Spring sports have sprung, and so has the new Men’s Volleyball team that is in its inaugural season here at Fullerton College.
The team’s head coach, Eddie Rapp has taken under his wing 22 players from high schools all across Orange County including Foothill, Norco, and Beckman.
“This is the first year for Men’s Volleyball here. The Orange Empire Conference is always the strongest conference in the state no matter what sport, so our biggest competition is our entire conference,” said Rapp, who has coached Women’s Volleyball at Fullerton College since 2000 and led the Women’s team to the post-season 14 times.
Being that the Orange Empire Conference consists of Irvine Valley, Golden West, Orange Coast and Santiago Canyon College, the competition becomes cutthroat to be on top.
“Fullerton is a great team, a lot of the guys are fantastic and super nice. Everyone just wants to have fun,” said, Freshman middle blocker Jordan Von Borstal raving about the first year team.
Beckman High School was the beginning of Von Borstel’s volleyball career. “My friends in high school played volleyball and I had never heard of men’s volleyball before then,” said Von Borstel. “I tried out my sophomore year and have played ever since,” he plans to take this Junior College team to his advantage in hopes to play at a University level.
Made up of mostly freshman, the team contains only two second-year players, Dale Irvin and Manny Andrade.
Irvin transferred from Golden West to challenge himself with this rookie team and to be a part of the history this year’s team upholds.
Even with such a competitive conference, the Hornets see playoffs in their future as the season opener is less than a month away.
Pre-season has been split so far, with the team having a 3-3 record. “We’ve had a lot of good ups and a lot of lows as well but we expect to do pretty well and I’m confident in us,” said Von Borstel looking forward to their first season.
“We train to be State Champions and then we put things in perspective and take it from there,” said Rapp about his goals for the team this season.”With preseason matches, we hope that they can help prepare us for our conference run and help us reach our goals to get to the post season.”
Superstitions are a part of every level of competition and can change how athletes perform on the court.
“I feel like I can never play unless I’m wearing shoes that are double socks and they have to be color coded completely,” said Von Borstel about game superstitions.
In adding a new men’s team to the Hornet’s sports lineup, Title IX compliance is brought up, even without the addition of Men’s Volleyball, Fullerton has equal opportunities for all. Men’s Volleyball is added along side the women’s volleyball and beach volleyball teams, as well as nine other men’s sports and 11 women’s sports.
According to the NCAA, Title IX does not require identical athletics programs for males and females but it requires that the programs meet the interests of each gender and that both have access to the services and facilities for success.
Be a part of Fullerton College’s sports history and catch the men’s volleyball team as their first conference game begins March 15 at 6 p.m. against Santiago Canyon College.
