Portland boys volleyball club wins national championship

Last month, a boys volleyball team from Portland won the 18 and under American division title at the 2024 USA Volleyball Boys Junior National Championship in Dallas, Texas. It’s the second consecutive appearance at the national tournament for the members of the Portland Chaos 18U boys volleyball team who attend high schools in the Portland metro area.

Last year, the Oregon School Activities Association voted to make boys volleyball an “emerging activity,” with roughly 70 high school teams competing in the season that ended this past spring. We hear from Nerisa Laban, the founder, director and coach of the Portland Chaos Volleyball Club and two players on the team: co-captains Given Unwin and Lopaki Laban, who is also Nerisa Laban’s son and winner of the MVP award at the national tournament.

Note: This transcript was computer generated and edited by a volunteer.

Dave Miller: This is Think Out Loud on OPB. I’m Dave Miller. We end today with some national champions. The Portland Chaos 18 and under boys volleyball team is made up of students from high schools throughout the Portland metro area. Last month, they won their division at a national championship in Dallas, Texas. It was a second consecutive appearance at the tournament for the team and it was the first time since boys volleyball became a so-called emerging activity in Oregon. There were roughly 70 high school teams this spring. Chaos co-captains, Given Unwin and Lopaki Laban, join me now, along with their coach and Lopaki’s mom, Nerisa Laban. It’s great to have all three of you on the show.

Nerisa Laban: Thank you, Dave, for having us.

Given Unwin: Thank you.

Lopaki Laban: Thank you.

Miller: Nerisa, is there a moment or an image that most stands out to you from this year’s tournament?

N. Laban: The hardest game for us was the semifinals and when we won that game, going into the national championship match was so exciting because we went to three sets. It’s three sets to win the match. So best out of three. And the moment that we won that game, I was like, OK, we got it in the bag, we got to go in, we gotta get it done and take it home to Oregon, first championship here.

Miller: Given, what was hard about that semifinal match?

Unwin: There was no energy in that game, like we were all down. I mean, we were all playing fairly well. That’s definitely not my best game, but Paki really, like he brought that, he brought the momentum in that game, brought the energy. He helped us get back. It was just no energy, like not everybody playing their very best and we just had to push.

Miller: So Paki, my understanding, as your mom said, you lost the first set, right? And so you had to win the next two, otherwise you went home. How do you bring the energy when you’re down one and it’s sort of do or die?

L. Laban: Always chin up, like you either take it or go home. It’s always just the momentum, like the team with the higher momentum is always the one on top.

N. Laban: So what do you do with your setter? Do you ask him …

L. Laban: I always tell him to feed me whenever I feel like I’m having a pretty good game. Or if I’m off, then I tell him to spread the ball around to see who’s his best option.

Miller: How much talking is there among the players in any given game?

Unwin: A lot.

L. Laban: Even in bad games, there’s always a huge amount of talking, just always communication. So there’s never enough communication going throughout the team.

N. Laban: Yeah. So Given is my court captain. My court captain is on the court and he’s also my energy captain. So he’s the one that’s like, “let’s go!” You want to elaborate on that, Given?

Unwin: Oh, yeah, I mean …

Miller: I love that you’re a coach right now.

N. Laban: Oh, thank you. Sorry.

Miller: No, keep it going. Tell your players what to do.

Unwin: I just try to, even if I’m not playing my best, just yell anything. Like “let’s go.” “Come on, we got it right here.” Like literally anything just to keep the energy up, because if no one’s doing anything, it’s just like, oh, everyone’s looking at the floor, no one’s talking. But if one person’s just like, “Yeah, let’s go. We got it right here. Let’s go, get it back.” It just kind of brings everyone up at least a little bit.

Miller: You just finished your sophomore year of high school, right? McDaniel High School in Portland.

Unwin: Yeah.

Miller: Has it been hard to be a leader, like a vocal leader and the kind of court captain, as your coach says, when some of the players that you’re leading are older than you?

Unwin: No, I feel I fit in really well. I feel super respected, like I’m an equal. And they might be a little older, but I really feel welcome and just that I’m their equal, their peer. And they all respect me. So it’s easy to just say something. They’re like, “all right, I got you.”

Miller: Paki, as Given and your mom said there was some low energy in that semifinal game. Can you describe what a day was like at this tournament [and] how much you had to fit in some of these days?

L. Laban: During this long four day tournament, it’s really hard to come back after each game because you’re very tired. So there’s like a process that we go through just to recover for the next game.

Miller: And how many games might you have in one day?

L. Laban: At least three. And when we’re chilled back, reffing, we always have split groups. So the other group can go warm up while the other one is reffing before the game starts, and then we just get on the court and we all warm up as a group.

Miller: Nerisa, why did you start Portland Chaos back in 2020?

N. Laban: So 2020, we were coming out of COVID and all the gyms shut down. And I was lucky to have a gym out in Dalzell, which is called Dalzell’s Gym. There was a need for volleyball. That’s when all the fires, the riots and all the gyms were shut down. These kids had nowhere to go. So my husband’s like, “why don’t you just start a club?” And I’m like, “OK, let’s do it.” These kids don’t have anywhere to go. The fires are happening, smoke is everywhere. We’re literally in the gym with towels on the ground, covered, and my kids are playing. I look at them as my own kids, giving them the opportunity for them to stay in the gym, because at that time, everything was shut down – no schools, no gyms, no sports. And so we’re like, “OK, let’s start it.”

That first year we started with 12 teams and then we grew exponentially from then until now. We have 28 teams currently.

Miller: How did you choose the name Chaos?

N. Laban: Because Portland [had] a lot of chaos happening with all the riots, with all the fires, with all the shutdown of everything. So our logo is a volleyball that is untouched, with the fire all around it. That’s how we chose that name.

Miller: Why volleyball?

N. Laban: Why volleyball? So in my community, in Hawaii, Samoa and over here when we came to Oregon, volleyball brings the community together. It’s such a fun sport, and you don’t have to be amazing. You don’t have to win a national championship.

Miller: It helps if you’re national champions.

N. Laban: Oh, it’s amazing. Especially with my boys, and who would have known with boys just being three years … we were three years young. We won a national, but with volleyball, it’s a community you bring, you make relationships and I’m still in touch with my first team. My boys come back, and they coach, and they still come play for me. Shout out to all my boys. What’s up?

But why volleyball? It’s a great sport that you do not have to be a top athlete to come and enjoy it.

Miller: Am I right that when you started Portland Chaos, it was just for girls?

N. Laban: It was just for girls.

Miller: Then you added boys

N. Laban: In 2021.

Miller: A year later. Why?

N. Laban: Because my boys played for a club in Vancouver and there were very little teams at that point. We’re still trying to grow. But this club said that we’re not gonna have a boys team anymore. And so I’m like, OK, well, I’ll start it for my sons. I’ll start it for the boys that don’t have anywhere to go. So I put it out there – OK, let’s make a team. And my middle son – he doesn’t play, he just goes to college for nursing – he goes, “I hate volleyball. I’m football.” I said, “no, you’re gonna play for your brother.”

So that team that year we had eight players, and we finished pretty high for our first year. And then last year was our first year showing at nationals. We finished fifth in the USA division and Paki was all team tournament. And then this year we didn’t have a set goal to go win it. Our goal was to go play competitively. This little club out of Oregon, go and win a national championship. That was amazing for us.

Unwin: I mean, I would say that we were there to win.

N. Laban: You see, I was trying to be humble. But go ahead, take it away boys.

Miller: So Paki, did you come in with a little bit of revenge on your mind? Fifth is not bad. But when you came into the tournament this year after finishing fifth last year, were you hungry?

L. Laban: Oh, yeah, for sure. Because last year we were actually a pretty decent team, but we just didn’t finish the way we actually wanted and just didn’t perform the way we should have.

Miller: So Given – Paki and Nerisa, as we’ve been hearing, volleyball is in their family. Is that the case for you?

Unwin: No. I mean, my sister said she wanted to play one time and I was like, “OK, I’ll give it a try.” That wasn’t even with Chaos. And then later I found Chaos and it’s just really a family from there. So, yeah, it runs in my second family, in Nerisa’s family that they kind of took me into.

Miller: To your newfound family.

N. Laban: He’s my baby giraffe. [Laughter] Even as an eighth grader, he had two left feet.

Miller: That’s a funnier joke if you can see Given in front of you. Now you only look like a baby giraffe to me. [Laughter]

What is it about volleyball that has drawn you in, in addition to the charming family you’re now a part of?

Unwin: Yeah, definitely the community is a big thing and I would say I’m pretty good at it. So I feel like that really is part of it. I’ve never really played other sports, and I found something that I was good at and I enjoyed. Again, this year especially, all the people on the team … what do we have? Like 10, 11 people. Every single one of them just felt like a close, close friend and I just felt like I could talk to them. Also, doing really well this season with people that I enjoyed being around was just a really good thing and it just helped me keep going.

Miller: Paki, I understand that you used to play on the football team, that your dad got a football scholarship. Why focus on volleyball?

L. Laban: I just favored volleyball way more than football.

Miller: And does it help that you’re not getting hit by people running at you?

L. Laban: I mean, yeah, but honestly, I still kind of like the sport. I just didn’t like it as much as volleyball since, I don’t know, I guess I have a more driving passion to play volleyball than football.

Miller: Nerisa, last fall, as we actually talked about on this show, a month, or a month-and-a-half ago, the OSAA – the Oregon School Activity Association – voted to make boys volleyball an emerging activity. It’s been a full-fledged sport for girls for a long time now, but weirdly not in Oregon. Because of that action from OSAA, it seems like there’s increasing interest at the high school level for boys. Could that mean that there’s less of a need for club teams like Portland Chaos?

N. Laban: It would actually mean more of a need for club teams for volleyball because now [that] it’s become an emerging sport, boys want to progress, and play better, and be better just like the girl’s side of it. And so now we want to start building club volleyball.

Miller: So there’s an elite level for kids who want to move on from their high school teams?

N. Laban: To come and play club. So club is considered elite compared to high school. So with Patrick Gibson, he’s the one that started the Oregon boys volleyball to try to go and get this approved. Shout out to Patrick, what’s up? I just wanted to make sure I said that because I told him that I’d be making sure we talk about emerging the sport. 87% of the boys that play high school volleyball did not play any other sport or have not played volleyball before the emerging sport, before Patrick was able to start this two years ago. It’s grown exponentially, especially in the last year. So we’re expecting it to grow even more.

Miller: Given, I understand that after the tournament, you got notices of interest from four different universities. They reached out to you as soon as they were allowed to after, was it June 15th of your sophomore year? That’s under NCAA rules. Had you been expecting that?

Unwin: A little bit because there was a tournament before and the second day of that tournament was June 15th when they could reach out. So I got a little bit of interest then. And I had been sending out emails consistently before each tournament, like,

“hey, if you want to watch” – because they can still watch, they just can’t reach out.

Miller: They can’t talk to you. They can look at you, but they can’t say any words to you.

Unwin: So like, “hey, if you want to watch, here I am.” And I just kept sending emails out. I guess they came and watched. So I was a little bit expecting at least some response like, “hey, yeah, we saw you play, just maybe not what we’re looking for.” But it’s been good. It’s been like, “oh, we’re looking for somebody that’s doing what you’re doing.” So, I mean, I was a little bit expecting it, but a little bit of surprise, because I think it’s more than four at this point, probably more like six or seven. But yeah, I’m very happy with that.

Miller: Well, Given, Paki and Nerisa, thanks so much. Congratulations. It’s great to have you on.

Unwin: Thank you.

L. Laban: Thank you.

N. Laban: Thank you so much, Dave. It’s a great opportunity

Miller: Given Unwin and Paki Laban are the two co-captains of the Portland Chaos Volleyball Club. They just won their division at the national championship in Dallas, Texas. Paki just graduated from David Douglas High School. Given is going to be a junior at McDaniel High School. Nerisa Laban is the founder, director and coach of the Portland Chaos Volleyball Club.

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