“I didn’t think that much about volleyball,” Bennett said. Now Bennett is showing as much passion for volleyball as he once did for playing the drums.
“It definitely made me a better passer, which is something I should have to know as an outside hitter,” Bennett said. He’s already spent two weeks in Russia as part of a sports exchange program for beach volleyball and was able to train with U.S. Now Bennett hopes his newfound love will help him get a free college education and maybe more, such as a spot on the USA national team and maybe even time on the pro beach tour. He also has had interest from Hawaii, BYU and Lewis University (Illinois). He’s been the school’s only head coach since it opened in 2002.īennett has been on an unofficial visit to UC Santa Barbara, a school definitely at the top of his list. He’ll probably be the first Division I volleyball player from Westview.” But to make the JV team as a freshman, then miss the whole year, and make the varsity as a sophomore and be a starter, those are all things that are pretty remarkable. “We have kids all the time who come out for the first time as freshmen. “What I find remarkable is how quickly he picked up the game,” McLaughlin said. When Bennett decided to play football and basketball as a Westview freshman, Bird called McLaughlin and told him his son likely would play volleyball, as well.īennett did well enough to make the JV team, only to break his ankle just as the season began, missing the rest of his freshman year. They stayed in touch over the years, and talked about Bennett from time to time. After Russ Bird graduated from SDSU, he coached briefly at Poway High, where McLaughlin was one of his players and where they won a section Division I title in 1994. His current coach, Steve McLaughlin, and his dad had a previous connection.
We wanted him to play, of course, and we were happy to give him the opportunity, especially when he started growing.”īoth of Bennett’s parents and his uncle, Mike Bird, who played at Cal State Northridge, have recently returned to coaching. We didn’t think he’d be an athlete at all. “The last time was fourth-grade basketball. “We tried to get him into sports in third or fourth grade,” said Russ Bird, now a science teacher at Mesa Verde Middle School. That drum set is now sitting in a garage at a former band member’s house, collecting dust. He got his own drum set for Christmas as a seventh-grader. Bennett was a big fan of Blink 182, and a friend’s mom gave him a start on the drums.
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