St. Joseph (Met.) volleyball looks to keep winning tradition alive
The St. Joseph (Met) High School boys volleyball team has a problem on its hands entering the 2017 season. They have 12 seniors on the team and each of them is willing to lead, making the choice for team captains a really tough decision.
“The beauty of having 12 seniors and three juniors on the team, it’s almost like it’s too top-heavy on the leadership,” St. Joseph coach Miguel Cabrita said. “The other day I had to step out of practice before we got started and they had done their warm-ups already without me even having to tell them to do so.”
Cabrita will decide on who the captains will be the day before the season opener, where the Falcons will host Piscataway in a Greater Middlesex Conference Red Division showdown on April 3.
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While Cabrita will not have to worry about the team’s leadership, he will be focused on how his players embrace their new roles as just one of the 12 players is a returning starter from last year’s team, which finished with a 30-10 record.
Last year, the Falcons clinched its fifth GMC Tournament title in three sets with a 23-25, 25-13, 25-21 victory against East Brunswick. But the Bears would get revenge against their GMC rival in the NJSIAA Central Sectional final with a 25-23, 25-20 win. For the Falcons, it was still a successful season and this year, St. Joseph will try to duplicate last season’s success despite the lack of experience in the starting lineup.
Senior Nick DiMarzio will be the lone returning starter in the middle of the lineup and will try to fill the huge void left by graduated-senior outside-hitter Connor Mahony, who finished last season with 500 kills and 204 digs. Setup man Dave Goncalves will also be missed as he racked up 905 assists last season as a senior.
As the only starter with major experience at the varsity level, Cabrita is hopeful DiMarzio will elevate his game.
“Nick is a very high-energy player,” Cabrita said. “He works a lot in the offseason too. He is one of those athletes who doesn’t stop playing in June, he keeps playing through the summer with camps and club ball. He is very versatile and a strong offensive weapon and we are looking to capitalize on his experience this year.”
While DiMarzio will be the only returning starter, the Falcons will have some returning players who came off the bench and gained some valuable varsity experience last season.
Senior Chris Jones saw time last year as a setter and will try to replace Goncalves this season as the starting setup man. Senior Andrew Esposito is another practice player stepping into the starting role in the middle of the lineup, but Cabrita has been moving him around the line during the preseason matchups to see where he fits best.
The starting lineup for the Falcons might be inexperienced this year, but that doesn’t mean the players will do all they can to keep the winning tradition alive. St. Joseph is a perennial powerhouse in the conference as the team has made every GMC Tournament final since 1999.
Despite the lack of experience, the 2017 Falcons will be motivated to keep the streak alive.
“They know it because we always bring it up,” Cabrita said about reminding his players of the program’s dominance in the GMC Tournament. “These are the goals we are setting up for us and this is where the work begins.”
The consistency behind the Falcons’ success starts at the freshman level when most of the players come in with minimal experience or knowledge of the sport. Through highly competitive practices and high expectations, Cabrita is able to groom his players into committed varsity athletes.
With this year’s lineup made of formerly practice players, the Falcon players will play with an extra chip on their shoulder as they’ve been eyeing-down a starting position since their freshman year.
“When we get them in March we dive right into the skills training,” Cabrita said. “We spend more time earlier on fine tuning our skills.”
One aspect that will not need fine tuning is the leadership.
“We might have too many leaders,” Cabrita joked. “That’s actually a good thing because they know how to motivate each other and when one guy is having a bad day they pick each other up. That’s the stuff that’s hard to coach, it’s just natural and it’s good to have that this year.”