Daily Journal Boys’ Volleyball Player of the Year: Aragon’s Cameron Sears

While volleyball is unique in that boys’ volleyball doesn’t come as close to generating the same depth of talent as the girls’ game, Cameron Sears bucked that convention, starting down the road of a decorated career, long before he arrived at Aragon, when he was 11.

“My sister was big on volleyball … so, I kind of followed in her footsteps,” Sears said.

Sears followed in his big sister’s footsteps by putting Aragon boys’ volleyball on the map. As a senior this season, he led the Dons to their first 30-win season. The team rode a 31-5 record to its first appearance in the CCS finals, and into the CIF Northern California playoffs for the first time in program history.

“That’s huge for us as a program,” Aragon head coach Diean Hala’ufia said. “He’s one of the biggest reasons why we made this year the first of many things. So, I am truly grateful for having gotten to coach a kid of his caliber.”

Sears wasn’t only Aragon’s leading scorer, he was the top scorer in Northern California. The 6-foot outside hitter’s 615 kills ranked third in the nation, among teams that report statistics to MaxPreps.com. He also ranked 10th in the state with 80 service aces.

He went on to earn Co-Peninsula Athletic League Bay Division Player of the Year honors with Carlmont’s Sean Murphy. Now, he has another distinction in common with Murphy, as he has been named the Daily Journal Boys’ Volleyball Player of the Year. Murphy earned the award as a junior in 2023.

Sears and Murphy enjoyed quite a friendly rivalry. Not only did they play for the top two teams in the PAL Bay Division this season, the two play together during the club season at Red Rock Volleyball Club, where Sears and Aragon senior opposite hitter Luke Phillips play with Carlmont’s seven core varsity starters.

“Luke and I, it’s a big rivalry for us because that Carlmont team is our whole club team,” Sears said.

The rivalry flourished this season after Aragon scuffled through a disappointing 2023, when the Dons missed the postseason during Sears’ junior year. Only the top two finishers in the PAL Bay Division earn postseason bid, and Aragon settled for third place in 2023, placing behind league-champion Carlmont and second-place Menlo-Atherton.

Sears, though, buckled down during his club season, as Aragon’s two top players joined forces with nine total Carlmont players teamed to take third place in the Premier Division at the USAV Junior National Championships in Salt Lake City.

“The biggest change for Cam this year is he went away from his junior year, and he was very good … but when he came back to our season after his club season, he was even better,” Hala’ufia said.

The Dons got out to a spectacular start this year, winning their first 12 matches, and taking a 15-1 record into the first of two key showdowns with Carlmont. In a four-set stunner, Aragon earned a 25-22, 25-16, 16-25, 25-19 victory.

“The game that we beat Carlmont, it was jaw-dropping,” Sears said. “I kind of couldn’t believe it. So, after that we kind of came together in the sense that: ‘Hey, maybe we can go far.’ And we did.”

Aragon went on to knock Menlo-Atherton out of the play picture by sweeping the season series from the Bears. Carlmont bounced back in the second head-to-head showdown between Sears and Murphy, sweeping the Dons in the final week of the regular season 25-20, 25-20, 25-21 to deliver the Scots to the regular-season league championship, with Aragon taking second place.

The Dons benefitted from qualifying for the CCS Division II tournament. Carlmont was placed in the CCS Open bracket, and was eliminated in the first round by Valley Christian. Menlo-Atherton managed to qualify for the CCS Division I tourney, and swept its opener against Westmont, but saw its season end the following day in a four-set loss to Cupertino.

Meanwhile, Aragon got to keep on playing. Earning the No. 2 seed in Division II, the Dons took a first-round bye, then knocked off Saratoga in the quarterfinals and Monterey in the semis. The battle with Monterey went to five sets, with the Dons gritting out a 25-19, 19-25, 25-21, 21-25, 15-12 victory, led by a big finish from Phillips off the right side.

“I think both of us didn’t have our best games but at least we pulled through it though,” Sears said. “It’s kind of nice to have someone else on the team that I can rely on, other than myself. He was kind of clutch for us.”

Equally clutch was senior setter Santiago Smirnoff, who ranked 21st in the state this season with 877 assists. Smirnoff is closer to the prototypical boys’ varsity volleyball player, one who didn’t discover the sport until high school.

“San Mateo and our league doesn’t really get that flow of players like other places … so there’s only a few club players on each school team,” Sears said. “So, it’s kind of luck of the draw.

“It’s kind of cool to see kids stepping up and trying it out, even if they didn’t want to, and finding that passion out of nowhere,” he said.

Sears fell short of his older sister’s accomplishment, as the Aragon boys fell in the CCS finals to No. 1 seed Monta Vista 25-16, 25-19, 25-19. The Dons went on to drop their Nor Cal Division III opener 29-31, 25-22, 25-19, 25-19 to Del Oro.

While her little brother took home the Co-PAL Bay Player of the Year award this year, Ella Sears enjoyed her share of varsity accolades as well. As a sophomore in 2018, she was named a first-team All-PAL Bay middle blocker. As a junior, she earned second-team All-PAL Bay honors before stepping away from the indoor game during her senior season in the pandemic year of 2020-21.

However, the contribution Ella Sears doesn’t get credit for on the stat sheet, or on the gymnasium wall, is how she fueled the fire for her kid brother’s volleyball career.

“Once you see a sport and you’re around a lot, it kind of makes you want to try it out,” said the younger Sears. “So, I guess being surrounded by it gave me the urge to go out and try it … and I was so surrounded by it that it just came naturally.”