In the first South Coast Conference game of the 2009 men’s volleyball season, freshmen outside hitter Craig Narr was held out of the starting line-up.
The Warriors fell two games behind in a best-of-five match and coach Dick Blount looked to Narr to add a much needed spark against Santa Barbara City College.
Narr did just that.
The Warriors battled back and won the final three games to take the match and start conference play with a 1-0 record.
Narr’s crucial play in the win got high praise from Blount.
“(Narr) had ten digs and a very good game,” Blount said.
Unfortunately for Narr and the rest of the Warriors, that would be as good as the season would get.
The Warriors would go on to lose all nine of their remaining matches, and the final nine games of Narr’s volleyball career.
“The volleyball team grossly underachieved this season,” Narr said. “We had a lot of talent and did not show it.”
This terrible season was very difficult for Narr to swallow because, as longtime friend Richard Neino said, “Narr is a very competitive person.”
“On a scale from one to ten, (Narr) is an eleven, as a competitor,” Neino said. “The guy will do anything to win.”
Narr has competed in sports his entire life, from soccer to football and eventually, volleyball.
He got the desire to play volleyball competitively after attending one of his sister’s volleyball matches when he was in the eighth grade.
“Volleyball looked like a lot of fun and I immediately joined a league,” Narr said.
Narr said he fell in love with the camaraderie that volleyball built between teammates and played all four years at West Torrance High School and continued at EC.
“Volleyball is the ultimate team sport. Unlike other sports like basketball, where one player can dribble the ball the distance of the court and score, volleyball requires everyone to get involved,” Narr said.
This type of team attitude served Narr well on the court, as he became a captain of the Warrior’s squad last season.
But as the Warrior’s losses started to pile up and frustration began to build, Narr and the coaches did not see eye to eye on a lot of things and Narr was removed as captain.
“(The coaches and I) got into an argument one day and I lost my title of captain,” Narr said. “It was just another disappointing part of a disappointing season.”
While Narr would not go into detail about the incident that lost him his title, he said that he learned a very valuable lesson from it.
“When trying to get your message across, you have to do it the right way. I didn’t and it cost me,” Narr said.
Another thing this season taught Narr was how to effectively manage his time.
“With traveling, practice and games, volleyball took about twenty-two hours a week,” Narr said. “Whenever I got any free time, I was basically doing homework.”
But the work Narr put into class and homework paid off, as he, a fire technology and safety major, will be transferring to the University of Nevada, Las Vegas in August to pursue fire technology and ultimately become a firefighter.
Although Narr said he still loves volleyball, he will be focusing on his studies at UNLV and not play volleyball on an NCAA scale.
“I will always play during the summer at the beach. I might join a co-ed league, but my competitive days of volleyball are over,” Narr said.