South Plantation’s Tania Lam, Calvary’s Sam Skelton are Broward Volleyball Coaches of the Year
It had been more than two decades since the South Plantation girls’ volleyball team won a regional playoff game — let alone advance to the regional finals.
And Fort Lauderdale Calvary Christian Academy had been to the regional finals five times in the school’s history but never advanced farther than that — let alone get to the state championship.
That changed this year.
Tania Lam led South Plantation to the Class 7A regional finals, just the second time the Paladins advanced that far in school history and the first time since 1998, while Sam Skelton guided Calvary Christian to its first ever state championship appearance although their efforts to win the Class 4A state title fell short.
Lam and Skelton are the Miami Herald’s Broward Girls’ Volleyball coaches of the year.
Lam’s South Plantation team finished the season 22-3, its only losses in the regular season coming to Class 4A regional semifinalist Coral Springs Charter and Class 6A regional finalist St. Thomas Aquinas. The Paladins’ season ended with a 3-1 loss to Doral Academy in the regional final.
But before that defeat, South Plantation won the District 13-7A title and took home a pair of regional victories — 3-1 against Davie Western in the quarterfinals and a 3-0 sweep of Miami Southwest in the semifinals.
South Plantation’s most recent regional win before this year? The 2000 season, when the Paladins beat Coral Springs Taravella in the Class 6A regional quarterfinals.
Skelton, meanwhile, guided Calvary Christian to new heights. The Eagles went 26-5 and played for a state title for the first time in school history. Calvary had previously reached the regional finals in 2019, 2016, 2012, 2008 and 2006 only to fall short.
Not this year.
After sweeping Gulliver Prep and Pine Crest in the first two regional matchups, Calvary knocked off Cardinal Gibbons in four sets in the regional final and then won a five-set thriller against Orlando Bishop Moore in the state semifinal to get to the Class 4A title game.
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