May 8, 2007
Stanford Men's Volleyball is excited to announce the addition of three recruits to the Class of 2011 bringing the total number of incoming freshmen to five. Jordan Inafuku, Charley Henrikson, and Garrett Dobbs will join early signees, Spencer McLachlin and Ian Connolly, as John Kosty's first group of recruits as head coach.
Head Coach John Kosty states, "These three athletes complete a very strong recruiting year for us. Stanford Men's Volleyball is in much better shape now that we have Charley, Jordan and Garrett. With our returning players gaining valuable experience and the addition of all of our newcomers, I am very excited about our future."
Inafuku from Honolulu, HI is regarded as the top libero prospect in this year's high school senior class. A longtime member of the USA Volleyball High Performance pipeline, Inafuku has been the starting libero for the 2005 USA Boy's Youth National Team and the 2006 USA Men's Junior National Team. In a memorable battle for a roster spot on the 2006 USA team, Inafuku was able to beat out the 2006 AVCA Collegiate Freshman of the Year to earn the sole libero position and travel to Mexico for the NORCECA Championships. Team USA earned a silver medal in that competition and qualified for the World Championships to be held in Casablanca, Morocco this July.
Inafuku prepped at Kamehameha School and was named the school's 2004 and 2006 Scholar Athlete of the Year. His list of honors is impressive: Four time All-State, Four time All-Interscholastic League of Hawai'i, 2004 State Co-Player of the Year, 2004 Hawai'i State Tournament MVP, 2006 Volleyball Magazine High School All-American. He also is a long-time member of the Outrigger Canoe Club volleyball team and has won two US Junior National Championships. In 2005 he was named a Junior Olympic All-American as well.
His accomplishments are not limited to the volleyball court as he is a two-time letter winner in baseball. He helped Kamehameha to the 2006 Interscholastic League of Honolulu Championship and was named All-ILH as a pitcher.
"Jordan brings to our program the needed experience to make an immediate impact on the practice court and potentially the competition court," says Coach Kosty. "For as much as he brings to the volleyball court, he brings even more to our team chemistry."
Garrett Dobbs, a Dallas, TX native is a 6-4 middle-attacker/outside hitter from The Greenhill School. The top recruit out of the state of Texas, Dobbs has been an All North-Zone and All SPC selection during his sophomore, junior, and senior years. He is also a three-time All-Tournament selection for the Greenhill Invitational and was named the MVP in 2006.
Dobbs has played for two junior club teams in the past four years. With Addison Volleyball Club he was named an All-American at the USA Junior National Championship in the 16 & under club division. Currently, Dobbs plays for Missouri Thunder in St. Louis. Dobbs made a big impression at the USA Volleyball High Performance tryouts this past winter. He qualified for the Boy's National A2 camp, which will be held in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida during the summer.
"Garrett has tremendous athletic gifts that will give him the potential to be a multi-positional player for the Cardinal," says Coach Kosty. "He is the type of athlete that we would continually like to add to the roster. We are delighted that he chose Stanford."
Charley Henrikson, from nearby Lafayette, is a 6-6 middle-blocker. He attended Acalanes High School where he was named 2nd team All-League in 2006. Henrikson plays for the Diablo Valley Volleyball Club, one of the top junior programs in the NorCal Region.
John Kosty says, "We are excited about the addition of Charley to Stanford Men's Volleyball. He brings a size needed to be a solid player in the near future. He helps us in our net play and gives us another good option in the middle."
"We welcome Charley, Garrett and Jordan to our Stanford family. They are truly outstanding student-athletes that will represent us well in both the classroom and on the competition court. With these three joining the fold, it is only a matter of time before Stanford Volleyball returns to the national elite. One of our goals in rebuilding is to have as many of our players be involved with the National Team Program as possible. In our present recruiting class, we have four athletes that are on a USA high performance team. Add them to our returning veterans, two of whom are members of either the Men's Junior team or the USA World University Games team, and you see us fulfilling that objective. Overall, we feel that we have added talent, experience and depth to our squad. As I hope we will see in future years, this group of incoming athletes will have a tremendous impact on Stanford Men's Volleyball."