Manteca owns four of the first five boys volleyball championships in the Valley Oak League but has not had a player go on to play at the next level.
That will soon change.
On Wednesday, Camden Steckler was celebrated for his signing with University of Jamestown, a National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics school out of North Dakota.
“I hope that other people are able to do it after me,” the 6-foot-4 senior middle blocker said. “I hope this program continues to flourish, and that some of my (younger) teammates from this year continue to pursue volleyball and have the opportunity to play at the next level. They all have that potential.”
Steckler was instrumental in leading the Manteca to back-to-back league titles, the second of which is shared with city rival Sierra. He is the reigning MVP of the VOL. The Buffaloes went 37-16 overall the past two years.
He was statistically one of the top front-row players in the Sac-Joaquin Section this spring, finishing with 308 kills (3.7 per set) and 95 total blocks.
Steckler has come a long way since he started playing for Chris Brunn’s team at Woodward Elementary in the eighth grade. He was one of the tallest kids at the school but admittedly a bit uncoordinated.
Steckler grew up playing various sports, from baseball to basketball and swimming. He wanted to use athletics as a way to help pay for college, it was just a matter of picking the right sport.
After getting a taste of volleyball in the eighth grade, he joined Rage Volleyball and didn’t look back. The shortened COVID seasons in 2020 and 21 limited his experience at the high school level, but that did not diminish his growing love for the game.
“I was kind of intimidated by it, at first, and I realized there was a lot I needed to work on,” Steckler said. “It was pretty rough in the beginning, but for some reason I just trusted the process. It ended up paying off in the end. By my second year, I was playing much better volleyball, and I was jumping higher. My IQ grew, and I learned to love the sport, most importantly, and that goes a long way.”
He joins a Jamestown program that is already an established winner in the first four years of its existence. Second-year coach Travers Cox has led the Jimmies to back-to-back titles in the Great Plains Athletic Conference. This past season, they went 9-1 in the conference and 21-5 overall.
Jamestown is in the same conference as Dordt College, where Steckler’s Rage Volleyball teammate Joel Van Groningen (Ripon Christian) will play.
“They reached out to me when I was already in talks with other colleges,” Steckler said. “The first time I called Travers, I felt a connection. I knew I was talking to someone who is real knowledgeable about volleyball but also cares about you just as much as he does volleyball.”
Steckler hopes to make an immediate impact and wants to help the team capture its first NAIA championship. Jamestown’s women’s volleyball team claimed the NAIA crown in the fall.
“I want to be able to make an impact straightaway,” he said. “I expect to get my butt kicked all offseason by the upperclassmen, but I want that to happen. I want to be challenged.”
Steckler plans to major in business.
