Boys’ Basketball: Youngest Ctvrtlik a key player for CdM

Matt Ctvrtlik is the third teenage son in his family to attend Corona del Mar High. Just like the other two, Josef and Erik, Matt took up two sports at CdM, volleyball and basketball.

The father of the three boys is Bob Ctvrtlik, one of the most decorated U.S. volleyball players. While Josef and Erik stopped playing basketball after their first couple of seasons with the Sea Kings to focus on volleyball, Matt continues to play both sports in his junior season at the school.

Matt has two of the best high school volleyball and basketball coaches in Orange County in Steve Conti and Ryan Schachter. Bob befriended Schachter well before Matt played for Schachter.

Bob and Schachter coached the CdM Middle School boys’ volleyball team one season during Josef’s seventh-grade year. Schachter said he knew nothing about the sport. The title of head coach belonged to Schachter, but it was Bob, who won an NCAA title at Pepperdine University in 1985, and played in three Olympics with the U.S., winning gold in ’88 and bronze in ‘92, and captaining the team in ‘96, running the show.

Schachter listened to whatever Bob said. Bob once told Schachter that out of his three sons Matt was the basketball player in the family. Schachter believed Bob after seeing Matt for the first time eight years ago.

“He was a tank,” Schachter said of Matt. “He was the tallest third-grader I had ever seen. He was thick and tall. You just knew that he was going to be an animal on the court.”

Matt has leaned out over the years. He stands at 6-foot-5 and weighs 190 pounds. While he’s not as bulky as he was as a kid, nothing intimidates the youngest of the Ctvrtlik boys.

Matt Ctvrtlik is already a standout on the volleyball court as a setter, helping the Sea Kings claim the CIF Southern California Regional Division II title last season as a sophomore. He’s become a threat on the basketball court in his first season on varsity.

In volleyball, Ctvrtlik sets up the offense. His role is much different in basketball. He’s the first to admit that he doesn’t have the best handles to distribute the ball in basketball.

He sure can shoot, though. Ctvrtlik is shooting 49% from inside the three-point line, 41% from behind the arc, and 77% from the free-throw line. With those kinds of percentages, you might expect Ctvrtlik to start. He doesn’t and it’s by design.

Ctvrtlik provides a spark as the team’s sixth-man. Last week, he lifted CdM to three wins at home, averaging 12 points and 6.3 rebounds during the stretch. The production off the bench by Ctvrtlik has resulted in five straight victories for CdM.

The team heads into Friday’s game at Northwood perfect through four games in Pacific Coast League play. Northwood has been the opponent to hand CdM its first league setback in each of the past two seasons.

The Sea Kings (14-6 overall) hold the size advantage against the Timberwolves, who trail defending league champion CdM by one game. Along with Ctvrtlik, CdM has Ryan Moss, a 6-7 senior. Moss and Ctvrtlik rarely find themselves on the court at the same time.

In volleyball, that’s a different story. Ctvrtlik and Moss are teammates in volleyball, along with two other members of the basketball team, Kevin Fults and Sam Kobrine. Moss, a center, Fults, a forward, and Kobrine, a guard, start in basketball, while in volleyball last season, Ctvrtlik, Moss, an outside hitter, and Fults, an opposite, started.

The familiarity with each other bodes well for both of the school’s volleyball and basketball programs. Ctvrtlik, Moss, Fults and Kobrine have played in pressure-packed events, losing at Los Angeles Loyola in five sets in the semifinals of the CIF Southern Section Division 1 playoffs and defeating Esperanza in five sets in the CIF Southern California Regional Division II final at Cerritos College last season.

Four of the basketball team’s top six players are volleyball players. Ctvrtlik believes having experienced a thrilling win and a devastating loss on the big stage can only help the basketball team.

“We hope to win it all,” Ctvrtlik said, referring to a section title, which the Sea Kings last won in 2006-07, Schachter’s first season at the school. “We have a better team than we have had the last couple of years. We’re bigger and deeper.”

The Sea Kings’ opponents last week, Woodbridge, University and Newport Harbor, saw up close how talented CdM is this season. The team goes nine deep every time out.

In the first two games last week, Ctvrtlik performed at his best, finishing with 12 points against Woodbridge and 18 against University. He also converted 15 of 20 free throws in the two league games CdM won by a combined 13 points.

The third game, the Battle of the Bay against rival Newport Harbor, Ctvrtlik and Moss wreaked havoc with their length, combining for half of the team’s eight blocks. Ctvrtlik contributed to CdM putting the Sailors away in the third quarter, hitting a three and a free throw during a 16-6 run. The Sea Kings prevailed, 51-33, giving them their seventh win in a row against Newport Harbor.

Ctvrtlik has beaten Newport Harbor on the basketball and volleyball courts. His brothers enjoyed success against the Sailors as well on varsity, only in volleyball.

Matt is a lot like Josef, a 2012 CdM graduate, and Erik, a 2013 CdM graduate, who are studying at Stanford and Vanderbilt, respectively. Like Josef, Matt plans to play volleyball in college.

Schachter might not know much about volleyball, but he is well aware that Matt will most likely get to play wherever he wants to on the next level. He has the size, the skills and the grades.

“My brothers set a pretty high standard,” said Matt, who has a non-weighted 4.0 grade-point average. “They both got pretty good grades. I’m just trying to keep up.

“Hopefully 30 years from now we’re sitting at a bar and I can say to my brothers, ‘I did better than you.’”

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Matt Ctvrtlik

Born: Nov. 9, 1997

Hometown: Newport Beach

Height: 6-foot-5

Weight: 190 pounds

Sport: Basketball

Year: Junior

Coach: Ryan Schachter

Favorite food: Penne Alfredo

Favorite movie: “Gladiator”

Favorite athletic moment: Earning all-tournament honors in the 17-and-under open division at the USA Junior National Championships in July.

Week in review: Ctvrtlik came off the bench and averaged 12 points and 6.3 rebounds per game, helping the Sea Kings to a 3-0 record.