Volleyball is one of those sports where families can play together regardless of how many players per side, irrespective of questionable touches, ignoring all net calls and — most importantly — allowing everyone to play.
Jungle ball is usually an apt description.
So in 2017 on the beach in Puerto Vallarta for a family wedding, the Connells played a friendly game of volleyball. Happy family members squared off against the sunset backdrop, playing rallies with a lot of over-on-one touches.
Touching a volleyball on that beach for the first time in his life was seventh grader Christian Connell. He ended up taking a class there with his cousins and played for a week straight, adding beach volleyball as his PE sport of choice at Earl Warren Middle School upon his return home.
Five years later and a country away, Connell leads a Torrey Pines High School team ranked No. 1 in San Diego, No. 6 in the nation by MaxPreps.com and No. 8 by USA Today Sports/AVCA.
He’s headed to USC in the fall to play for the 13th-ranked Trojans.
Not a bad climb from the beaches of Puerto Vallarta.
“That’s pretty much how volleyball began for me,” said Connell, a 6-foot-5 outside hitter. “I did everything before that, like football, basketball, soccer, baseball. A little bit of everything. I guess I was good at volleyball, better than my friends who just started as well. And I thought, oh, ‘this is kind of fun.’”
As a freshman on varsity at Torrey Pines, Connell started at one outside hitter spot while Matthew Lim — currently in and out of the starting lineup at 19th-ranked UC San Diego — was the other outside.
Since Lim was a standout ball-control senior, Connell got picked on by opponents in serve receive. But Lim remembers his young teammate possessing all the physical tools as well as an intangible quiet confidence.
“Early on in the season Christian would have some serve receive struggles, but as the season went on seeing his growth as a passer was impressive,” said Lim, who was 2021 North County Coastal League Player of the Year. “By the end of the year, Christian was in there passing well in a skill that’s pretty hard to get used to. As he got that experience playing against the best teams he really gained the confidence and maturity that helped make him a more complete player.”
Torrey Pines’ Christian Connell hits over the block of San Marcos’ Kade Uda during a 2023 match.
(Denis Poroy/For The San Diego Union-Tribune)
Connell was probably born with some of those physical tools. Others he developed playing multiple sports.
He started at quarterback on both the freshman and JV squads before making the decision to play beach volleyball in the fall. Earlier this year, he played on the Falcons varsity basketball team that was the No. 4 seed in the Open Division playoffs.
Though he’s a naturally gifted athlete, Connell spends a lot of time preparing and strengthening his body in the weight room.
The early growing pains have helped forge a leader whose blood pressure remains steady against the nation’s top teams. His calm demeanor allows his teammates to maintain control even when emotions rise during big moments.
During the Best of the West tournament quarterfinals earlier this season, the Falcons were facing match point against the nation’s fourth-ranked team, Glendale (Ariz.) Sandra Day O’Connor.
With senior setter/opposite Brandon Pho going back to serve, Torrey Pines put together a run and eventually won, 17-15, on an overpass kill by none other than Connell.
“He’s always uplifting,” said Pho, who will play at Division I Fairleigh Dickinson next year. “He’s always making sure everyone is calm and doing their job. He’s able to bring out the best in everyone. You can really just throw a ball up anywhere, and he’ll kill it. He’s so reliable. You can always look to him to let us know we’re going to be OK.”
Torrey Pines coach Nick Rubacky has watched Connell grow into a leader. His quiet confidence as a freshman starter has become more vocal when necessary, lighter and encouraging when things are tense.
Rubacky looks fondly on last year’s team that set a program record for wins and made a run to the CIF State Regional Final, where the Falcons lost in five to El Segundo.
He watched Connell own the moments and thrive in pressure situations as the unquestioned team leader.
“It’s cool to watch something happen where he doesn’t have to be as much of a vocal leader because he leads so much by example by what he does on the court; by his play,” said Rubacky, who also coached Connell on the 15-1 team at Wave Volleyball Club. “That says a lot to his teammates because it gives this element of trust that is hard to find. There’s such a trust that if we give Christian the ball, something good is going to happen. That gives a sense of calming to the other guys on the court. That quiet confidence spreads throughout the team.”
Connell isn’t just a leader in sports. He’s the vice president of the senior class at Torrey Pines and owns a 4.2 GPA heading into his final semester.
He’ll study at one of the leading undergraduate business programs in the nation in USC’s Marshall School of Business.
USC was the first program to recruit Connell, and he kept that in mind throughout his process. Hawaii, for its recent national championships, and Harvard, for its academic pedigree, were the other schools he seriously considered.
Can Connell contribute immediately at the next level?
“Absolutely,” Lim said. “From a physical standpoint, he’s already there. He’ll have to adjust to the pace of the college game, and I fully believe he can do that.”
But first things first.
Although it’s annually ranked in the top 10 in San Diego, Torrey Pines hasn’t won a CIF championship in boys volleyball since 1993. The Falcons haven’t won the area’s top division since 1991, when they captured the 3A crown.
A loss in the semifinals to Del Mar Heights Road rival Cathedral Catholic in the semifinals of the Open Division last year particularly stung.
Torrey Pines (15-2) will be tested Friday at Carlsbad against Parker Tomkinson and 6-10 Hawaii-bound and U19 National Team member Max Payne. The Falcons will finish the North County Conference Coastal League and regular season with the Lancers and Poway at home.
The only blemishes on the season are a loss to Manhattan Beach Mira Costa, MaxPreps.com’s No. 4-ranked team, in the Best of the West semifinals, and a loss to Sage Creek in the La Jolla Beach Cities Invitational.
Connell would love nothing more to finish out his prep career than to bring that elusive CIF banner to the Falcons storied gym.
“It’s not every year you have a special talent like him come through,” Rubacky said. “He’s got a chance by the end of the year to basically hold every offensive, defensive and blocking record in the history of Torrey Pines volleyball. He’s been playing at a high level so long that he just brings an element of reliability that is an awesome asset to have as a coach. We know that we can throw a ball up to him, and he’s going to give us the best chance in the county to sideout, to get a kill in whatever moment we need from him. We know that he can carry a pretty heavy load when we ask it of him.”
Meehan is a freelance writer.
