Team consists of unique players, skillsets different than previous years

By Christian Guerithault ’14
THE ROUNDUP

With a regular season record of 13-1 as of April 23, the Brophy volleyball team looks to the state playoffs.

“Our practices tend to be as game-like as possible,” said head coach Mr. Tony Oldani. “Usually our practice will start with a warm-up, then we’ll move into some skill specific drill depending on who our opponent is, and probably the last hour of our practice will be some type of modified game.”

This year’s squad is not like that of previous years; Mr. Oldani said the team is evolving.

“We used to be a program that was probably 80 percent students whose primary sport was not volleyball. Our preseason was how do you take the football, soccer and basketball guys who are going to play volleyball, technically up to speed in terms of all the skills that they would need to know?” Mr. Oldani said. “Now our team has evolved to where of the 14 guys, 11 of them play volleyball year round.”

Mr. Oldani said the volleyball team has multiple “most talented” players, as well as a team leader.

“Our three most talented players are Ryne Benson ’15, Adam Lincoln ’13 and Billy Andrew ’14, those are our talent guys, but probably the leader of the team is Scott Mueller ’13,” Mr. Oldani said.

Despite having a 13-1 regular season record, the volleyball team will say they do have their flaws.

“We sometimes lack the communication and intensity that we need when playing other tough teams,” Lincoln said. “We are doing pretty well, though we could have done better in the two tournaments we have attended.”

The volleyball team finished third out of 32 teams in their first tournament, and they finished fifth out of 44 teams in their second tournament.

“The biggest thing is to prepare mentally, you have to know what you’re going up against and be ready to push yourself and your teammates,” Lincoln said. “We are a smart, talented team.  We have a lot of experience and are a physically powerful group.”

When it comes to team chemistry, Lincoln said he knows its importance.

“It keeps people from pointing fingers when things go wrong,” Lincoln said.  “Our team is lucky to have great chemistry, we are a great group of guys and we get along pretty well.”

Mr. Oldani said this year’s volleyball team is an “unbelievably dynamic team.”

“There are not many teams on our campus that I think are as entertaining as our volleyball team,” Mr. Oldani said. “If somebody comes to a game, they are not going to leave disappointed saying, ‘I don’t know why I wasted that hour there,’ we have incredibly gifted athletes, and incredibly personable, respectful young men. If a fan came to the game they would see a group of guys working hard, but also a group of guys that were having a lot of fun interacting with each other.”