By Wayne Witkowski
Jason Ulrich has developed his career as a volleyball coach working with female players.
It began when he launched Jackson Memorial High School’s girls volleyball team that had some memorable seasons as a leading contender in the Shore Conference A South Division, and then he started a summer program with Jackson Recreation. He also coached at Warren Sixpak Volleyball Club and stepped down two years ago at Jackson Memorial to become women’s assistant volleyball coach at Georgian Court University.
This season, Ulrich is going in a different direction, as he again launched a new program. But this time, it is with the boys team at Jackson Memorial.
“It’s been a blast. It’s the same game and rules, just a higher net,” Ulrich said.
He also has been a very successful coach building great individual athletes and teams at Carl W. Goetz Middle School in Jackson, but he recently stepped down from that post after his teams won the last four Ocean County Middle School League championships and 40 straight meets.
This latest coaching endeavor hasn’t been easy for Ulrich, who started off with nine tryouts before building the numbers to 20. He had only one player with proven experience in Justin Bieniek with the Warren Sixpack boys club program. Ulrich is doing it without an assistant.
“I’m accomplishing my first priority as a volleyball coach in this town and am helping to grow the game,” Ulrich said. “So the obvious challenges are just teaching all the basics of the game. Most of them don’t know the more intricate rules of the game. None of the players (except Bieniek) have any form or technique, but they are learning and some are picking it up quickly.”
The team played its two scrimmages against Jackson Liberty High School, which is also starting a boys team, and Central Regional High School. The Jaguars open their season April 6 against Colts Neck High School and take on Toms River High School East the following day. The Jaguars play Neptune High School April 11 and Toms River High School South the following day.
“I’m proud of them because they had the guts and bravery to do something that no guys in Jackson Memorial High School history have done,” Ulrich said. “They are making history. It’s so cool. No one else can say that or will be able to say that; that’s why no matter if we lose every match, they are champions. We are going up against teams that have experience for years or decades in some cases. Like I said with the girls program, we are going to have to learn how to lose before we learn how to win, but eventually we will win and keep on winning, and it’s all because of this group of young men who decided that they wanted to be the first.”
Nick Nicosia, a junior, is an outside hitter, and senior Nick Kaminski is a left-handed opposite hitter.
“[Nicosia] is picking the game up pretty well,” Ulrich said. “Kaminski provides some senior leadership and rallies the guys. He had a great, positive attitude, and the guys look up to him. ”
It’s the kind of leadership Ulrich said he needs to develop the program for the future.