In spite of taking his team to the last seven Class 5A state championship matches, Rio Rancho High School volleyball coach Toby Manzanares isn’t about to start boasting about his team winning a sixth crown in November.

“I like where our team is at right now,” Manzanares said.

Where his team is “at right now” is No. 1 in the preseason Coaches Poll, where a defending champ should reside.

Vanessa Leal (7) will be a formidable force at the net this season.

Oddly, perhaps, Manzanares tabbed La Cueva, the team the Rams beat 3-1 at Johnson Gym for the blue trophy last season, as the No. 1 team in his poll. The Bears, who have a new head coach, visit the Rams on Oct. 18 for another breast cancer awareness “Think Pink” match.

The Rams lost three key players from last year’s squad – setter Kayla Hammond, middle blocker Ashley Rhoades and outside hitter Sarah Koch – but, as usual, Manzanares doesn’t rebuild, he re-loads.

That’s not hard to do when your four teams last year combined to win 67 matches and lose only seven: The varsity went 22-2, with a loss to El Paso Franklin and Las Cruces; the junior varsity was 16-1, and the freshman teams were 15-1 and 14-3.

“We were able to take a look and see what type of position players we had during our time in Colorado in July,” Manzanares said. “I found out in a quick hurry this is a well-rounded team and very dimensional – we can move kids around from one position to another, on the fly, and still be very good.”

His team finished 13th of 65 teams at the University of Northern Colorado camp in Greeley, and he later told The Observer how happy he had been with the play there of Jocelyn Hamilton, who’ll replace Hammond at setter, plus transfer Leticia Spencer and sophomore Jayla Trombley.

So far, Manzanares is excited about what he’s seen from Trombley.

“She didn’t play any varsity, then we suited her up at the state tournament,” he recalled. “The spring has transformed this kid – she is fun to watch. She’s probably 5-8 and plays like she’s 6-1, she’s athletic and she’s got a knack for scoring points, that’s for sure.”

Returning players who got considerable floor time last season are seniors Madison Rhoades, Jackie Rodriguez, Kirsten Steele, Hamilton and Vanessa Leal, and juniors Brooklyn Boughter, Cassy Shaffer and Darian Mullen, a second-team All-Metro player last fall.

“The biggest question mark is the setter position, but Jocelyn has handled that position change from defensive specialist and primary passer to becoming a full-time setter,” Manzanares said. “She has handled it well. I am pleased to see her lead this way and she’s learning the vocal part. She has put herself in a position to lead by example – she’s not as vocal as Kayla was and I don’t think she needs to be. But she’s going to put hittable balls up every time she gets to the ball.”

As usual, the Rams have a formidable schedule before they get into District 1-5A matches, which traditionally are easier than the pre-district portion. In fact, the Rams have won every District 1-5A banner since the district came “This is a pretty good schedule,” Manzanares said, ready to take the team to Moriarty, the No. 1 team in Class 4A, for a scrimmage session last Friday. “There’ll be probably seven teams there.”

Unlike the Rams football team, where some starting spots were to be decided at its scrimmage last week, Manzanares was pretty sure of his starters and rotation before heading east on I-40.

This week, they head south on I-25 to El Paso.

“I think with the work we were able to put in later in the summer it gave us an idea of being on the floor and being able to compete right away,” he predicted. “We’re going to be a very good serving team, a point-scoring serving team. And aggressive. Those things come into play when you get to El Paso – they’ve already put in several weeks and we are just starting.”

The Rams finished second in the “West Texas Tournament of Champions” in El Paso last season, a year after they suffered their first loss of the season to Franklin and legendary coach Flo Valdez.

Manzanares opted out of the “Sweet Sixteen” tournament in Las Cruces, deciding the 48-team “Beach City” tournament in San Diego would provide better competition.

Yeah, he said, there will be some top-notch California teams in his 32-team division there, but “I think it’s a great challenge for my team – there will be some nationally ranked teams there. San Diego is a hotbed for volleyball – I can’t image a bad loss, to tell you the truth.

“We’ll play some teams that have played lots and lots of volleyball, we’ll represent ourselves well, like we did in Colorado,” he said. “Losses will continue to teach us lessons – and those losses will probably toughen this team up more than it will damage it. This team is confident about its abilities, they like to win and they’re great friends on and off the court.”

You can bet he’ll keep the Rams focused and “aggressive, yet not reckless.

“We envision what we want to be like in the middle of November,” he explained. “This has been a consistency, if you will, about this program and what we’re trying to establish. We want to and (the girls need to) commit to doing it.”

There aren’t many well-established traditions at RRHS, other than contending for state championships every year on the wrestling mat and on the volleyball court.

Manzanares is proud of his half.

“We involve our older kids with mentoring the younger kids, and those younger kids looking up and wanting to be the type of kids they are. Any time we can get our older kids to interact at matches, at camps, meet them and get to know them, then get to know them, mentor them and show them how much fun this game can be.”

The game is even more fun when you’re winning championships.

Just ask Misty May Treanor and Kim Walsh, two-time gold medal-winners in the Olympics, or Manzanares’ girls, about to start on the path to a sixth state championship very soon.

Huu Vu will again be Manzanares’ varsity assistant, while Ken Carpenter will again coach the junior varsity and Shawnee del Greco will coach the Rams freshman team at the Mid-High.

Headers: The Rams take a 50-match home court win streak into their first home match, on Sept. 18 vs. Eldorado, this season. Rio Rancho hasn’t lost at home since Sept. 12, 2002, when La Cueva beat them 3-1. Two nights earlier, visiting Eldorado swept the Rams.

… Former Ram hitter Trivia Barress, a 2007 grad, is coaching an eighth-grade team at the Mid-High this fall.

… Manzanares can boast of enough former Rams playing in college now to field a pretty good team: Gayle Tripp and Rhoades at UNM, Koch at Eastern New Mexico University, Jori Morrison at Western New Mexico University, Amber Murphy at Hawaii-Hilo and Tamara Fowler at Adams State.