There are dozens of gold CIF championship banners hanging from the rafters inside the Wilson High gym, but none of them had been earned by the boys’ volleyball program–until now. The Wilson boys’ volleyball team culminated a special season with an exhilarating CIF-SS title win on its home floor, earning them the distinction of our annual Team of the Year honors.
The Bruins couldn’t really have been more dominant against the Moore League, winning every single set in the regular season to earn the top seed in the Division 3 playoff bracket. It wasn’t until the quarterfinals that the Bruins dropped their first set of the year, winning a five-set thriller at Westlake. Wilson then returned home to win their semifinal and championship matches in front of their home crowd, dispatching St. Francis in four sets to make school history.
With so much doubt as to whether an indoor volleyball season would even be possible due to COVID-19 restrictions, it made Wilson’s championship run even more special.
“We were hopeful, and basically that’s all we had was hope,” said Wilson coach Jeremy Cook after the CIF championship win. “We were meeting in September and just telling them, let’s stay ready because we have a special group. Let’s just stay ready and cross our fingers. So we heard we might get something, then we heard we might get a league season. And at every point we were happy because it was better than nothing. And then we heard we’d get a full CIF playoffs. We’ve had our eyes set on this moment from the beginning, but it’s unbelievable that it actually got to happen.”
