Coronado Boys Beach Volleyball finished their regular season on Thursday, October 10, with a record of four wins and two losses, giving them the number two seed in the Division One playoffs. The Islanders will host Sage Creek High School Thursday, October 17, at Central Beach in Coronado.
Led by Coach Dave Tschakert, the Coronado High School team has 28 players, making up fourteen two-man teams of which the top six compete in varsity. Coach Dave is in his second year as the head coach and is extremely proud of his team. A 2014 graduate of Mar Vista High School, Coach Dave played three years with the indoor varsity volleyball team, and has been playing beach volleyball since he was in 8th grade. There is a lot of talent on the CHS team, led by Greyson Glorieux and Gage Gilby who went undefeated this year as Coronado’s first team.
While boys beach volleyball is not yet a CIF sport, high school coaches across Southern California have formed high school club beach volleyball leagues that run for about eight weeks in the fall season. Coach David Jones, who has been coaching indoor varsity boys volleyball at La Jolla High School for over 25 years, started the boys beach league for San Diego County. In the inaugural 2013 season, 13 high schools participated, and in 10 years that number doubled to 26 participating schools in four leagues throughout San Diego County. Girls beach volleyball was recently added as a CIF sport and the boys teams hope to follow suit.
Many of Coronado’s beach volleyball players participate in IBJBA beach volleyball tournaments in Imperial Beach. Coach Dave’s good friend and mentor, Sean Mathews, runs IBJBA, and CHS Class of ’24 Greyson Glorieux has won the open division tournament in back to back years. Greyson was also named as one of the ‘Top San Diego Players’ in 2023 according to a coaches poll taken at the end of the year.
Aside from teaching the boys the skills to excel in beach volleyball, Coach Dave also provides opportunities for team building. “I would have to say the highlight of this year would be our first ever ‘Islander Scavenger Hunt,'” said Coach Dave. “The boys had to solve riddles and find all sorts of objects around the Island.”
