BEYOND THE BOX SCORE:Slaughter, formerly of CdM, signs with UCLA

Former Corona del Mar High middle blocker Ted Slaughter is going to be a Bruin next season, and it’s all Steve Conti’s fault.

Conti, the boys’ volleyball coach at CdM who just won his fourth CIF Southern Section Division II title, poached Slaughter from the Sea Kings’ basketball team, something he’s wont to do with basketball players.

“Conti saw in me standing in the doorway of the gym and asked me to sign up,” said Slaughter, who will play for UCLA next season. “He’d mentioned it a few times before, and I’d always deny him right away. Basketball things weren’t working out too well for my brother and me, so I said OK.”

That was Slaughter’s sophomore year at CdM. After graduating in 2005, Slaughter played volleyball for Irvine Valley College, and this year, he was recruited by UCLA.

His brother, Scott, plays volleyball for UC Santa Barbara, where he’s a freshman.

Conti worked on converting the 6-foot-8 Slaughter from basketball center to middle blocker, which meant getting Slaughter to up his quickness, agility, and foot speed.

“It’s a hard position to pick up,” Slaughter said. “You play the part of reading the setter, and you have to watch the entire net.”

Middle blockers shift to one side of the net, to help double-team opposing kill attempts. It’s not a gig for a lumbering athlete like Shaquille O’Neal.

“Shaq would be an interesting middle blocker,” Slaughter said, laughing. “From the blocking aspect, it’s difficult. You’re the glue to the blocking team. If you’re not there on the outside, it’s harder for your defense to really play against that.”

Slaughter redshirted his freshman year at Irvine Valley, then helped lead the Lasers to the Pacific Coast Conference state championship, where they defeated Long Beach City, 30-25, 27-30, 32-30, 16-30, 15-13. Slaughter had 13 kills and four blocks in the state title match and led the team with 92 regular-season blocks. He was named to the first team all-tournament team at the state championships.

Slaughter, a budding surf photographer and videographer, will study business economics at UCLA, but he wants to include a few film classes in his schedule. A full-time film major would eclipse too much time. Film classes generally require two hours of lecture, then two hours of film-watching.

“If I went the route of film [as a major], I’d be the first volleyball player in the history of UCLA to do so,” Slaughter said.

— Soraya Nadia McDonald