It was pure serendipity that in 2011, the 12s and the 14s boys team at Southern California Volleyball Club practiced at the same time. If the 14s had shared a gym with the 15s or the 13s, JP Reilly might still be a baseball player. Instead, the FloVolleyball 2017 Boys' High School Player of the Year is heading to Stanford in the fall to play men's volleyball for coach John Kosty.

The three Reilly children--Matt, JP, and Kate--all grew up around volleyball, watching their dad play on the beach near their Manhattan Beach home, but JP didn't start playing seriously until 2011. At the time, older brother Matt was on the 14s team at SCVC, and the boys' mom figured JP might as well jump in with the 12s group while they were at the gym.

JP couldn't be happier that he's a volleyball player and not a baseball player.


Photo by Max Zafranco

"One of the main things I liked about volleyball was it was a little bit more, I know this is an overused word for volleyball, but chill," JP said. "In fifth grade, I was doing these club travel baseball tournaments where I would drive four or five hours every weekend, it was a little bit more of a hard-core crazy atmosphere. Volleyball was such a nice change for me."

Some years later, JP followed his brother's lead once again, becoming the second Reilly son to enroll at Los Angeles' Loyola High School, an all-boys Jesuit prep school with a decorated legacy in volleyball. This spring, with JP leading the way, the Cubs boasted a 30-2 record and won the CIF SoCal Regional Championship.

"We were a very senior strong team, and coming off our CIF win from last year, that was a pretty good sign initially in the beginning," Reilly said of Loyola's 2017 squad. "I think we had five college commits total, which is the most Loyola has had at least for five or six years. We knew that we had the building blocks to make another championship run like we did the year before, except we knew that other teams were doing the exact same thing."

Early in the season, the Cubs stumbled against Oak Park in the Best of the West tournament, which Reilly said was a reality check for his team. After that match, Loyola didn't lose until meeting Corona del Mar in the CIF Southern Section Boys Championship match. That 0-3 loss to CDM was a second wake-up call, one that resulted in a change of approach leading into the regional tournament.

"When we saw the state tournament bracket, it was like a dream come true," Reilly said. "We had a chance to avenge both of our losses from the entire season, to Oak Park and Corona Del Mar. It kind of seemed like all the stars were aligning for to make this run. So we came out hungry but then with a little bit of a more relaxed and fun and enjoying sort of attitude. Our practices were maybe an hour each day. We didn't do any scouting; we didn't do any film. We just went out, and [head coach Michael Boehle] was like, 'You know what, you just have to go out there and feel it out and you gotta play.'"

Reilly posted 14 kills in the straight-set victory over Corona Del Mar in the regional championship match, giving Boehle his fourth regional championship at Loyola.

Playing at a school like Loyola, where many great volleyball players have come and gone before, fills Reilly with pride.

"As you walk into Coach Boehle's office, you see the photos of all the teams he's ever coached since 1999, and you see his row of six, now seven, rings," Reilly said. "Walking in there as a freshman for the first time, it's pretty awe-inspiring, and you're wide-eyed looking at all these accolades from over the years and it kind of humbles you as a player.

"However good you think you may be, looking at everything that's come before you, it puts you in your place and makes you think, OK, you're no longer playing for yourself when you're at a school like Loyola. Now you're playing to get another [ring] and join this storied program, these storied players who have come before you."

Reilly, who played with the U.S. boys' youth national team last summer at the NORCECA Championships in Cuba, says he's always been amazed by Stanford, where he'll start classes in the fall.

"When it came to me making my decision, I was very lucky to have a lot of great schools and great options where I could further my career, but Stanford seemed like the best place where I could get the optimal blend of academics and athletics," Reilly said. "And just knowing the people that I'll meet there, the interesting, smart, athletic people that I'll be surrounded with on a daily basis was something that was really intriguing and really cool to me."

The location was the perfect fit, too. Reilly has lived in Southern California, specifically Manhattan Beach, his whole life, and he's looking forward to the change of scenery at Stanford, which is nearly six hours upstate.

"The most I've ever moved was two blocks from my old house to my new house, so I'm excited to get out of the bubble at least a little bit," he said. "My brother, who is going to be a junior at MIT, was very glad that he's getting a college experience somewhere else. That was a main factor for me in deciding between colleges because so many of these volleyball powerhouses are right in my backyard. Being able to get a college experience somewhere else is going to be really valuable and be really cool for me and grow me more as a person than if I stayed in a little Southern California bubble."

Reilly decided to take this summer off from the USA program, which may or may not have anything to do with the fact that when he played with the youth national team last summer the entire team got food poisoning. Instead, he'll take advantage of his final free summer before starting college to go on a few family vacations and prepare for the academic and physical intensity of college.

He enrolled in an online computer coding class and plans to work on his strength and conditioning for volleyball with a trainer. Surprisingly, the coding class might actually be the easier of the two projects for the 4.5 GPA student who got a 34 out of 36 on the ACT. That's because, as he freely admits, he's never lifted weights or worked out outside of playing a ton of volleyball.

"When I say I have never lifted before, I have no idea what anything is," Reilly said. "So I'm just trying to learn the ropes first, and then what I'm supposed to do for volleyball, because I'm not trying to become like a football lineman."

If you need to find JP Reilly this summer, your best bet is to look at the gym, at his computer, or out on the beach. Come fall, though, you'll find him on The Farm.