BOYS' VOLLEYBALL NOTEBOOK: VOLLEYBALL IN A.V. SLOWLY GROWING.

Byline: Vincent Bonsignore Staff Writer

Although high school volleyball in the Antelope Valley continues to pick up steam, the sport lags behind other parts of Southern California.

First-year Antelope Valley High boys' coach Will Wallace thinks it's just a matter of time before the area catches up to areas like Ventura and Santa Barbara, where kids grow up playing volleyball on the beach and on club teams. But for the time being, it's an on-going process getting kids in the Antelope Valley acclimated.

``Freshman year, you're basically taking inexperienced kids and showing them what a volleyball is and what a net is,'' Wallace said. ``Then you build on those things during their sophomore and junior years and by the time they're seniors, hopefully they've developed into experienced players.''

Wallace was an assistant at Lancaster the past few years and notices a difference between that school and Antelope Valley.

``My impression is that the kids in Lancaster played volleyball a little bit more, so they were slightly ahead of the curve compared to at Antelope Valley,'' Wallace said. ``From what I can gather, the first time a lot of these kids saw a net was when they got to high school.''

Not to say there isn't potential to work with. On the contrary, actually. Wallace is impressed with the athletic ability Antelope Valley has on hand, and he is convinced that with the right amount of practice and preparation, dominant players will emerge.

``All these guys do is think volleyball, so that isn't the problem,'' Wallace said. ``And the athletic ability is obvious. Now it's just a matter of getting that practice time in.''

--Gigantic strides: Quartz Hill's Vance Goodell is opening eyes with his improvement from last season to this season. The junior middle blocker showed a definite growth spurt between his freshman and sophomore years, but his development is even more pronounced this time after playing on the club circuit.

``I can't even tell you how good of a player he is right now,'' Quartz Hill coach Justin Harris said. ``The way he's jumping and hitting the ball, it's pretty amazing how much he's improved.''

Harris went so far as to tell Quartz Hill girls' coach Larry Vocke to come watch Goodell play to see the improvement for himself. According to Harris, Vocke arrived with an, ``OK, let's see what you've got,'' attitude but left just as impressed with Goodell as Harris is.

``After just a couple minutes Larry looked over at me and said, `If you had six more players just like him you wouldn't lose a game,' '' Harris said.

--Sizing up his weapons: Wallace is using Antelope Valley's nonleague schedule to decide who his go-to players are. Among the candidates are Brandon Long, Ramon Packard, Michael Casey and Arthur Misaysan.

``They all have the right type of athletic ability,'' Wallace said. ``Right now it's just a matter of getting them to do the right thing at the right time. But they all have the ability to be threats.''