LJ g beach VB: End of a two-year reign as original CIF Open champs

Coach Kelly Drobeck (left) talks with her twos

pair, seniors Bradleigh Ryan (middle) and

Natalie Fu (right), before La Jolla's match

at Cathedral Catholic Thurs., May 2.

(Photo by Ed Piper)

By Ed Piper

La Jolla's girls beach volleyball players faced their second elimination game in a row in the CIF playoffs Thurs., May 2 at Cathedral Catholic High.

They couldn't get their engines started, and fell, 5-0, with the surging Dons sweeping every match.

For the Viking program, it was the end of a brilliant two-year reign as the Open Division champions the only two years the sport had been sanctioned by CIF.

Coach Kelly Drobeck, herself a star prep player and now a Coaching Legend in the San Diego Section, has personally guided the LJHS girls beach program, and had a lot to do with helping different schools spread out over the county begin and establish viable programs that have allowed the sport to proliferate and prosper.

A major impetus for girls and womens beach vollleyball was the NCAA's sanctioning of the sport before COVID, creating an immediate demand for young athletes to award scholarships and to populate college teams back in the 20-teens.

It took Drobeck and others a few years to gain CIF's official approval of beach volleyball on a high school level following this. But the girls game is still light-years ahead of the boys game, which still has not gained official recognition and the prestige and open doors that means.

Kelly played at "Uni", USDHS, as a high school student. Later, she coached at "Uni", then Cathedral Catholic when the Catholic institution took advantage of a large gift of land and moved onto that lush, college-like campus off the 56 highway several years ago.

When she became available to coach years ago, Paula Conway, then Athletic Director at LJHS, swooped in to hire her in one of the best moves possible, and the rest is history.

Drobeck projects a professional presence, and carries a not-unfriendly but serious demeanor as she instructs, inspires, coaxes, cajoles, and supports her high school players (I'm sure it's more of the same in her private coaching) at matches, through the spring high school season for beach, through the fall high school season for indoor court volleyball, and throughout the year as things continue.

It is largely to her credit that the Open Division playoffs continue Saturday, May 4, at Miramar College, even though Drobeck's Vikings won't be participating.