Loyolas volleyball team wants to return to

It’s 6 a.m. at Loyola High. Students are supposed to be asleep unless they’re on the swim team doing early morning laps at the pool. So why in the identify of seaside, surf and sunshine is the volleyball team practising in the gymnasium?

Welcome to February’s gymnasium crunch time, when winter sports activities groups such as basketball are busy with playoffs and spring sports activities groups such as volleyball are gearing up for the start of their season.

“It’s pretty brutal,” said 6-foot-8 volleyball standout Blake Fahlbusch, who would favor browsing in the morning and practising volleyball in the afternoon.

Veteran coach Michael Boehle, sipping espresso, understands the routine is only non permanent and does his best to get his gamers centered on their early morning routine.

The Cubs start their season next week with the motivation that they’ve “unfinished business.”

Last yr at one level they have been the best team in Southern California, but there have been too many distractions and too many obstacles to overcome. Players misplaced their home in the Palisades fire. Boehle discovered he had prostate cancer. A well known classmate, Braun Levi, was killed by a suspected drunken driver.

Boehle, feeling refreshed and excited after surgical procedure eliminated the cancer, thinks the chemistry is better. Fahlbusch, a USC commit, is a candidate for best in the Southland because of his dimension and athleticism.

JP Wardy, a 6-4 Pepperdine commit, arrived from Newport Harbor to play his remaining yr at Loyola, the varsity he was set to attend as a freshman until he moved to San Diego for household causes.

“It feels great to be back,” Wardy said. “I missed being at Loyola. I feel growing up, this was supposed to be the school I would go to.”

Loyola’s libero, Matt Kelly, is the brother of UCLA standout Sean Kelly. He’s dedicated to Loyola Chicago and contemplating how nicely his big brother serves, practising against him has gotten Matt prepared for something. There’s also 6-6 Lucas Posell, a Princeton commit with a 4.7 grade-point average.

The ordinary title contenders must be the groups to watch with Loyola — Mira Costa, Redondo Union, Huntington Beach, Corona del Mar and Newport Harbor.

Mateo Fuerbringer of Mira Costa is a UCLA commit.

(Mira Costa)

There’s tons of top gamers, from juniors Teddy Mandelbaum and Mateo Fuerbringer of Mira Costa, both UCLA commits, to Taylor Boice of Redondo Union, a UC Irvine commit. Mira Costa has also added Jake Newman, a switch from Mater Dei.

Boehle will probably be teaching in his twenty eighth yr, having received seven Southern Section championships. The Cubs have received every Mission League title since sharing the crown with Harvard-Westlake in 2007 and haven’t misplaced a league match since that season.

Loyola college students cheer on the Loyola boys volleyball team during a match against Mira Costa on March 21, 2025.

(Steve Galluzzo / For The Times)

The annual Loyola-Mira Costa nonleague match that brings out followers en masse is set for March 20 at Mira Costa.

The Cubs open their season on Feb. 24 at home against Newport Harbor, so Wardy will probably be waving across the online to his former teammates.

As for his early impressions of his new team, Wardy said, “We’re good. I’m excited. Practices are competitive, which I really like because it helps us getting better.”