Charlie Jackson celebrated his 400th win as boys’ volleyball head coach at Poway High after the first match in the West Coast Challenge — but he didn’t go overboard.
“I’m excited,” he itted, “but to get to 400 wins, you need longevity as well as talent. I’ve been head coach at Poway for 22 years and we’ve won, but the thing I take from all those years are the stories.
“Let me give you an example. In 2023 we played in the Southern California Regionals, the same day as the prom. My son played on that team. We had the games moved to 1 p.m. and then the seniors came to my house and after a quick shower, they put on their tuxedos and they went to the prom.
“That day our senior girls scorekeepers already had their hair done and the dates of the players came to the game in their formals. It was special.”
The Titans celebrated twice by winning the Regional game and then celebrating at the prom.
“I love when the players graduate and then come back to visit,” Jackson said. “I want every player 20 years from now to come back and tell me how important the program was to them, to say how happy they were to play high school volleyball.”
Something more recently that Jackson adopted was every odd year he schedules the team to play in a top tournament on Hawaii. While that certainly didn’t help his overall record because that tournament annually draws the best teams from the volleyball hotbeds, it is an experience the players always .
“This year was the seventh time,” said Jackson, whose club went 3-3, beating Santa Barbara, Kalani and Hawaii Baptist Academy and losing to Iolani, Moanalua and Kamehameha Kapalama in late March.
“It’s an amazing experience, there’s such a vibe. We get a 15-enger van and go to places like the North Shore — we do the exact same thing every year. We’ve had kids who are there for the second time and they let the others know what’s coming.
“I think the thing we do that is most memorable is we learn how to Outrigger Canoe Surf. They all love it and that’s an experience you can’t get anywhere else, it’s part of the island culture.”
Mind you, Jackson’s Titans have done well enough to win section titles in 2019 (Division 1), 2021 (Open) and 2023 (Division 1). The 2021 team — an abbreviated COVID year — went 23-2 but the best single-season record was the 26-11 they posted in 2023.
He has seen the growth of the sport not just locally, but nationally.
“It’s a better sport now,” said Jackson, who turns 50 this month. “We host the Best of the West Tournament and now we get calls from Hawaii, Arizona, Utah, Illinois and Wisconsin for teams wanting to come to California and play against the best.
“Being a spring sport, which has more boys’ programs than any season, we might lose kids who play other sports, but we always get some, too. This year the football team’s leading rusher, Luke Jorgensen (a junior who ran for 1,201 yards and 19 TDs) s a long line of four Jorgensen brothers who played volleyball.
“We love having players off the football team because they bring a toughness you don’t always find with volleyball players. They bring out the best in the team aspect and they tend to want to help others who might be struggling get better.”
Jackson was asked what he looked for in the 44 players who came out this season.
“Obviously, you look for height No. 1,” he said. “But with that height, you want explosiveness. You want a dynamic player who makes quick decisions, and they aren’t always the tallest players.
“You want someone who s the others, especially when they make a mistake. That’s huge.”
Speaking of huge, one of the top players on the team this season is freshman Daniel Hornyak, a 6-foot-8 outside hitter.
“He’s a great kid who also plays baseball,” said Jackson of Hornyak, who is No. 3 on the team in kills (155) behind Jack Fleck (180) and Jorgensen (171). “That’s one of the things I like about coaching at Poway, baseball coach Caleb Allen and I worked it out so he can play both sports.
“Sometimes he has to miss our practices and sometimes baseball if either of us has a game. We make it work and Daniel is a great kid and he handles the time well.”
Jackson knows the time will come when it’s time to retire, but he doesn’t see that in the foreseeable future.
“This is too much fun,” he its.
