PHOTOS: Northwood volleyball seniors honored by coaches and parents in drive-by event

Northwood volleyball players Logan Lewis and Harrison Jakubiac with assistant coach Brendan Geck (left) and Coach Darren Tsai. (Photos courtesy Northwood athletics)

Northwood High’s boys volleyball coaches and parents held a drive-by event recently to celebrate the five seniors who had their seasons cut short by the coronavirus pandemic which cancelled most of the spring sports season throughout the state.

Seniors Ethan Duong, Christian Hall, Harrison Jakubiac, Logan Lewis and Grant Sloane, who is headed to UCLA to play volleyball, were honored.

To see the slide show, please click on the first photo

Coach Darren Tsai and assistant coach Brendan Geck took part in the event along with parents of the players. Players were given their volleyball certificates and awards.

“Instead of doing the traditional senior night, we practiced the social distancing and we had quite a few families decorate their cars and create some posters and we got some balloons and we drove by each of the seniors’ houses to celebrate them and their hard four years at Northwood,” Tsai said.

“It was a really cool experience, it was very unqiue. It was much more emotional and it went better than we could have expected. A really cool one was when we drove past Harrison’s house, the entire neighborhood was involved. All the neighbors were out on the lawns with signs themselves and everyone was honking (their car horns) and cheering. Logan Lewis was actually at Harrison’s house as well. It was a really tremendous experience for all involved.”

The Northwood team had a .500 record when play was stopped. Tsai said he and his players had high hopes for the season.

“We were starting to figure things out, our team was a good mix of seniors and sophomores and a couple juniors,” said Tsai. “They were starting to play well and really gel and it was a bummer the season ended because our seniors were starting to show their leadership as well and starting to get to know the younger players and take them under their wing.

“So I think our season was starting to turn around in a very positive way so it was unfortunate it got cut short.”

All five Northwood seniors are off to college in the fall. Sloane is headed to UCLA to play volleyball and looks to have a promising career with the Bruins.

“He will have a chance to earn some playing time next year at UCLA,” Tsai said. “He’s also a tremendously great student athlete.”

Lewis is headed to University of British Columbia and plans to walk on to play either football or volleyball, Tsai said.

“Logan played football and volleyball at Northwood,” Tsai said.

Jakubiac plans to attend Irvine Valley College to play volleyball. Duong, who played football and volleyball, is off to Cornell to study.

“He (Duong) got all-Pacific Coast League for football and was our starting libero for volleyball,” Tsai said. “He was also a scholar athlete.”

Hall is also planning to attend Irvine Valley College to play volleyball.

“I know some Division 1 schools were looking at him for volleyball, he was also a scholar athlete,” Tsai said.

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