Huntington Boys’ Volleyball Turns the Corner
Athletes from Huntington and Harborfields high schools joined forces this fall to form one combined boys’ volleyball team and the union paid off handsomely with a 9-8 record and a Suffolk playoff appearance.
Huntington players Luke Forster, Greg Myers, Mike DeMarzi and Will Cohn all earned post-season honors. The squad was coached by Danny Contopoulos, who works as a science teacher at Harborfields during the day and who took over the Huntington program last year. The 2006 team struggled to a 1-15 final mark making this year’s turnaround remarkable.
Huntington’s boys’ volleyball has long battled to attract players to the program, so school officials decided that a joint effort with neighboring Harborfields would help put the Blue Devils on a firmer footing and increase the chance of success, thereby creating more interest in the sport.
“It was an excellent, hardworking team,” Contopoulos said. It was rather inexperienced, too. Contopoulos said that if the team had another hitter or two “we would have gone deeper into the playoffs.” Yet, even qualifying for the playoffs just a year after posting only one victory stunned many in the volleyball community.
Suffolk All-Division post-season honors went to Forster. Myers and DeMarzi were named Honorable Mention All-Division.
A team transition is on the horizon as Forster, Cohn and DeMarzi will be graduating next June. “Three players will return with varsity experience and a few prospects are coming up from the JV,” Contopoulos said. “I need a setter. The league competition is high. New year will be a rebuilding year.”
Blue Devil Notes: Cohn’s was Huntington’s captain representative for the joint team . . . Forster and Cohn were named to the Suffolk All-Academic team . . . Contopoulos said Forster was “most improved”. . . Myers led the team in digs . . . Forster was second on the team in kills (80) and blocks (23.5) in league meets . . . Junior Stephen Mock, Jr. had 35 kills, 10 assists, seven blocks, 17 digs and a pair of aces . . . In addition to Mock, Myers and Adam Fagnani will return for the Huntington varsity next season.
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