Bond on hold
New Canaan’s Kevin Marino, mentor Carol Asplund of Barlow will be all business when teams meet
When Carol Asplund became the head coach of the Joel Barlow girls volleyball program in 2012, she was approached by former Falcon Kevin Marino, who was eager to learn about coaching the sport.
Although Asplund said she wasn’t sure at the time, Marino joined the coaching staff with the JV team before becoming a varsity assistant. It was immediately clear it was a good choice.
“He wanted to be a great coach and he was like a sponge,” Asplund said. “He wanted to learn and he wanted to be really good. He has Barlow blood so it was really important to him.”
Fast forward to 2021. Marino is now in his fifth year as the head coach at New Canaan and is getting set for the annual game against the person he calls a friend and mentor as Joel Barlow visits the Rams at 5:30 p.m., Friday.
“It’s a lot of fun,” said Marino, who is also the head coach of the Barlow boys team. “I think both programs look forward to it every year. Coaching there in the spring, working there full-time, and having a lot of good friends in the athletic department there, it’s a lot of fun for me.
“It’s kind of like a family game. We look forward to it, we have fun and we compete and have a great time.”
The Falcons have won the first three meetings from 2017 to 2019, so the Rams will be looking to break through for the first time on Friday.
The relationship between Marino and Asplund is a tight one.
She taught him the sport during Open Gym days with the Redding Park and Rec Department, and he became involved in both Falcon programs — playing for the boys in the spring and managing Asplund’s girls team in the fall.
The two coaches were together for four SWC girls championships — the Falcons have since made it eight straight with an SWC South Regional title added last year — before Marino moved on to New Canaan.
In the spring, their roles are reversed, as Marino is the head coach and Asplund the assistant on a Barlow boys volleyball team which went unbeaten and claimed a state championship this year.
Marino said he and Asplund talk all the time, although it’s a bit of “radio silence” the week before their match.
“She’s one of my best friends,” Marino said. “We kind of hold off on talking until we play each other and then we’re all about helping each other be the best we can be. To have won the (boys volleyball) state championship with her in the spring was so cool. It was like full circle.”
“He grew into being a co-coach and a friend. We’ve gotten to be really close,” Asplund said. “He always says I’m like his second mom, but I don’t like him to say that because it makes me feel old, but that’s ok.”
Both the New Canaan and Joel Barlow programs are in the beginning stages of a closer to normal season after last year’s abbreviated campaign.
The Falcons opened the season with a 3-1 loss at Weston on Tuesday.
“This is an important game for us,” Asplund said of the New Canaan match. “We’re really in a rebuilding year again. I’m not a coach that thinks if we lose a game, that’s a horrible thing. I believe in teaching the fundamentals early and going up from there. We don’t have a lot of girls playing in the offseason, so there’s a lot of teaching going on.”
New Canaan also opened on Tuesday, taking on another SWC team when it defeated Masuk 3-0.
“We definitely have a lot of talent, but there’s some inexperience, so we’re going to go through our growing pains,” Marino said. “That’s completely ok. I’m just hoping that we’re a team that continues to get better as the season goes along.”
Whatever the outcome, both coaches indicated matches such as this are part of the learning experience for their players.
“Getting a chance to play a storied program and a dominant program, for our group to see what that’s like is awesome,” Marino said. “It’s a great experience.”