CCCAA Cancellation Halts Miramar MVB's Stellar Season
Miramar MVB’s historic season is halted as the CCCAA postpones, then cancels Spring season contests.
Seven wins in nine matches, with losses only to the #1 and #2 teams in the state. A #5 ranking in the coaches’ poll, the second-highest ever for a San Diego county team since the poll was established in 2017 (Miramar was ranked #4 to start the 2020 season). And a bunch of momentum towards winning a Pacific Coast Athletic Conference (PCAC) championship and returning to the California Community College Athletic Association (CCCAA) state playoffs.
Al of that came to a crashing halt, with the CCCAA decision to first postpone and then on March 19th cancel all Spring sports in the state, due to the spread of the novel coronavirus.
“It’s the right decision to make, to help in the effort to mitigate the spread of the coronavirus,” said Miramar MVB head coach John Landicho. “We’re talking about the health of the public at large, and that’s so much bigger than sports. But it is really disappointing for our players, who’ve worked so hard and achieved so much this season. I am sad for them, and all the other student-athletes throughout the nation who’ve had their journeys interrupted by this situation.”
The CCCAA decision puts the brakes on a historic season for Jets MVB. Among the team’s seven wins are six against teams in the coaches’ Top 10 poll. Those wins include first-time victories against a Top 5 team (Santa Barbara, currently #3 in the state), wins over one of the traditional Orange County powers (#9 Irvine Valley – twice), and a winning record against the teams from the Orange Empire Conference, who Miramar plays once a year (4-1, with the lone loss to #2 Orange Coast).
The Jets are also well-represented statistically in the CCCAA’s top 20 players in several categories. Freshman OPP Cameron Einhorn is ninth in the state in kills per set (3.38), while freshman OH Slater Bird is 19th at 2.83k/s. Bird is 17th in the CCCAA in hitting efficiency at .251. Freshman libero Joel Aninipok is 13th in the CCCAA with 2.08 digs per set, with Einhorn also ranked in the category at 1.92 d/s. Sophomore MB Justin Westerberg is eighth in the state in blocks per set, at .88 b/s. But even with these individual efforts, it is the collective effort of Jets MVB that has propelled them this year.
“The strength of this team IS the team,’ explains Landicho. “All but one of our players (one student-athlete recently returned after a season-long injury) has contributed significantly to each of our seven wins, and some of them have had to fill on-court roles which they have never taken on before, often with little to no notice. This team has also had to train without daily six-on-six competition, due to our small squad size - a significant hurdle to overcome. Our success has everyone’s fingerprints all over it.”
The Jets will now look forward to the 2021 season, and with three full-time starters and two part-time starters among the six returning freshmen, the future looks bright. "It is always a challenge to reach new standards, and this year's team has set those," says Landicho. "But our program is always reaching for greatness, and we'll look to meet those new standards of excellence and surpass them."