By admin 
Jim Curtis became familiar with the gymnasium at El Dorado High School in Placerville, in large part because his daughter, Kendall Curtis, was a member of a championship volleyball program.
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The 2017 Cougars girls team won a CIF Sac-Joaquin Section championship, which earned the program a blue banner and a spot on the gym wall, surrounded by decades of other title teams for a school closing in fast on its 100-year anniversary.
As boys volleyball coach on campus, Coach Curtis also noted that the trophy case outside the gym had one distinctive volleyball piece of hardware. The 1992 girls program reached a CIF State final, with the runner-up honors settled in amid the dust in that trophy case.
“Before the NorCals this season, I had the boys on the team come over to see the banner the girls won — ‘See that up there?’ — and we thought that we could add to it,” Curtis said.
The boys delivered, and now is a good time to start clearing some space on the gym wall and inside that trophy case. The Cougars made history on Saturday at Fresno City College, winning the CIF State Division IV championship in four sets over Point Loma of San Diego, 25-15, 23-25, 25-20 and 25-20.
In capping the season at 28-9 overall with a 14-game winning streak, El Dorado is the first Sacramento-area boys program to hoist a CIF State banner. The first CIF Northern California tournament was in 2013 and the first CIF State tournament for the boys was in 2025.
In beating Balboa of San Francisco for the NorCal banner, El Dorado joined four other Sacramento-area programs for that distinction. Roseville won a NorCal title in 2017 in Division I, Elk Grove in 2019 in Division II, Woodcreek of Roseville beat Jesuit in 2022 in Division II and Rio Americano topped Jesuit in Division II in 2024.
“We had a great season,” Curtis said. “I really enjoyed it. As much as the boys got out of this season, I got 10 times more out of it. I learned so much from them, and it was a wonderful feeling to coach them. We had great synergy, we worked so well together, and we played fast.”
Computer guy turned coach
Curtis saw that there was a rise in popularity and talent in boys volleyball over the years and was eager to help elevate the game. He dabbled in high school sports as a freshman in high school in the greater Bay Area, “but I was more into computers,” he said with a laugh.
As a software engineer, Curtis would play adult rec league volleyball to exercise and compete, including 15 years in Placerville. He caught wind of a coaching opening at El Dorado and pounced on it. He coached the El Dorado junior varsity team for five years and the varsity for the last two, a program elevated and nurtured by previous coach Emma Miles, who brought Curtis into the loop.
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With junior varsity coach and varsity assistant Tyler Lindsey and another top assistant in Jessica Voelker, Curtis ran combined practices this season with the junior varsity and varsity players. It was an effort to accelerate the learning curve for the younger players, and to humble the varsity leaders, who had to become leaders and teachers.
The end result was a championship run none of them will forget. Needing to reschedule two NorCal matches on the fly due to El Dorado’s senior graduation ceremonies, the Cougars got past Cardinal Newman of Santa Rosa in a NorCal opener 3-0, then topped Analy of the Bay Area 3-1 and Balboa 3-2 in the NorCal finals.
The seniors led the charge right on through the state finals, including Quinton Maciel, Cadence Hoyt and Henry Metropulos. The junior anchors included Austin Howser, Finn Hornsby and Andrew Canlas. Hornsby had the kill to finish off Point Loma in the final match, and the celebration was on.
Players and coaches headed to a nearby pizza joint to work over the all-you-can-eat buffet and to enjoy their season.
Curtis was more of the program coach as he let his assistants coach plenty during matches. Assistant coach Lindsey is an El Dorado High graduate, and Voelker is a graduate of Union Mine High in the nearby town of El Dorado. Along the way, the coaches implored their players to use their mind and muscles, right on down to the repetition of the mind reminding the body that the aim is to hit the ball over the net — muscle memory.
Several years ago, Curtis wondered if he could fill out a varsity team with enough bodies. In recent years, so many players tried out that Curtis had to make cuts, which pained him. Volleyball is such a thing on campus now that the program has a varsity, junior varsity and freshman team, and the feeder program at Gold Trail Middle School plays the sport, too.
“We’ll miss the seniors, but we have good players coming back, and we’ll be taller, and we have a title to defend,” Curtis said.
Before that pursuit, championship banners have to be added to the gym wall and a large plaque inserted into the trophy case.
Sweet taste of victory
All-time Sacramento-area boys CIF NorCal volleyball champions
2017: Roseville beat Bellarmine-San Jose, Division I
2019: Elk Grove beat Bentley-Lafayette, Division II
2022: Woodcreek beat Jesuit, Division II
2024: Rio Americano beat Jesuit, Division II
2026: El Dorado beat Balboa-San Francisco, Division IV*
*El Dorado is also the only Sacramento-area team to win a CIF State boys title. The NorCal state tournament started in 2013 and state finals in 2025.
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