Junior high boys start on a high note

Coach Karen Gibbs with the junior high boys volleyball team after their first win: (first row from left) Macklin Lang, Charlie Binder, Matthew Dunning and Thomas Mysliborski, (second row) Riley Willumsen, Carter Brigham, Drew Garrison, Matt BeltCappellino, Elias Fokine, Tommy Card and Spencer Gibbs.

It’s a sentence you haven’t read in the Reporter for over 20years: the junior high boys’ volleyball team won.

Not because they’ve been on a decades-long losing streak – lastyear’s winless team was the first the school has fielded in manyyears. But if you saw the boys’ faces after they scored the winningpoint in last Monday’s game against the Red Devils, you would havethought they just broke the curse of the Bambino.

Ten of the 11 boys were on the squad last year, and sufferedthrough loss after loss as an all-rookie team. Now the boys have alittle more experience under their belts, and were able to pull outthe win despite just three weeks of practice leading up to theirfirst game.

“I’m very proud of them, said Coach Karen Gibbs with a smile.Though she was excited to put the team’s first win in the scorebook, her main concern is making sure the boys know the basics:passing, setting and hitting the ball over the net in an organized,effective way. She keeps track of how consistently the teams hitthe ball three times on their own side in each game.

The Indians won three of their five sets but they also hadsignificantly more three-hits than the other team, a total of 19versus the Red Devil’s 5.

Coach Gibbs made three-hits the goal for the junior high girlsvolleyball team, too, a squad she also coached. “I like havingboys. It’s a lot different, they’re more aggressive.

“They compete with the girls, she went on. “The girls this pastseason had 13 in one set, so they want to beat that.

The squad faces a recurring difficulty for Shelter Islandsports: small numbers. No player is allowed to participate in morethan three of each match’s five sets, so the minimum necessary tofield a team is 10 players – Shelter Island has just 11 on thebench, leaving little wiggle room for player absences. Furthermore,the Indians face schools that have had a boys volleyball programfor many years, some of whom field varsity teams.

Despite the challenges, Coach Gibbs is excited about the season.”I just want to keep winning.

Their next game is away, at 4 p.m. at Ross on March 3. They playSprings School at home on March 5, also at 4 p.m.