Kevin Pratte is the boys varsity coach at The Bishop’s School in La Jolla, California, where is also a physical education teacher. Pratte, who lives in San Diego, played at the University of Pacific. He was a graduate assistant at Nebraska, an assistant at Pacific, and has coached at the junior college level. He also is a college recruiting coordinator writes for vballrecruiter.com
By Kevin Pratte for VolleyballMag.com
The 2023 AAU Boys’ Junior National Volleyball Championships finished in Orlando on July 4 with a 45-percent increase in teams and another reminder that the sport is among the fastest-growing in the country. In 2022, the AAU nationals had 665 teams. This year? A whopping 963.
18s Open Division
The teams that were placed in the Champion Division based on their results from the first three days of the tournament: 630, 949, Academy, Bay to Bay, Balboa Bay, HPSTL, MB Surf, MOD, Mountain View, MVC, Niagara Frontier, Ocean Bay, RVCA, SC Legends, Sports Performance, The St. James, Ultimate, and Vanguard.
MB Surf beat Balboa Bay (25-21, 25-23) to win a field that started with 54 teams, but these were the favorites from the get-go. After all, Balboa Bay beat MB Surf for the 17s Open title in 2022. Each squad is loaded with talented players from all around Southern California that will play college volleyball.
Leading the way for MB Surf was setter Tread Rosenthal (going to Hawai’i), outside hitter Sean Kelly (Princeton), and outside Victor Loiola (Long Beach State). All have been playing club together for a few years and competing on the U19 USA squad that has won back-to-back gold medals.
Rosenthal, who announced that he is forgoing his high school senior year to enroll in Hawaii for the fall of 2023, ran a fantastic offense. Kelly and Loiola provided service pressure for MB Surf, they were smooth at passing keeping the squad in system, and they both hit for a high hitting percentage.
“We have built a great team culture,” said Loiola, whose father Jose, has been one of the world’s best beach players who just became a UCLA assistant. “Our chemistry is second to none. Everyone that was part of this squad had faith and trusted the process.”
For the past month, the MB Surf staff worked on specific skills and tactics with an eye on winning the AAU Championship.
“We worked hitting our jump serves hard and limiting our attacking errors,” Loiola said.
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