New Crean Lutheran girls volleyball coach ends his retirement early to lead Saints

Monty Johns is looking forward to leading the Crean Lutheran girls volleyball team. (Photo Tim Burt, OC Sports Zone)

Crean Lutheran’s new girls volleyball coach Monty Johns wasn’t expecting to be coaching again.

Then, Athletic Director Eric Olson approached him about taking over the Saints’ program and Johns decided to take over.

“I was retired for maybe all of four weeks,” Johns said. “I don’t think I would have come back if it weren’t for a place like Crean Lutheran.”

Johns, who will be teaching for the 28th year at Portola Elementary, had most recently coached volleyball at El Toro High after a stint at Mission Viejo. He’s also been coaching a club team for the last 31 years.

He resigned from El Toro and wasn’t planning on coaching again. Now, he’s looking forward to his newest challenge.

“I think this is the start of a lot of good seasons in the future,” Johns said. “We’re only graduating three kids. The JV team is stacked with incoming freshmen who have experience and some serious skills and athleticism, so I think the future is very bright here.”

The main focus for summer has been on conditioning.

“I expect them to be dead tired at the end of practice which requires them to hustle all the time,” he said. “The other part is for them to understand how I want things done.”

Crean Lutheran is currently taking part in a four-week summer camp which goes two nights a week.

“We’ve been involved in a summer league at Woodbridge,” Johns said. “There are some really good teams in it: Edison High School, Woodbridge, Beckman. We have barely worked out together and they’re still holding their own.

“It is a very good sign. I was excited to come into it because I could see what it was going to be like on paper, but when I saw them compete against these very good teams, and often times with not a full team because people are on vacation, I thought, ‘wow, what’s going to happen when we really get going?”

Fall practice begins on Monday, Aug. 12 and the team’s first match is on Tuesday, Aug. 20 against Sunny Hills.

-Tim Burt, OC Sports Zone; timburt@ocsportszone.com