Springtime in Santa Barbara means it’s time for the Karch Kiraly Tournament of Champions boys volleyball competition. Sixteen teams from all over the state will converge on Santa Barbara High’s J.R. Richards Gym and Sovine Gym at Dos Pueblos to play best-of-five matches Friday and Saturday.
La Costa Canyon (18-8), the No. 3-ranked team (by MaxPreps) in the San Diego Section, is the tournament’s top seed. Camarillo, which is 21-2 and owns wins over Santa Barbara and Dos Pueblos this season, is the second seed, Channel League-leading San Marcos (18-2) is seeded third and St. John Bosco (13-8), out of the rugged Trinity League, is fourth.
La Costa Canyon opens the tournament Friday at 11 a.m., against.Arroyo Grande, while Camarillo plays Santa Ynez in its first match at 4:15 p.m.
Host Santa Barbara kicks off play against Folsom of the Sac-Joaquin Section and Dos Pueblos battles St. John Bosco at 12:45. San Marcos takes the court at 2:30 p.m. against Thousand Oaks.
The other first-round matchups are Bubank-Burroughs vs. Santa Ana-Foothill at 11 a.m., Fresno-Bullard against Quartz Hill at 2:30 and Downey taking on Del Norte (San Diego) at 4:15. Burroughs is a former champion, capturing the 2022 title over Mira Costa.
Friday’s winners’ bracket matches will be played at Santa Barbara while the contenders’ matches will move to Dos Pueblos. Those match times are 6 p.m. and 7:45.
The championship semifinals are slated at 10:45 a.m. and the championship match is at 5:45.
The Karch Kiraly TOC is named after the Santa Barbara alum who has accomplished great things in indoor and beach volleyball at the highest level. He’s won two Olympic gold medals as a USA Volleyball indoor player (1984, 1988), a gold in beach volleyball (1996) and coached the USA Women’s Indoor Volleyball Team to a gold medal at the 2020 Tokyo Games.
He is currently preparing the USA Men’s Indoor Volleyball Team for the 2028 L.A. Olympics, which will take him full circle in his Olympics career, as the 1984 Games were held in Los Angeles.
