The Distant Cousin – the CCCAA

Nestled away in southern California, between San Diego and Santa Barbara, you’ll find the CCCAA (California Community College Athletic Association) Men’s Volleyball Conference. This Volleyball powerhouse consists of 15 community college teams split into two divisions, the Pacific Coast with eight teams and Western State with seven teams.  Play starts in early February and ends in late April.

Pacific Coast consists of teams in the very southern portion of California and is centered on San Diego. The eight community colleges in this conference include SD City, SD Mesa, SD Miramar, Grossmont, Palomar, Orange Coast, Golden West, and Irvine Valley. Orange Coast is the defending CCCAA men’s Volleyball champion.

Western State is centered on Los Angeles and features schools from the metropolitan LA area.  The seven colleges in this conference include Long Beach City, El Camino, Santa Monica, Moorpark, LA Trade-Tech, LA Pierce, and Santa Barbara City.

Although small in size, the CCCAA more than compensates with quality.  Five current coaches in the MPSF played in the CCCAA and went on to bigger things in Volleyball:

1. Marv Dunphy of Pepperdine (LA Pierce)
2. Bill Ferguson of USC (Santa Monica)
3. David Kniffin of UC Irvine (LA Pierce)
4. John Kosty of Stanford (Golden West)
5. Wes Schneider of California Baptist (Golden West)

The CCCAA has also produced some of the best indoor and beach players ever to step on a court, anywhere, anytime, period.  Beach alumni of the CCCAA include Randy Stoklos, Steve Obradovich, Brent Frohoff, Ernie Suwara, Mike Bright, and Brain Lewis. Indoor alumni feature the likes of  Steve Timmons, Pat Powers, Bob Ctvrtlik, Gary Sato, Butch May, and Duncan McFarland.  Yes indeed, there are a few Manhattan Beach gold medals and a few Olympic gold medals found in the possession of this group of elite athletes.

All in all, a pretty good showing for a community college conference running programs on a shoestring budget.  If you’re in southern California between February 1 and late April of any year, you ought to go out and watch these amazing players compete. It reminds me of Life Cereal – “Try it, you’ll like it.”