By Brandon HENSLEY

As they have done almost every day this summer, and as they will do almost every day this fall, three people from different zip codes, from different places in life, will converge to meet at the same spot, for the same goal. The place is the Crescenta Valley High gymnasium, and the goal is to get the girls’ volleyball program on track.

Matt Simons makes the trek up the SoCal freeways from his home in Brea. Besides his marriage to wife Rebecca, volleyball is his life. He coaches teams in the San Fernando Valley, so making the drive to CV isn’t as tedious as you’d think. A year ago, Simons battled health issues and took time off. But this year the Falcon job became vacant for the third time in five years. Simons’ friend, assistant CV principal Jordan Lessem, told him to apply, and now here he is.

“Everything I’ve heard is that it’s a great community. I’m less concerned with location as opposed to is it a great fit,” he said.

Simons’ hairstyle and clothing choices fit him squarely in the early-2000s age of pop-punk skate culture. Underneath a loose fitting RVCA shirt, he has the biceps to prove he’s strong enough for everything this job entails, because he’s more than just the varsity coach; he’s responsible for the frosh-soph team, a responsibility he pushed for upon being hired.

“I find it’s a great way for girls coming into the program to learn what it’s is going to look like for the next four years, what the drills are going to be, what the expectations are,” he said.

Marissa Rossi lives in Northridge. It’s not a terrible commute, but she still never expected to be assisting Simons on both the varsity and frosh-soph teams in La Crescenta. She was coached by Simons as a senior at Calabasas High, a year in which she barely played thanks to a dislocated shoulder (she earned the point on the play). She did track and field while at Cal State Northridge, and spent last year as an assistant volleyball coach at Reseda High. The volunteer position wasn’t what she expected and, when she thought about it, neither was her career at Calabasas. There, Simons righted a program that didn’t have enough players with the competitive spirit of Rossi.

Boasting a big smile and an impressive physique, Rossi looks like she could easily be a cross fit trainer when she’s not coaching. Her body and mindset are calibrated for success, and she’s pleased with the team’s psyche.

“Here, it looks like the girls want to play and get better,” she said.

Rossi’s big message to the girls is this: “However their time goes, it’s up to them as a team … I don’t want them to feel like they had a high school career like I did.”

Kurt Mulder doesn’t have to go far to get to practice. CV’s third-year junior varsity coach takes a two, maybe three, minute walk to the gym, the place where he played under John Nelson for the boys’ team.

One of Simons’ first acts as head coach was to talk to Mulder and, after understanding his importance, he asked him to stay.

“If he didn’t want me to come back, I wouldn’t have taken offense to it,” said Mulder, who graduated CV in 2015. “But he wanted help, so I just try to be as nice and easy and helpful as I can.”

Mulder is the kind of guy who might climb Mt. Everest with barely a shrug, as long as you prove yourself capable of leading. He didn’t have any qualms about out-of-towners taking over the program, as long they were right for the job.

“Kurt’s been the stabilizer, not only because of his coaching skills, but he knows the girls, this program and this community,” Simons said.

The two varsity captains, Teny Noordemeer and Lizzy Kerman, said the new coaches’ best qualities might be the ability to communicate, whether it be speaking to parents, scheduling tournaments or sending out the right kind of vibes to the players.

“They’re very upfront,” Noordemeer said. “You can talk to them about anything.”

Simons has a penchant for citing research on why certain drills work more than others. He once asked a higher-level coach why girls aren’t taught to pass deep balls with their hands, instead being told to use the platform method (arms out connecting the hands). He was told girls’ hands usually aren’t strong enough to handle it. Since then, Simons began teaching drills on how to hand-pass deep balls.

If they make a mistake, Simons is there to pick everyone up.

“He always talks about the process, and not the result,” Kerman said. “If you’re failing in practice, that’s great. That’s what we want to be doing now, in summer.”

Rossi, for her part, has fit in since she came a month ago. It’s the little things, said Nordemeer, like telling her in a recent tournament to back up a bit so she could get on top of the ball better.

When practice is over at nightfall, Simons and Rossi walk out of the gym and see people playing basketball on the outside courts and more people walking the track. They walk by kids who are respectful. People aren’t afraid to say hi. Both coaches agree: This place has a different kind of feel.

It’s one of the reasons why Simons isn’t planning on leaving soon.

Maybe this year’s seniors never had the benefit of program stability, but soon enough other classes might. And whether the people who made it happen come from Brea, or Northridge, or just around the block, everyone will know it will have been worth the journey.

  Brandon Hensley, CV Volleyball, matt simons