BURBANK — It wasn’t exactly an overwhelmingly successful season for the area boys’ volleyball teams.
With Burbank High not fielding a team this year, that left Burroughs, Bellarmine-Jefferson and Providence to carry the torch for the local squads.
Although all the teams played well at times during the campaign, and all made the postseason, no squad was able to finish higher than third in their respective league.
While Bell-Jeff placed third in the Santa Fe League, Providence was the No. 3 team from the Liberty League and Burroughs was fourth in the Pacific League.
All, however, were able to land players on all-league lists.
Despite having to apply for an at-large berth into the postseason after placing fourth, the Indians were well represented in the all-league voting.
“I was pretty surprised that we did eventually get as many as we did,” said Indians Coach Joel Brinton, who had four players earn honors. “It was really nice to see the guys honored.”
Brinton — a Crescenta Valley High graduate — continued to push Burroughs (14-11) in the right direction in just the program’s third year of existence.
Fielding a team with just one returning senior, that player quit the program early on. Despite the inexperience, the Indians were a competitive squad in league play, going, 5-5.
Burroughs pushed league- champion Claremont to five games, did the same to Crescenta Valley and defeated Arcadia.
Brinton’s contributions this season didn’t go unnoticed by his peers, as he was voted the Pacific League’s Coach of the Year.
The award definitely caught Brinton by surprise.
“I didn’t expect the award at all,” said the coach, who has guided his team to CIF Southern Section playoff competition two of three seasons. “It’s something very special, and it means a lot to me.”
With a talented cast of mostly underclassmen, the Indians garnered their share of awards.
Leading the way was Burroughs’ lone first-team pick, sophomore outside hitter Lucas Yanez. The athlete broke school records in kills (231) and digs (211).
“Lucas just played great for us all season,” Brinton said.
Making the second team were George Gonzalez and Dimitri Navsrides. Gonzalez, a senior middle blocker, tallied 160 kills and 34 blocks and Navsrides, a junior middle blocker, had 196 kills and 43 blocks.
