote for this column came immediately after winning that hard-fought title. He looked me dead in the eye and said, "I can finally breathe now."
From Webb, following the match -- his final match of his standout career, "When Santa Monica tied it up, we knew we were going to need the push of our lives. We just dug deep and found enough to get things done.
"This is the best feeling in the entire world."
