Wavy golden locks flop as he walks.
A pristine white flash for a smile generated frequently by his personality.
Beach-tanned skin tone.
A talented volleyball player and the leader of his team.
A great kid. A great attitude.
All apt descriptions from coaches and teammates of Corona del Mar’s senior outside hitter Weston Nielsen, who will attend UC Santa Barbara in the fall.
Nielsen combined his talent and leadership skills to help the Sea Kings reach the semifinals of the CIF-SS Division 1 playoffs, joining Santa Margarita as the two county teams to go the deepest in the division.
In a season in which Nielsen finished first on his team in kills (291), blocks (49) and aces (37), his performance earned him yet another description – the 2010 Register’s boys volleyball player of the year.
“This is definitely a motivator to do my best at UCSB,” Nielsen said. “To be represented as the best in Orange County, the MVP, it makes me want to go be a bigger part at Santa Barbara. Winning this is cool.”
Nielsen didn’t start playing volleyball competitively until his freshman season. The beginning was anything but cool.
Nielsen broke his foot and couldn’t participate in the summer camp. Just as the cast on his foot came off and Nielsen returned the court, he broke his wrist.
“He’s come a long way to get to this point,” Corona del Mar coach Steve Conti said. “He’s worked on his mental maturity. Also, and this shows his maturity, he worked his hardest during his senior year. He was able to make every guy feel like they were an important part of our team. Only good leaders do that and he did that.”
Nielsen returned in time for his freshman season. It didn’t take long for Nielsen to catch on to the sport and the accolades starting piling up quickly.
He started his sophomore season on varsity, won a gold medal in club volleyball in the 16s and was named the MVP as well. He also earned all-tournament honors at the Junior Olympics and was part of the youth national team.
“It was a lot for a 16-year-old to deal with,” Conti said. “There were a lot of expectations and pressure on him to be a spectacular player. He was pretty accomplished, but that’s when he realized that he needed to keep working to always get better.”
Nielsen’s leadership showed up the biggest in the neediest of times this season. The Sea Kings lost their first two pool-play games at the Orange County Championships and were in danger of missing the gold bracket.
Corona del Mar won its final pool-play match Saturday to make the gold bracket and set up a quarterfinal showdown with cross town rival Newport Harbor.
“The whole team went giddy when we found out we were playing Newport,” Conti said.
Before the match Nielsen implemented a new pregame ritual to fire up his teammates. Conti was sitting on the bench while the team was doing line drills in the back of the gym.
He looked up to see players running by Nielsen and lifting their shirts so Nielsen could slap them as hard as he could on their stomachs.
The tactic worked and Nielsen delivered a victory for his team and it would eventually reach the championship match.
“They came in fired up,” Conti said. “That was the turning point of our season. Wes came out like the player everyone knew he was. He had 14 kills and one error in that match. He also put the final ball away which is something I always like to see from my leaders.”
Nielsen is loaded with talent and developed into a great leader. Coaches and teammates also say he has a remarkable attitude.
Balboa Bay club teammate Tim Frydendall, who plays for Orange Lutheran, said Nielsen is a good role model and “there’s really nothing you can say about him to put him down. It’s all positive.”
Frydendall went on to mention Nielsen’s demeanor and attitude with teammates, adding “he’s totally deserving of player of the year.”
“He’s a very competitive player,” Frydendall said. “He’s competitive and he’s driven and he’s likes to win, but he never puts another team down. If he hits a rough spot, it motivates him more, but he always says how well the opponent played.”
