All-SCV Boys Volleyball 20 17
Player of the Year: West Ranch’s Michael Flores
No matter what he does, West Ranch boys volleyball’s Michael Flores is goal-oriented.
After missing the honor last year, Flores was determined to become the Foothill League Boys Volleyball Player of the Year. He fought back from a collapsed lung at the start of the season and earned the title at the end of the year.
He led the league this season with 482 kills. West Ranch coach Nate Sparks estimates he has over 1,000 in his varsity career.
Now, he’s the 2017 All-SCV Boys Volleyball Player of the Year.
“I knew that it was the last time I’d be playing for West Ranch … I just wanted to not have any regrets when I played,” the outside hitter said. “I wanted to be happy with how my team and I did.”
West Ranch was the undefeated league champion for the second consecutive year and went to the second round of the CIF-Southern Section Division 1 playoffs, where they fell to Oak Park 3-1.
It was Flores’ last season as well as Sparks’.
“I’m happy with how we did as a team and how I did individually,” said Flores, who picked up volleyball his freshman year.
“It was cool to be able to send our
coach off in his last season with a league championship. So it was really cool, especially because it was my third year on varsity and probably one of my most successful years.”
He’ll leave this October for a mission with The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. He’ll travel to Mexico City in August to perfect his Spanish and mentally prepare to spend two years of his life in urban New York.
Then, he’ll go to BYU for his MBA and hopefully get involved with investment banking or real estate after that.
Although Flores isn’t sure if volleyball will be included in his future, it’s still safe to say he’s determined, a characteristic he hopes he passed down to the coming year’s varsity Wildcats.
“Just to play and leave everything on the court, not want to look back and think (that they could have done more),” Flores said.