With winter sports coming to an end, spring sports have been patiently waiting for their turns to dive into the upcoming season.
Boys’ volleyball is one of the most popular sports among the spring season. All over the country, winter has run its course for club guys volleyball, leading into the highly-anticipated high school season.
Mr. Biri, head coach of the boys volleyball program, is very excited to begin the high school season. “We have a lot of kids returning from last year; most of them have been playing together for two years now. There’s really good chemistry between them.”
Michael Krepula and Raihaan Rizwan, two juniors here at Colonia, are also very excited for the upcoming high school season. Michael and Raihaan both participated in playing the club league this past fall/winter, traveling across the country to play some of the best competition in the United States. But high school season holds a special part of their heart in contrast to club volleyball.
“I am ecstatic to start my third year of playing varsity as a captain,” Krepula said. Michael, who was involved with a Student Exchange program during last summer, had the opportunity to travel to Japan. There, he practiced volleyball for much of his time, with a Japanese team during his school season. “Playing volleyball there taught me many new things that I want to implement this year as captain. We have a good shot of going really far”, Krepula commented.
Last year CHS’s boys’ team had quite a year. With a 15-8 overall season, and a 13-6 league season, the Patriots battled against many competitive teams throughout New Jersey. 2018 held an intense schedule for the boys, playing strong well-known state teams such as Hunterdon Central and Saint Joe’s. “We played many intense games, but it bettered us to learn from our mistakes,” Rizwan commented.
Coach Biri has formed a highly-competitive season this year, scheduling to play some of the best teams in New Jersey. Why? “We set a number of goals for ourselves every season. We want to be better than the previous year, and playing good competition helps us to learn and develop. As well as playing teams from our division, we will playing teams from the red [higher] division, such as state-ranked teams like Old Bridge.”
Rizwan believes having a more intense schedule will benefit the team when playing into their division/state. “One of our main goals would be to win our division, as we did last year. We are playing cross-town rivals such as Woodbridge and John F. Kennedy Memorial High School, so the season should be fun,” he said.
Losing many talented seniors from the 2018 class, the underclassmen have to step it up and take control. There are many juniors that have taken a stand in leading the team, as well as the senior class, who are ecstatic for their senior year.
“Losing a solid senior like Kyle Kirejevas, definitely will hurt the team. But it’s all about how we overcome this loss, and find another libero to fill in his spot,” Rizwan stated. Luckily, there are many players throughout the varsity and junior varsity teams that are versatile, and can step in to help with certain positions.
With tryouts starting last Friday, these boys need to prepare for playing some of the best competition in the state of New Jersey, from state-winning teams such as Old Bridge, to redemption with highly-ranked teams such as Bridge-Water Raritan. Colonia has quite a competitive year upcoming; losing many talented seniors, and playing many more matches, the boys have to prepare for a long season. But they are ready to take on the challenge, and excited for the year to come.
