For nearly a decade, Westview High School’s gym was home to a kind, positive and gentle presence who occupied the bleachers at all of its girls volleyball matches.
An encouraging face before a rival matchup. A hug after a tough loss. A calming sense of pride no matter the outcome of a game.
But there’s an empty seat in 2024.
Ken Roberts, the father of Westview volleyball players Vivian and Violet Roberts, died in June following a lengthy battle with adenoid cystic carcinoma, a rare and aggressive type of head and neck cancer. He was 59. Roberts leaves behind his wife of 22 years, four volleyball-loving daughters, years’ worth of memories — and an empty seat in the bleachers.
A season of perspective
Westview, ranked No. 4 in San Diego, has one of its most complete teams this season.
Veteran coach Nancy Ros has firepower at every spot, an athletic setter and a fearless libero. The Wolverines have size, explosiveness and veteran leadership they can turn to from multiple players.
Westview is 16-5 overall and 0-1 in the Coastal North County Conference with big wins over Del Norte, Eastlake and La Jolla Country Day.
Vivian Roberts is a starting outside hitter for Westview and one of its most important players. Undersized at 5-foot-8, she makes up for any shortcomings at the net with a powerful vertical leap and a jump floater.
If life has been unkind to Vivian Roberts, you’d never know it talking to her. Her grateful attitude and perspective in the face of loss belie her youth.
“I try to do my best to not think about it during volleyball,” Vivian said. “I try to put it aside and tell myself this is the time to focus on the game and do my best.
“Obviously, I can’t help it. It’s a life-changing event. But everyone on the team is there for me. They help bring my focus back to the game.”
‘A gentle human’
Ken Roberts was born and raised in Laramie, Wyo. He was an exceptional athlete in high school, playing multiple sports. But his true love was ranching. He figured that was his future.
A degree in engineering from the University of Wyoming led to a job offer from General Dynamics. Then Qualcomm recruited him to San Diego.
Ken’s plan of running a farm changed permanently when he met Sharon. They married in 2002.
“A gentle human” is how Sharon described him. Ken was raised to value hard work, and he ed that virtue along to his daughters.
Ken was always fixing something, whether it was cars or sprinklers, and teaching his daughters along the way.
His loss has been palpable in the Roberts family’s Rancho Peñasquitos home and beyond.
“Really hard,” Vivian Roberts said. “Going from having 16 years of your life of having your dad you. … No matter what, my dad’s always shown up at my games. He always loved watching me and my sisters play. It was probably one of his favorite things to do. When I look up and only see my mom in the stands, it’s really hard.”
When Ken was first diagnosed with cancer, the Roberts girls were 2, 4, 6 and 8. For the last 12 years of his life, every meal Ken consumed had to be blended.
The cancer traveled to his lungs and liver, and he had surgery in 2012 to remove a tumor at the base of his tongue. In that procedure, doctors cut from ear to ear then cut his left thigh from knee to hip to remove different ligaments that could rebuild the base of his tongue.
Ken never complained, attending Westview’s indoor and beach volleyball matches even as his disease progressed. One afternoon last spring, Ros offered to move Vivian’s match closer to where Ken and Sharon were sitting. Ken, using an oxygen tank, insisted he was fine where he was.
“He didn’t want to make a fuss,” Ros said through tears.
Legacy
Ken never pressured his four daughters to perform well in athletics or academics. In fact, he and Sharon compared their roles as parents to bumpers on a bowling alley.
“It’s amazing what they do and what they put their minds to,” Sharon said. “They kind of veer a bit to the right and we push them back to the center. They veer to the left and we push them back to the center. But when the ball knocks down the pins, that’s all you.
“You did that. Not me. I’m super proud of all that they’ve done.”
Oldest daughter Cheyenne is a third-year psychobiology major at UCLA with her eyes set on a career as a physician’s assistant in dermatology. She’s a high-jumper on the Bruins track team after competing in track and field and volleyball at Westview.
Makena Roberts, who also played at Westview, is in her first year as a biomedical engineering major at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo.
Vivian carries a 3.9 GPA and is being recruited for beach volleyball by Utah, Arizona State and Boise State.
Violet is the youngest Roberts girl. A freshman on Westview’s junior varsity team, she’s a late-comer to volleyball despite being surrounded by the sport. She re family volleyball games at the park and going to 10-year-old Vivian’s matches at the Boys & Girls Club. She also recalls a particular backyard game when Vivian and Makena’s competitiveness resulted in a shattered glass table.
Their mother was furious then. Now, it’s a memory the entire family laughs about.
“My sisters and mom have helped me cope with my father’s loss by always reminding me that I’m not alone,” Violet said. “Losing a parent at a young age can make it feel like you’re the only one in the world experiencing this pain, but talking with my sisters and mom has shown me that I have people to lean on, and that I do not have to go through it alone.”
Life coach
This year’s Westview team is led by captains Ava Zamora, Nia Thompson and Angeline Nguyen.
Vivian Roberts isn’t a captain yet — but, her coach says, she will be eventually.
“Vivian’s growth from what was the unthinkable makes me unbelievably proud of her,” said Nguyen, a junior libero. “Her Division 1 offers and straight A’s further shows how even after a terrible loss, she manages to use her grief as a fire, allowing her to change and become stronger than before. With this, Vivian has been able to build her father’s legacy, one who helped raise one of four successful and strong girls.”
Said Ros: “She’s been way stronger than anyone should’ve expected.”
Ros has a special bond with the Roberts family. When Violet graduates in 2028, she will have coached a Roberts girl for 10 consecutive years. The coach was one of the first people to the girls when their father died, texting them about what they all meant to her.
The day after Ken died, Vivian — who also played for Ros’ Wave Volleyball Club team — reached out.
“She said, ‘Is that OK if I come to practice, Coach?’ She just wanted to get out of the house,” Ros said. “And then we played in our national tournament less than a week after he ed, and she was phenomenal. That’s just who she is.”
Said Cheyenne: “I think, honestly, my dad motivates Vivian in a way. I know she wants to make him proud, and I know we all do. So I think she plays knowing he’s always watching over her.”
Resilience
This is a story about love and loss. But the death of Ken Roberts didn’t bring more love or a better understanding of how precious life is.
Instead, it revealed love in both the most obvious and hidden places.
Cheyenne, at UCLA, refers to Westview as a loving program. Makena Roberts, at Cal Poly, still receives comfort from friends she made as a freshman.
“It was the best high school experience I could ever ask for,” Makena said. “Just the relationships I’ve created. Sure people do it for the two or three-month season, but really I’m best friends with some of these girls still four years later. The girls who go through this program are some of the nicest, most comforting people I’ve ever met.”
Sharon says she’s been the most impressed by how well all four of her daughters have persevered.
“He was a super-strong individual in every sense of the word,” she said. “All four of them got a large piece of that from him. They took the shots and absolutely came through on the other side.”
