Broncos take on volleyball
Burrillville High starts boys volleyball team
BURRILLVILLE — Less than a month after playing in front of a packed Smithfield Municipal Rink for the right to face state champion Bishop Hendricken in the Division I hockey semifinals, Burrillville junior Alex Carlow, along with eight other Broncos, was in an empty Broncodome being spoon fed instructions on the simplest skills.
Everything Carlow does on the ice has become second nature for a forward who played a big part in wins over Hendricken and Smithfield this season.
Learning what to do on a volleyball court? That’s going to take some time.
“It’s been fun – it’s also a lot hotter than the ice,” Carlow said Thursday after the team’s fourth practice of the season. “It’s certainly a different chemistry. It’s more about learning, as opposed to hockey where you know what you’re doing already. It’s fun because I don’t really get to learn as many new things in hockey as I’m doing here.”
Volleyball isn’t a foreign sport to the kids of Burrillville High, after all the Bronco girls won the Class B title in 1990 and this past fall, thanks to the play of Karlee Cournoyer and Alyssa Simpson, the Broncos shared the Division II-B title and went on to play Lincoln in the Division II semifinals.
Boys volleyball, however, has never existed at the school. At the end of the last three girls volleyball seasons, coaches Heather Farrell and Jen Carlson were asked by athletic director John Abbate for a wish list. And for three straight seasons the first item on that wish list was starting a boys volleyball program.
Finally, thanks to the support of superintendent Dr. Michael Solitto, who was a volleyball coach before becoming a school administrator, Farrell and Carlson got their wish. Unlike the fall where Carlson assists Farrell, Carlson is in charge of the boys program. Needless to say, the opening week of practice has been illuminating.
“The nicest thing we’ve seen with the boys is they want to get better so bad because they realize they’re the pioneers for this team,” Carlson said. “They’re working very hard and they’re calling each other out if they don’t do it right. They’re helping each other as well as pushing each other. There are a few boys who are just happy to be on a team because they’ve never played on an Interscholastic League team before.”
Burrillville is the latest in a line of schools to add a boys volleyball team. Woonsocket and Johnston added teams last season, while Times2 STEM Academy is also adding a team this season. There are now enough schools playing the sport that the Interscholastic League added a Division III this season.
The Broncos are joined in the division by Times2, Mt. Pleasant, Lincoln, St. Raphael, Johnston, Shea, Scituate and Mt. Hope.
The Broncos, who will participate in an Injury Fund round robin Wednesday, will play its first match Monday, April 1 at 6:30 against the Navigators in the Broncodome. By that time, Carlson and Farrell will have a rotation set. Right now, the only position Carlson was ready to talk about was setter.
Carlson said she plans to run a 4-2, which means the setter will always been in the front row. Carlow and senior Jacob Choquette, have been tabbed with running the offense.
“It’s been pretty difficult,” Carlow said about learning to set. “It’s challenging out there because you want to put the ball in the right spot and you don’t want to disappoint your hitters and give them a bad set. I joined the team because a couple of my friends said ‘Hey, there’s a volleyball team this year. Want to try?’ I said ‘I’ll give it a shot.’”
Carlow is one of a few Broncos who have valuable varsity experience. Shea Foisy, who is a kicker on the football team and talented soccer player Paul Melo are also learning the sport. The rest of the team features Jacob Choquette, Joe Choquette, Shawn Deroy, Lorenca Cura, Jacob Keens, Cam Ducharme and Kian Cora.
“I’ve been teaching new kids to play for years because I’ve always coached JV girls who have never played a functional volleyball game,” Carlson said. “It’s just starting from the basics, like coaching t-ball. You start with the simplest skills from passing, to moving your feet, to how to stretch properly, to serving. It’s a process.
“Sometimes you have to laugh because it looks like little kids playing t-ball for the first time. What’s surprised me, though, is how much they’ve improved in four days.”
The big challenge for Carlson and Farrell is to show the younger kids in the school that the sport is fun because the season’s squad is made up exclusively of ju- niors and seniors.
And because the team is in a division with squads who either have new programs or are relatively new to the sport, Carlson believes the Broncos can be successful in their first season.
“I want to have a .500 record,” Carlson said. “If they believe in themselves that they can do it, they will do it. There are a few other schools that have brand-new programs. We just need to do all the basics to do well – passing, setting and hitting. The court looks really big until you get six people out there. They just need to keep pushing and keep working together.”
“It’s challenging out there because you want to put the ball in the right spot and you don’t want to disappoint your hitters and give them a bad set.” — Burrillville junior setter Alex Carlow