Former Mitty coach Bret Almazan-Cezar shocks Monarchs as Rocklin wins first CIF NorCal Open volleyball title
SAN JOSE — Bret Almazan-Cezar doesn’t lose CIF NorCal Open Division championship matches at Archbishop Mitty.
The former Mitty coach, now in charge of Rocklin, came back to his old stomping grounds and left with the same result he achieved so many times with the Monarchs – a NorCal Open title.
Down two sets to one, Rocklin rallied to win the fourth set 25-21 and then finished the fifth 15-10, giving Rocklin its first Open title in school history on the same court where Almazan-Cezar won countless championships during his two-decade tenure at Mitty.
“I made sure when they took our pictures, they got the banners in there too,” Almazan-Cezar said.
Mitty (33–4), which entered as the No. 7 team in the country and had not lost a set in over a month, had to play from its heels immediately when Rocklin raced out to a 9-3 lead out of the gate. The Monarchs steadied themselves but could not make up the deficit, losing the first set 25-21.
“It makes it hard when you’re playing from behind against a good offensive team that sides out at the proficiency that they side out,” said first-year Mitty coach Jake Spain.
The Monarchs managed to right the ship in the next two sets, largely controlling the action as hitters Makenna Crosson and Chayce Courtney got going to power Mitty to back-to-back 25-16 set wins.
But Rocklin found its resolve in the fourth set. As in the first set, the Thunder (37-4) put Mitty in a 3-0 hole and never relinquished the lead, holding on for a four-point win.
Rocklin took a 2-0 lead out of the chute in the fifth and once again never gave it back, sealing the win when Thunder middle blocker Rylee Heinz buried the ball along Mitty’s back line for the final kill of the match.
“His kids did a really good job in their preparation,” Spain said of Almazan-Cezar. “They played into what we thought, and we didn’t do a great job of stopping it in runs. And they are physical, and they did a really nice job of sticking to what they do.”
The loss ends a special season for Mitty, one that potentially looked poised to break the Monarchs’ recent run of losses in CIF Open state championship games.
Instead, Mitty wasn’t able to get there at all as Almazan-Cezar – who won 11 state titles with the Monarchs – stood in the way.
“It was interesting because I told the kids, ‘Mitty’s never lost a NorCal championship match in this gym,’” Almazan-Cezar said. “And I go, ‘Oh, that’s me.’ And they thought that was funny.”
Mitty had been so incessantly dominant in its run to an undefeated West Catholic Athletic League championship and a CCS Open title that it was reasonable to wonder if such one-sided results ultimately hurt the Monarchs when they had to face the sort of adversity they hadn’t experienced in over a month.
For Spain, that wasn’t the case.
“Not at all,” he said. “I mean, what’s their record? 37-4? So no, we absolutely don’t look past anybody. I don’t know if you’ll find anybody who watches more film than me and Bret to prepare for a match, and we’ve played against each other in these matches a lot. And kudos to his squad. They came down here and played phenomenal.”
Spain’s first season with Mitty after years leading Marin Catholic didn’t end the way the new coach wanted it to. But he believes the Monarchs have everything they need to succeed moving forward.
“It’s heartbreaking,” he said. “I love these seniors who give every fiber of their being to wanting to be champions. And so when you come up a bit short, it hurts. It hurts as a coach and because you want that for them so bad. And I just have to take a second and breathe and tell these seniors how much I love them and how much this program appreciates everything they’ve given to it.
“This place is amazing. And you see why they’ve been successful over a long period of time. And I hope to continue the honor that someone like Bret put in 20 years creating.”
In her final high school game before beginning her college career at the University of Minnesota, Crosson finished with a game-high 25 kills. Courtney, a sophomore who will be the centerpiece of next year’s Mitty team, posted 22.