It may be the fall semester, but the 10 Orange Coast College spring sports are not taking any time off.

The men's crew team (pictured) has 90 participants in its program and the women's side also has over 75 athletes.

In case you are wondering, that is a huge number of rowers for the crew program.

Head women's crew coach Laura Behr said that she had close to 60 people show up for crew last season but many of them dropped out after the first two weeks.

This year, barely any rowers dropped.

Other spring sports are packed in practice also.

The men's volleyball program expected to have over 30 athletes work out with the team last year. The number increased rather than decreased since last year.

Head softball coach Ruby Rojas, who went winless in the Orange Empire Conference last season, said this season will be completely different.

Not only is the program getting a brand new softball field (set to be completed by spring season), the program has a brand new set of recruits that Rojas is excited about.

"So excited about my JC team. It is going to be a good year this year plus with a brand new stadium," Rojas said on her Twitter page, twitter.com/rrojas8.

Winter ball for the defending state champion baseball team will start within a month also.

Men's and women's swimming - with the men's winning state last year - golf and track and field are the other spring sports at Coast.

To contact the head coaches of all the spring sports, go to the Orange Coast College's athletics section to find out contact information.

And on a personal note. Yours truly is practicing with the golf team this fall. On Monday (Sept. 14), I shot my personal best score, a six-under-par 64, during the morning practice with my teammates.

It's probably unethical to report my own success, but I just couldn't help myself.

[Photo courtesy of twitter.com/giantkillers (OCC men's crew program)]

I stepped into OCC men's head volleyball coach Travis Turner's office for a short interview about the season.

I also met sophomore setter Doug Astor in there.

I caught them in a good time since they were both talking about the season and where Astor hopes to go to college next semester (USC or Loyola Marymount University).

First question was in regards to what happened against Golden West College in the state's semi-finals.

"We missed a ton of serves and they dug a bunch of balls - they just out dug us," Turner (left) said. "But we played well and ended the thing well."

Next question was about what's next for the program and he said they will be back in the gym on Monday (May 4) to practice and hopefully get the sophomores ready to play next fall for wherever they're going.

Turner said sophomore Mike Stewart visited Ohio State University this week and believes he'll sign there and sophomore Rick Schroeder is going to UC Santa Cruz.

Far as next season: "I think we're going to be really good next year - I think everyone is going to be good next year," Turner said. "With so many few opportunities in Division-I, so many kids are going to JCs. I think we're going to have 40 kids the first day."

I also asked Astor (right) about the season and the overall experience.

"Coast was just a good growing experience outside the volleyball court and inside," Astor said. "Just little things, dealing with life, dealing with people on the court, knowing how to talk to certain people on the court, how to get them to perform to their abilities."

Far as how practices went: "Travis was known for creating chaos in the gym to prepare us - that's the way the playoffs went," Astor said.

Both seemed to be a bit shocked that the season is over but finishing third in state and making the semi-finals for three straight years is nothing to be ashamed of.

Head coach Travis Turner told me anything can happen if they get to the final four but they had to beat Moorpark College to get there.

Earlier this year, the Pirates lost in straight sets to Moorpark but on April 21, Coast won in a hard-fought five-set game.

Turner said both teams are similar and he seemed confident that his players matched up well against Moorpark. All year long, he's said it's not the talent the team lacks, it's how they play once they're on the court.

In a press release by OCC Sports Information Director Tony Altobelli, Turner said, "It was by far, our best effort as a group of the season. Most of the year, we'd win a few points, lose a few points and get totally flustered. (On Tuesday), we'd lose a few points, but we did a much better job of shrugging it off and playing through the adversity."

The Pirates took the court on April 23 at the CCCAA Men's Volleyball State Championships to play against conference and school rivals the Golden West College Rustlers.

In its prior two meetings, the Pirates lost both games - one at home after starting off a set 5-0.

Altobelli wrote a great summary of the game so I won't say anything more about it. [Click here to read about the GWC vs. OCC matchup in the final four]

I want to give a shoutout to Turner for coaching another successful season and a thanks for allowing me to cover the team. Going to the third-straight final four is ridiculously impressive at a Community College program - it shows the strength of the coaches.

I want to give a shoutout to sophomore player Jake Melone. He's been leading the Pirates all year long, Turner has said nothing but good things about his character and one of the nicest guys I've met this year. I wish both of them nothing but good luck.

Also, the Coast Report got an e-mail from a "Mike Stewart" that said why the paper didn't cover the men's volleyball in the final four. There's also a Mike Stewart on the team also. I don't know if it's the same two but if it is, I want to say I didn't forget about you guys.

[Photo courtesy of Orange Coast College]

I told you that these shoes will do the trick.

Tony Lee is now 12-17 and the shoes are 7-1. It's weird to think I was 4-15 at one point. [Click here to read my sports column "It's Me, Tony Lee" to read about why I started wearing these shoes.]

I'm not sure if my shoes will make it to another game this semester. Most of the events are either qualifiers or really far away from Costa Mesa.

If any of the OCC athletes wants to borrow these for good luck, give me a call.

It'll be a shame not to use its luck.

[Photo by Tony Lee]

Orange Coast College's men's volleyball player Jake Melone (left) is a sophomore outside hitter from Loara High School and lead the team today with 19 kills.

Melone is also a former Pirate of the Week that I had the honor to interview. I'm glad he won his last home game as a sophomore.

Travis Turner (right) is the head coach of the OCC men's volleyball team. He's always available for interviews and always helps me out in anyway possible.

Here's the interview after the game.

Today was the last game of the season and you guys came out with a victory. How do you guys feel about that?
Travis: I'm glad. I thought we played well and we tried a new lineup and I think it worked pretty well.
Jake: It's good. Just to play our last game on our home court - last game few of the guys are going to play (at OCC) - and we came out with a win. It was good.

I wanted to ask you guys about the problem the team's had of winning a game in a dominating fashion and then not winning the next ones.
Travis: Yeah, we've had that problem all year but we haven't came back to win after losing game two all year. So to do that tonight was a step forward.

And Jake, you've been talking about the "killer mentality" all year. Do you guys think you have that under control now?
Jake: I think we did have that tonight - not too much in the second game obviously - but as soon as we lost (game two), some of us got together, we were sick of us backing down and came back out with some attitude.

You guys were trailing game four for most of the time until you guys rallied back to tie it up at 20-20 and then went on to win the match. How big was that?
Travis: Well I think we finally got more serves in a row. I think Jake was serving at the time and kind of went on a run there. We've been trying to talk about understanding when to rip your serve and when to get it in and I thought we did a good job.
Jake: I just tried to keep my serve in and let our big guys at the net do their thing and they did it.

And next game against Moorpark...
Travis: That's going to be tough. They're good. They're pretty similar to us so we'll see. It's at their place which will be a good challenge for us.
Jake: I'm really excited to play there and beat them. It's a big game, I think we're ready for it, we're going to get at it at practice and just go over there and...
Travis: ...show them what's up.
Jake: Exactly.

[Photo by Tony Lee]

Your Orange Coast College Pirates wins the fourth game 30-25 to beat the Palomar College Comets in four sets.

Interviews, additional pictures and post-game thoughts will be available shortly.

The Pirates, once again, came out sluggish after winning a match.

Coast trailed for the majority of the match until they tied it up 20-20 in the fourth game.

The score is now 27-24 in favor of OCC. Only three more points for the victory men.

Also, Palomar's winning celebration on the bench is bumping chests against each other. For the record, I'm not a fan.

And Palomar's No. 14 Dylan Vessell reminds me of NBA player Charlie Villanueva.

The Orange Coast College softball team played a game earlier today against Santa Ana College.

The lady Pirates lost 5-1 - the lone run scored by Kayse Potter.

Coast players Kursten Evanski (left) and Sarah Munson (right) are here after the game to support the men’s volleyball team.

Do you guys come to a lot of the volleyball games?
Sarah: Yes we do.
Kursten: Yeah.

Do you guys wish you had this many people for your softball games.
Sarah: Yeah, maybe we’d win then. Yesterday we had a class come watch us for extra credit. It’s so sad.

Talk about the game a little bit.
Kursten: They met with the ball so that was all we could do. They hit a few shots up the middle and we had some errors.

Did you guys have chances to rally or anything like that?
Kursten: We had a few of them but when we hit the ball sometimes, they were hard hits, but we hit it straight to them. But I don’t think we could be mad because we put the balls in play.

When’s your next game?
Both: Friday (at 3 p.m.).

Against?
Sarah: Santiago (Canyon College).
Kursten: Our last two games are at home.

What do you want to say to the fans so they’ll come to the game?
Sarah: We’re good looking.
Kursten: That’s all you need.

[Photo by Tony Lee]

After losing 30-21 to the Comets in game two, the Pirates responded back with a 30-21 victory themselves.

OCC is one game away from winning its last game of the season.

The Comets regrouped to win game two 30-21.

Travis Turner, head OCC men's volleyball coach, said to me that his team struggle finishing games and player Paul Leon told me the team can go into a "cruise mode" after the team gets off to a big lead.

I hope this isn't the case because I don't want to lose another game with my lucky shoes. [Click here to read about my shoes]

In game three, the Pirates are leading 10-6.

UPDATE

The score is now 14-12 in favor of the Pirates.

The Palomar College Comets are not giving up after its first-game blunder.

Palomar has taken the lead for the first time in the second game (18-19).

The Pirates came back to tie it up but after a serve hit the net, the score is 19-20 in favor of the Comets.

Your Orange Coast College Pirates wins the first game easily 30-20.

Palomar College tied the game up at 4-4 but never tied the game up or had a lead for the remainder.

The last home game of the Orange Coast College men's volleyball game is underway. The Pirates are in blue and the visiting Palomar College Comets are in red.

So far, the score is 15-11 in OCC's favor.





[Photos by Tony Lee]

The men’s volleyball team is 11-8 (7-4 in Pacific Coast Conference) and hopes to play in the state championship game again.

Last year, the Pirates finished in second place to the state champions Irvine Valley College and looks forward to another strong playoff run.

Even though two out of the four PCC losses this year came from IVC (the other two from Golden West College), I’m optimistic about our team’s chances after talking to head coach Travis Turner after Tuesday’s practice.


Talk about your season so far.
You know what, it’s probably been a little down from what I expected us to do just based on what we had in the fall but if we end this thing on a positive note and beat Moorpark (College) at Moorpark, you can forget about the whole season – (it matters that) you do well at the end.

Talk about Irvine Valley and Golden West College – your main rivals in the Pacific Coast Conference.
IVC just out-gutted us and Golden West are a little bit more physical than we are. Those are two teams we can beat but we’ve got to play better than we did and today was a big step. We had a really good practice today.

Far as returning to state championship game again, that has to be your goal right?
Oh definitely. I think If we can beat Moorpark at Moorpark then we’re there and we have a shot. Anything can happen there – there are only four teams.

Name one thing you guys have been doing good all season long and name one thing you guys been struggling with.
I think our ball control has been good all season long. Our serving hasn’t been very good and our blocking's been really poor – which is not a good thing.

Anything you want to say to the fans out there?
We’ve had great support all year. The women’s volleyball team’s been great, the women’s softball team’s been to a lot of the matches. Professor (Robert) Raya is awesome – he gets kids here – and we’ve been lucky. In all the JCs, we have more people (at our games) than anyone else. And our sports editor isn’t too bad either.

Log on Wednesday at around 6 p.m. to see the live coverage of the final home game for the men’s volleyball team against Palomar College.

[Photo by Tony Lee]

This has been a great weekend for the OCC Sports blog and I would like to thank everyone involved in it - especially the OCC athletes.

Without you guys allowing me to take pictures, granting me interviews, giving me feedback and asking everyone to visit the blog, the sports blog would not be what it is.

As of Monday at 7:20 a.m., this blog's had 578 visitors - more than double since this time last week.

I know there's only 1.5 months left in the school year but I'm still hoping to hit 10,000 visitors before then. We'll see how (un)realistic that maybe but I have high expectations.

Also, there is only two days left on the poll. So far, the track and field persuasion seems to want another installment of "Tony does." [Click here to read "Tony does softball"]

But I am extremely excited about the "It's Me, Tony Lee" column this week. I can't wait for everyone to read it when the Coast Report (OCC's student newspaper) comes out on Wednesday.

And the men's volleyball team is having its last home game of the season on Wednesday at 6 p.m. in the Peterson Gym against Palomar College. Even though I'm covering the game live, I suggest everyone to come see them.