Bradford family: Giants in height and volleyball

Los Angeles Times

4 days ago

When the Bradford family walks together on a beach, at an airport, in a restaurant, eyes turn. They aren't just tall, they're giants. They aren't a basketball family — they play volleyball. On Memorial Day, mom, dad, daughter and son were at the beach looking for games.
Lee Bradford was a 6-foot-7 middle blocker at Pepperdine in the 1990s. His wife, Sara, is 6-1 and played basketball at Fordham. Their oldest daughter, Carissa, was the 6-2 City Section volleyball player of the year at Granada Hills, played at Tennessee and South Alabama and is now head coach at Bates College.
Their son, Derek, is 6-8, won a CIF title with Royal and now trains with the USA beach volleyball team. Their son, Grayson, is a 6-11 senior at Mira Costa and plays for a state championship on Saturday in Fresno. He's committed to UCLA.
Even the youngest in the family, 12-year-old daughter Brooke, is 5-10 and headed for volleyball stardom. Talk about good height genes — no giant shoes go unused in this family.
Dad gave his kids a choice growing up. 'I love the sport and offered free private lessons,' he said.
They took him up and the rest is history. Lee has been a teacher at Granada Hills and used to be an assistant coach to Tom Harp. He eventually moved his family to Manhattan Beach after driving to the South Bay for years for club competition.
'We made a really good decision four years ago to go to a high level club program,' he said. 'It's been a great journey.'
Grayson has been a key player for Mira Costa, which won the Southern Section Division 1 championship, then the Southern California regional championship and play San José Archbishop Mitty in the first state Division 1 boys title match on Saturday at 4:30 p.m. at Fresno City College.
It's a weekend for championships. The Southern Section baseball will be held Friday and Saturday at Cal State Fullerton and Blair Field in Long Beach.
The Southern Section softball finals are Friday and Saturday in Irvine.
The state track and field championships will be Friday and Saturday at Buchanan High in Clovis (temperatures will hit triple digits). The state tennis championships are Saturday in Fresno.
The City Section softball finals are Saturday at Cal State Northridge.
Tuesday's Division 1 baseball semifinals produced a shocker. No. 1-seeded Corona, which started the year considered as high school baseball's version of the Dodgers, was beaten by St. John Bosco 2-0. It was the first high school pitching defeat for Seth Hernandez, who came in 18-0.
St. John Bosco has unleashed a closer extraordinaire in junior Jack Champlin. Last week, in the bottom of the seventh inning with the score tied, Villa Park had the winning run on third and Champlin was brought in to get a strikeout. He threw 2 1/3 hitless relief before the Braves won 5-4 in nine innings.
He was inserted into the game with a 2-0 count, one runner on and one out in the seventh inning against Corona. He walked the first first batter, then got a strikeout and fly out to end the game.
He said of the situation, ''I love it,' he said. 'There's close to 1,000 people and it's electric. I didn't feel any pressure, didn't feel nervous. It's just fun to compete against all these Power 5 players.'
That kind of closer's mentality and confidence should help St. John Bosco in Friday's 7 p.m. Division final against Santa Margarita at Cal State Fullerton. Champlin will gladly take the ball whenever coach Andy Rojo offers it.
'I haven't had a blown save,' he said.
That's not the kiss of death. That's a teenager who wants the ball with the game on the line.