Mercy-Burlingame volleyball returns home

Monday marked the first time first-year head coach Ray Sum stepped onto the court at the helm of the Crusaders. He was greeted by a big showing of 55 girls trying out for the team, including 36 non-freshmen.

“It’s nice to have someplace to call home and to know my equipment has someplace to be stored without having to lug it every day,” Sum said.

Sum joined the Mercy volleyball program last year as the junior-varsity coach. With all county high school sports canceled in the fall of 2020, volleyball season was deferred to the spring of 2021. With Serra housing several of its own teams in the gym, including basketball being moved from the winter to the spring season, there was no time on the schedule for Mercy.

Sum said Serra tried to accommodate Mercy volleyball, but there was not enough time to expand the usage of the gym while observing county health guidelines, which called for additional time between practices to sanitize the facility.

“That kind of interfered with the gym time, and we didn’t have access to that at all,” Sum said.

Mercy resorted to renting facility space from the SF Elite Volleyball Club in South San Francisco, slotting three courts at a time to hold practices. When it came to playing games during the abbreviated season — which were technically scrimmages as the games were played with the permission of but not registered by the California Interscholastic Federation — the Crusaders played exclusively on the road.

“It’s a big, big difference (this year),” Sum said. “Last season, even with club, when we tried to practice, it was mostly outdoors. … We tried our best to just give the girls a chance to get out there and play and have the opportunity.”

Sum is a club coach himself with the San Francisco Tremors Volleyball Club. He’s intent on not only continuing the winning tradition at Mercy but also looking to grow the program into a West Bay Athletic League force. The Crusaders have recorded overall records of .500 or better going back to 2016 but have struggled in the upper WBAL Foothill Division.

Mercy could also benefit from some consistency at the top. Sum is the varsity team’s third head coach in three years. After Chris and Nicole Balestrieri stepped away after the 2019 season, Kaylin O’Leary took over through the makeshift 2020-21 season.

“For me as an incoming coach, it’s always a challenge to develop,” Sum said. “Starting at the bottom, I see the bottom as new players, new teams, new structure. Everything is kind of a startup, and we have to build going forward.”

Mercy will return to its traditional three-team program this year, with varsity, junior-varsity and freshman squads. Aug. 26 marks the first date the Crusaders will host at Serra in 2021 with a preseason scrimmage against Balboa-SF. Mercy opens its non-league preseason on the road Aug. 31 at Half Moon Bay and will host Sept. 9 at Serra against Summit Shasta.

With Mercy’s tryouts concluding Wednesday, Sum has yet to set his roster. For the returning players, though, this week marks a glimpse of what a post-pandemic world might look like with the Crusaders’ significant homecoming.

“The ones that have been there … their comfort level is pretty much in that gym,” Sum said. “They’re looking forward to home games. … They’re already into it more than I am.”