To begin the season outside of tournament play, the boys defeated Nazareth Academy at home in two sets.
The boys volleyball team is focused on growth. In his third year as head coach, Bobby Richardson is embracing the return to normalcy that comes with having a full schedule again for the first time since 2019.
“We got cut short in 2020 only a couple weeks into the season and had only conference games in 2021, but this year we have our full schedule back,” Richardson said.
The return of a normal schedule has not changed the Wildcat’s hopes for the season as they expect to compete in the conference and win some games in the playoffs.
“We want to win regionals and have a deep state push,” senior Ethan Lopykinski said.
“We want to have the best record we can while enjoying our season to the fullest,” senior Donovan Sebok said.
Senior committed to play at Quincy University, Logan Gieseke points out some of the challenges that the team will face as they try to accomplish the goals they have set.
“The lack of experience on the team is something that we will have to overcome,” Gieseke said. “We have a lot of new players to the game and others who are new to the varsity level”.
Junior James Kulekowskis, one of the players on the team who is new to the varsity level, is excited for what being a varsity athlete means.
“I am excited to play at the varsity level because the energy in varsity games is higher,” Kulekowskis said.
To help some of the new kids to volleyball, coach Richardson has an idea of how he plans to help these kids develop
“We have to establish working with each other instead of against each other,” Richardson said. “We also have to spend time working on issues instead of addressing the issue.”
The wildcats are well aware of what they will have
“We will have to compete against some of the better teams in the conference,” Lopykinski said.
“Plainfield North is always a tough team to play against because they have some very good players who play year-round,” Richardson said.
Richardson enjoys coaching the team and is thankful to do it because of his history at Plainfield Central.
“I played for the school and my senior year is the only year we’ve won conference, so it’s special to me,” Richardson said. “It’s nice to give back to the program I used to play for.”