Boys volleyball/Scouting Cook County

By Bill Esbrook

Daily Herald Correspondent

MID-SUBURBAN EAST

Buffalo Grove

Coach: Matt Aiello

Roster to include: Seniors Sam Wacker (M), Michael Starzec (M/RS), Matt Bloom (S), Scott Swedberg (OH); juniors Michael Maley (L), Evan Bunnetto (OH), Jose Aguirre (M), Ethan Baliely (OH), Pat McGrath (OH), Chris Szewczyk (S), Andy Schnittker (M); sophomore Nikita Bulauski (M/RS); freshman Kevin Shanahan (DS)

Coach’s outlook: “Most assume that we lost too much from last season, but our group this year can do it all. We’re a little more diverse offensively, and our blocking and defense should be better and more consistent. We’ll work hard as usual and maintain our usual goals. The focus is on being prepared for the postseason, and we’ll do that by getting better every day.”

Elk Grove

Coach: Daniel Windholz

Roster to include: Seniors Mike Kawa (OH), Jeff Miceli (S), Aaron Kraus (OH), Anthony Jimenez (MH); juniors Matt McKenna (L), Jake Gatziolis (MH), Jake Braceros (OH)

Coach’s outlook: “We’re looking to build on last year’s season and take the next step as a team and as a program. Strong senior leadership should help us do that — Jeff Miceli is a three-sport varsity athlete, was all-conference in football and volleyball and was a starter on the basketball team. We’ve returned our top two hitters, our setter and libero from last year — Jeff is a three-year starter and Mike and Matt are two-year starters.”

Hersey

Coach: Nancy Lill

Roster to include: Seniors Matt Cayton (S), Wes Crim (MB), Joe Mailloux (RH/OH), Zack Killam (S/DS), Connor Hargett (RH), Eric Szczypta (DS); junior Kevin Schroeder (OH); sophomores Fotis Christacos (DS/L), Mike Freda (OH/L), Mike Fuerst (M); freshman Bart Migus (OH)

Coach’s outlook: “We have a lot of pieces to fill, but the potential is there. It’s great to be able to build on such dependable returning starters such as Matt Cayton and Kevin Schroeder. They’ll both be impact players for us. Although we return only two starters, most of our team had varsity experience last year. We will be young with three sophs and a freshman getting considerable playing time, but our success will be determined by our floor game, the ability to play consistent, and how quickly our younger players develop.”

Prospect

Coach: Mike Riedy

Roster to include: Seniors Pat McIlwee (S/RSH), Kevin Somogyi (MH), JD Fischer (OH), Drew Edstrom (MH), Richard Lenke (DS), James Doughty (L), John Doughty (DS), Kacper Swedura (OH), Kevin Atwood (RSH), Max Triveline (MH); juniors Mark Mir (S), Curtis Glennon (OH); sophomores Matt McPartlin (MH), Grant Andler (RSH).

Coach’s outlook: “We have a number of strong returning players from last year’s team — Pat McIlwee will have a huge impact with his setting and strong right-side hitting, and Mark Mir will share the setting responsibilities while James Doughty returns as our outstanding libero. There are a number of other returning players that will contribute to our success and we’re expecting a lot from our new varsity members. Overall, we hope to be competitive in the MSL”

Rolling Meadows

Coach: Timothy Piatek

Roster to include: Juniors Kevin Murphy (OH), Peter Nickle (L), Brett Frey (S), Tim Ellis (M), Venkat Ganne (M), David Sobkowicz (RS)

Coach’s outlook: “We’re returning three starters from last year — and they were all starting as sophomores. Also, all of the up-and-coming players will be juniors as well, so we will be young. The core group here has had a lot of success since their freshman year, including losing only one match as freshmen. We may be young but we do have a few guys with varsity experience and we should have a balanced attack.”

Wheeling

Coach: Jason Kopkowski

Roster to include: Seniors Kevin Leska (M), Brandon Fox (M), Mike Taylor (S), Brandon Yacu (OH), Eddie Scanlon (OH), Lee Kresner (OH), Sean Chechang (OH/L), Frank Stankowicz (DS/L), Marc Gonzales (S/DS); juniors Zack Nauert (OH), Tim Lee (OH/L), Jacob Del Toro (DS/L)

Coach’s outlook: “This season we’ve set high goals for ourselves. We are returning 10 players from last year, with many of them playing throughout the offseason. So far, we’ve been putting in the time, working hard and staying focused on the tasks at hand. We’re excited and look forward to participating in some new tournaments as well as competing in our conference.”

MID-SUBURBAN WEST

Barrington

Coach: Rob Ridenour

Roster to include: Seniors Austin Czarnecki (L), Tommy Leonard (MH), Jeff Hochstein (OH), Taylor Ganzer (S), Ryan Sarkar (OH), Charlie Kingwill (OH), John Bach (S), Alex Klaas (DS), Bryan Dolan (MH); juniors Peter Van Fossan (MH), Charlie Spry (Opp), Kevin Eiring (OH), Ben Karon (L), Konrad Neptun (S), Matt Garcia (Opp), Anthony Guagliardo (MH)

Coach’s outlook: “We’re excited for the season — but it will be important that we translate that excitement into improvement. We need to take our goals piece by piece and build throughout the season. If we can maintain a competitive work ethic through May, I think we’ll have some success at the end of the year. The biggest strength of our team is overall athleticism and blocking — the keys for us will be effective pressure serving, side out efficiency, and error minimization.”

Conant

Coach: Steven Peter

Roster to include: Seniors Byron Cheung (S), Andy Dewar (MH/RH), Kevin Good (L), Fanmon Mei (OH), Simeon Nittala (DS), Xavier Rodela (MH/RH), Kevin Suffredin (MH); juniors Ryan Curran (S), Brendan Pasbrig (RH/OH); sophomores Bob Wozniak (OH), Jae Pyun (OH), Patryk Openchowski (S/RH), D’Angelo McBride (OH/MH)

Coach’s outlook: “We’ve got great team composition this year. We have a solid mix of senior, junior and sophomore talent that’s coming together to form a very strong team. We hope to compete with aggressive serving, relentless defense, and an above the net game that will surprise our opponents.”

Fremd

Coach: Curt Pinley

Roster to include: Seniors John Vandercar (OH), Alex Costigan (M), John Morrison (OH), Mickey Nguyen (DS), Chris Mursuli (DS), Scott Igielski (DS), John Kowaldzyk (S); juniors David Kim (S), Eric Scott (OH), Aaron Kent (M)

Coach’s outlook: “We’ve got a solid group of returning players from last season and a young group of junior varsity players, so we’re very positive about our program’s future. We’re excited to get the season started so we can improve on last year’s record. We ended strong last season, so hopefully we can start strong at the beginning this year. We will still go through some growing pains but we think we’ll be a much improved team at the beginning of the state series.”

Hoffman Estates

Coach: Dan Hutton

Roster to include: Seniors Curtis Willuweit (OH), Gabe Alvelo (S), Patrick Tenes (DS), Dan Tatara (OH), Sean Habel (OH), Jovi Pablo (OH); juniors Brandon Kwiatkowski (MB), Shaurya Patel (DS), Andrew Baker (MB), Ryan Seoung (S), Gregg Lugo (OH),

Coach’s Outlook: “The team is very excited about the upcoming year. Many of our guys have participated in club teams in the offseason, and the team has great chemistry. We graduated many strong leaders but our upperclassmen have stepped perfectly into those roles. We’ve been working hard and can’t wait to begin our challenging schedule. Our team goals are to be competitive in the MSL and improve on last year’s record.”

Palatine

Coach: Frank Stark

Roster to include: Seniors Kevin O’Shea (M), Eric Gabbard (OH), John Scovic (M), Tommy Laabs (L), Scott Shiro (RS); juniors Danny Matijevic (OH), Brian Keough (M), David Clark (S); sophomore Kyle Obernesser (S).

Coach’s outlook: “We should be competitive — we’re returning quite a few starters. We will have some new guys at the setter position who will need time to jell with their teammates and get used to the speed of varsity. We have some outstanding athletes and when you combine that with the experience they got last year, we’ll be a tough group to compete with.”

Schaumburg

Coach: Jeffrey O’Brien

Roster to include: Seniors Matt Jarosz (OH), Andrew Stetter (OH), Jason Kellermeyer (OH), DJ Karbowski (MB), Adam Poniatowski (MB), Billy Tomaszewski (Opp), Matt White (S); juniors Adam Kobiela (Opp), Brandon Gisza (MB), Jeremy Musni (S), Dominic Saragaglia (MB), Joe Stehlin (L), Jack Sullivan (L), Ryan Baumhart (L), Eddy Ramos (Opp)

Coach’s outlook: “I expect us to improve off our second-place finish from last year and to be competing for the Mid-Suburban League West title, and also for a regional championship.”

EAST SUBURBAN CATHOLIC

Saint Viator

Coach: Chris Boylan

Roster to include: Seniors Brian Stewart (L), Matt Michalik (Opp), Tom Aichle (MH); juniors Brendan Harrington (S), Austin Ziakas (OH), Ben Wolf (OH); freshman Ryan Schiller (MH).

Coach’s outlook: “We are a much more athletic team this season. We have some veteran players that will help eliminate mistakes on the court, which has hurt us in the past. Our kids are excited to get the season started.”

CENTRAL SUBURBAN NORTH

Maine West

Coach: Randy Tiller

Roster to include: Doug Lee (OH), Andrew Lee (S), Jake Lindley (OH), Dan Gajewski (OH), Dylan Wiest (L), DJ O’Neill (MB), Tomasz Ksiazkiewicz (MB), Glen Beatty (OH), Ken Fester (S), Kurt Fester (DS), Paraj Patel (DS), Will Hepburn (Opp), Ryan Van Wees (Opp).

Coach’s outlook: “We’re blessed with some returning varsity players who really know the system. The team has quickness and respectable height in five of the six positions. They should be able to score well and have demonstrated their passing capabilities early in the practice season. Last year we struggled in conference but we were 15-21 overall, and this year’s team should be strong enough in conference to finish above .500.”

West Suburban Gold

Leyden

Coach: Matt Figiel

Roster to include: Seniors Angel Bolivar (L), Marco Granda (RH), Jefte Roman (M), Daniel Nevarez (OH/M); juniors Kevin Kirkwood (M), Mark Marroquin (DS), Emilio Villarreal (OH), Ulisses Rodriguez (S), Misael Delgado (OH), Emanuel Avila (DS); sophomores Jacob Lazzarotto (RH), Julius Figueroa (S).

Coach’s outlook: “We’re very athletic this year, and we’re very optimistic about how well we can do. Leyden has not won a regional since 2001, but our players definitely feel this is a reachable goal for them. We’re not ruling out winning conference either. This is my first year as head coach and the kids are excited to have a young guy coaching them. There’s a lot of energy and we can’t wait to get the season started.”