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Cypress' Alex Griffiths, center, is the Register's boys volleyball coach of the year. She led the Centurions to the CIF-SS Division 3 championship on May 20, 2017. (Photo by Mark Dustin for the Daily Breeze/SCNG)

By Damian Calhoun | dcalhoun@scng.com | Daily Breeze

UPDATED: June 21, 2017 at 11:34 p.m.

When Alex Griffiths arrived at Cypress, she knew there was some work to be done with the school’s boys volleyball team.

The Centurions finished next-to-last in the Empire League the year before she arrived.

The road to the top wasn’t easy.

“They were terrified,” Griffiths said. “I think they were nervous because they saw how I was with the girls program. Volleyball is competitive and sometimes we would have practices that were three hours long, and I think the boys were a little bit nervous.

“We had talent, they just needed some guidance, and fortunately we were able to walk in and turn things around.”

Cypress coach Alex Griffiths directs her players during the CIF-SS Division 3 boys volleyball final against Bishop Montgomery on Saturday, May 20, 2017. (Photo by Mark Dustin for the Daily Breeze/SCNG)

Last spring, the Centurions took a big jump by advancing to the CIF-SS Division 3 semifinals.

“We had talent, but talent can only get you so far,” senior setter Chris Cons said. “A lot of it was her pushing us to do our best.”

In Year No. 2 under Griffiths, Cypress took another giant step, this time winning a CIF-SS title for the first time in the school’s history.

For that, Griffiths is the Register’s boys volleyball coach of the year.

Griffiths has a championship past, having won a CIF State Division I title with Los Alamitos in 2006. From there she played at Vanguard University and Hawaii and eventually turned to coaching.

She credits a pair of her former club coaches Maria Fattal and Joy McKenzie leading her on this path in the sport.

“They were a huge influence on me,” Griffiths said. “I was blessed with very passionate coaches and playing for them changed my perspective.”

With a large senior class returning for Cypress, there were some lofty expectations facing this year’s team.

Alex Griffiths, Cypress, accepts her award for Boys Volleyball Coach of the Year at the Register’s Athletes of the Year Banquet. (Photo by Matt Masin, Orange County Register, SCNG)

“It was rough in the beginning,” Cons said. “Around the time we played St. John Bosco and Long Beach Poly and beat them, we knew we could win our division by how we played against those teams. I think we all expected to make at least the semifinals because we still had that core together that had been together for a long time.”

The Centurions swept through the Empire League and lost just two sets on the path to winning the CIF title.

“This was definitely a memory we will never forget,” Griffiths said. “It will always be a positive memory in the boys’ life.”