Raiders expect winning season
By: John E. Powers
This past winter was a productive time for members of the three-year-old Hillsborough High School boys’ volleyball team.
The Raiders played against some of the better players in North Jersey at the PowerZone Volleyball and Fitness Center in Denville. HHS head coach Todd Sudol figures the experience will be a great benefit to his club as it strives for a winning season and its first-ever state tournament playoff berth.
The Raiders were scheduled to open the season Monday at Plainfield, play host to Hunterdon Central Wednesday, then at West Windsor-Plainsboro South Thursday.
The Raiders, 9-11 last season and 3-16 the year before, are looking forward to making a name for themselves this year. The team is led by three seniors middle Sean Kelly, outside hitter Mike Argueta, a three-year player, and outside hitter Alex Miska. Kelly and Miska have played two years of volleyball. The three were teammates on the Raider soccer team that won a share of the Somerset County Tournament title last fall.
Sudol said he’s counting on the senior leadership. He compared the volleyball team leaders to his swimming standouts Pat Kuehne and Tim Rauch. Sudol said that he and second-year assistant Rob Longo, also the assistant boys’ soccer coach, know the players very well and appreciate their competitiveness and dislike for losing.
"They want to build upon the tradition that the other teams at the school have built," Sudol said.
Last year, the volleyball team missed qualifying for the state tournament by one game. Another year of playing together have the Raiders believing this will be the year of dramatic progress.
"We have the potential to go after some teams. Our kids have meshed very nicely and I think we have the kind of leaders that will pull us through the tough games and the tough times during the season," Sudol said. "We have great leadership at the top and when you have that it trickles down."
Junior opposite Kyle Downey is back for his third year, junior outside hitter Chris Fedroff, junior middle Joe Caratozzolo, sophomore hitter Jared Himelfarb, junior blocker Alex Ayers and junior outside hitter Andrew Ortega will be relied on to make key contributions. Sudol is carrying nine varsity players.
"By playing in that winter league those guys have really set the bar high for our expectations," Sudol said. "They played against Vernon, Southern and CBA (Christian Brothers Academy), so they really got to play against some talented kids."
The Raiders won all four their pre-season scrimmages against Edison, Manchester, North Brunswick and Roselle Catholic.
"I think one of the big differences for us is the play calling," Sudol said. "We have six or eight plays that we can score off. I have to give Jared Himelfarb credit for learning the signals, calling plays. They have really accepted a style of play. We have certain plays for certain guys.
"They are just a great group of athletes to coach," he added. "The last two years we were training the guys to play. We have the potential and we can do some great things this year."
Sudol said 14 players returned from last year.
"We had 40 kids try out," he said. "We took six freshman and two sophomores. We wanted to keep two or three extra players with the idea of developing them."