In April of 2006, the Deer Valley High School boys volleyball team dropped a league match against De La Salle, causing the Wolverines to fall to 7-2 in Bay Valley Athletic League play. The loss would prove to be memorable, because the Wolverines have not lost one since, having reeled off 108 consecutive match victories in league play.
“I would say that we have been a bit fortunate to have always had some really good players,” said Deer Valley coach Lou Panzella, who has seen his teams capture eight straight league titles, dating back to 2007. “We’ve had some really good athletes, and they have bought into the necessary work ethic, and then passed that on to each team after them.”
Those early athletes included such standouts as Jason Agopian, who was the BVAL Most Valuable Player in both 2010 and 2011, and is currently a starter for fourth-ranked University of California-Irvine, having already captured two national titles in his collegiate career.
The 2012 and 2013 Wolverines featured BVAL MVP Derrico Kwa, who is currently playing at UC-Santa Barbara, while another two-time first-team all-league recipient for Deer Valley was Marcus Lee. Lee was a dual-sport standout for the Wolverines in 2011 and 2012, and was most recently on the basketball court in the Final Four for the University of Kentucky.
“We’ve always stressed to our players that we simply need to take care of business every day,” said Panzella. “So while we have been the recipient of some very good athletes, those have also been great kids who have wanted to be good teammates and do what is necessary to succeed.”
The Wolverines are also the two-time defending North Coast Section Division I champions, with a current overall record of 27-1 this season. Deer Valley’s lone loss was in the semifinals of its own tournament, when it fell to Jesuit-Carmichael, losing 15-13 in the final tiebreak set.
“We’ve never won our own tournament, and were hoping this would be the year,” said Panzella. “But Jesuit got better throughout the match, and we didn’t do what we had to do in response. Hopefully, we learned something from the loss.”
This year’s squad for Deer Valley seeks to become the first Division I boys team to win three straight section titles since De La Salle in 2002, and features last year’s BVAL MVP, Jordan Ewert. Ewert is committed to Stanford, and currently leads the Wolverines in kills, aces, blocks, and digs. But Panzella is quick to point out that his team is more just one star player on the court.
“This team really gets along well, and is a very inclusive group,” said Panzella. “We’ve also had players make personal sacrifices for the success of the team, and that speaks volumes about their desire to win.”
Two of those personal sacrifices came in the form of position changes for two of Deer Valley’s top players, seniors Jared Stark and Jacob Brannon. Stark, who had always played opposite, accepted a move to outside hitter this season, while Brannon agreed to move from middle blocker to the opposite position. This move was especially dramatic for Brannon, who did not play in the back row at all last season, but now finds himself there on a regular basis.
The results of those moves have been evident in the on-court success for the Wolverines. Brannon is now in the top three of all ballhandling categories for the team, and those three athletes plus setter Jacob Evans have formed a formidable group for opposing teams.
Deer Valley captured the San Luis Obispo Invitational with wins over Camarillo, Trabuco Hills-Mission Viejo, and West Ranch-Valencia, to go with tournament titles from San Ramon Valley and Dougherty Valley. Those crowns included wins over rival Division I programs such as De La Salle, San Ramon Valley, Foothill, Monte Vista, and College Park.
Despite the early success this season, and its proven formula over the years, Panzella is not letting this year’s team look past league play to the post-season.
“We expect the (BVAL) to be much improved this season, as teams such as Heritage and Liberty have had stable coaching staffs in place for a few years now and have really shown some improvement in non-league play,” said Panzella. “And it goes back to that same expectation – take care of business every day.”
For the last eight years, the Wolverines have done exactly that.
