Culver City High School sports programs are famous for their football, baseball and track and field teams and now girls’ basketball. You can add boys’ volleyball to the list. Although they are currently 15-13 overall and 6-0 in league play coach Joe Manzoe is building a solid program inside the Del Goodyear gym. Today the Centaurs will travel to 11-9 and 6-4 Brentwood for a 5:30 p.m. match. On Tuesday they will host their final Ocean league game against Inglewood at 3:15 p.m.
Last week the Centaurs beat rivals Santa Monica and Beverly Hills three games to none in both matches. “Beating those two schools were good wins for us,” said Manzoe last week. “We established things that we needed to work on.”
This year Manzoe has a lot of talent to work with and he hopes that talent we take the Centaurs deep into the CIF playoffs. “Our goal is to win the Ocean league and CIF,” said Manzoe. “That’s always our main purpose. This year we have a chance to win the Ocean League and next year it will be even harder when El Segundo joins the league.”
Manzoe, now in his fourth year as the head coach is excited about the future of Culver City boys’ volleyball. “We have a young team and we have some solid leaders,” said Manzoe. “Our setter is a junior and he is still learning the game. “I feel like we are on the right track.”
Manzoe’s number one leader is four year varsity starter and captain, Wesley Dixon who was also a starter on the basketball team. Ryan Allison is also stepping up big for the Centaurs along with Ryan Armstrong. “Ryan Armstrong is one of the best athletes in the school,” said Manzoe.
Dixon, who has a 4.6 grade point average, hopes to end his senior year on a note as high as his GPA. “We have come so far in my four years here,” said Dixon. “ I am really excited about this team. We have great team chemistry because we have been playing together for several years. This might be the first time in 15 years that Culver City will be league champs.”