How These Five Athletes Changed Atascadero Volleyball Forever
In 2021-2022, a group of Students and Coach James convinced the AHS athletic director to make a Boys Volleyball team for the first time in AHS history. Their first season may be one of the worst seasons in history, going 0-14 in the league and 1-25 overall, only winning one game against Washington Union. Now you might be wondering, “How in the world could a team this bad change Atascadero Volleyball Forever.” That’s when hard work and a bit of luck comes into play.
The next year went a decent bit better, with certain players doing club work in the off-season and others just getting more used to the sport. This was the first year they qualified for CIF, but they unfortunately lost in the first round against Fresno Christian. This year, they also lost two crucial players, Riley Durham (MB) and Dave Banan (S), who currently plays volleyball for SBCC.
The 3rd year is a one to be remembered with five of the players being the pioneers of the team taking home a CIF Championship. Parker Woods, Alex Ring, Skylar Martin, Mason Degnan, and Zac Anderson were there from the day the team was created to the day they won CIF. This team was so close to being perfect with just a few positions that needed to be filled. And then one day we heard that a Foreign Exchange Student from Norway was going to try out for the volleyball team. His name was David Lines. He was easily one of the best players on the court. Not only being really good at hitting, but he also had a great serve receive and super solid defense. With David, Mason, and Parker as our obvious MVP’s we hap an open path to our CIF Championship Victory.
