Most people go to the beach to relax, but for the boys’ sand volleyball team, it’s where the work begins. The team has flown under the radar for yet another season. However, their second League win and advancement to the second round of playoffs gives Foothill a reason to celebrate.
Since sand volleyball is not a California Interscholastic Confederation (CIF) sport, the team competes in a club program that is run by Amateur Athletics Union (AAU). Varsity teams Chad Talaugon ‘18 and Kyle Cobian ‘18, Dylan More ‘18 and Collin Weaver ‘18, and Tommy Hurley ‘18 and Logan Flair ‘18 competed in the Riviera League going undefeated with eight wins and zero losses.
The team competed on Oct. 2, against San Marcos in their first round of playoffs. Talaugon and Cobian defeated San Marcos’s number one team in what coach Janine Cobian called a “fantastic” two-set win. More and Weaver won in three sets and Hurley and Flair “played well” but lost in two sets. The team’s Monday night success lead them to advance to the second rounds of playoffs on Saturday Oct. 7.
As exciting as this advancement is, Janine Cobian is “sad” to announce that the team will be forced to forfeit the second round game due to the overwhelming number of players participating the the Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) the same day. However, she believes that the SAT is important because “academics come first.”
Since Kyle Cobian is a senior, he is sad that he has to miss playoffs in his final season. However, he thinks that the 2017 season has been their “best season yet” and enjoyed the “surprising” victory against San Marcos. He believes that having been partners with Talaugon before high school and throughout high school has helped them become cohesive and has lead to their success.
“We know each other really well. We’re very defensive and we have really good ball control and Chad also has really good offense,” Kyle Cobian said.
Talaugon also believes that their long partnership has allowed their team to grow. Although the team will not be competing on Saturday, he is excited to compete with Kyle Cobian and the rest of the Foothill sand volleyball team one last time on Saturday Oct. 14 in a league winners tournament.
“We took our league which means that our first, second and third team gets to play a league winners tournament,” Talaugon said. “It’s like a pretty prestigious tournament because only the winners of the league get to be there.”
As sand volleyball’s season comes to a close, the team will continue practicing together as they prepare for indoor volleyball in the spring. Although the sports have similar fundamentals and are often viewed as the same, they are very different in rules and play. Janine Cobian feels that the team had a “great” season and the team does “a great job at being beach volleyball players.”
“They don’t play like indoor players when they are playing beach,” Janine Cobian said. “They are smart and work hard.”
