SP-F Volleyball Coach Ready to Continue Last Season's Accomplishments

Coach Adrienne Stack calls last year’s Scotch Plains-Fanwood High School girl’s volleyball season a “pivotal" one.

The team beat neighboring rival Westfield and perennial Watchung Conference power Newark East for the first time, made the semifinals of the Union County Tournament and finished with a 12-11 record.

“The record doesn’t reflect how much we accomplished," said Stack, who is assisted by Brock Hor. “The kids were so incredibly excited. The team took the program to new heights."

The team opens the new season at home Sept. 12 against West Essex.

Seven starters graduated and five have returned. But Stack said she is confident the program is strong enough to sustain the graduated loss of fine players.

“The program is on the up and up,’’ said Stack, who is a fifth grade teacher at Park Middle School and in her fifth year as head coach of the team. “I’m proud to see the athleticism coming up. Last year, we had a huge crowd at the Union County semifinals (at Union Catholic). We had a massive group of fans, football players, and soccer players. That camaraderie among classmates I have never seen in the years of coaching. It really boosted the team."

The team lost some outstanding players in setter Jill Coffey, outside hitter Nicole DeSando, libero Kim Shelus and opposite Kristin Betau. What made it even tougher for the coach was that this group of players was the first one she had seen through their high school careers.

“I had them in my first year of coaching,’’ Stack said. “There were a lot of reasons to be sad to have them go. I watched them grow up. We have some really big shoes to fill, but I think we have a strong team with great senior leaders."

Senior middle Kim Wenson, senior outside hitter Becky Brand, senior middle Natalie Deduck, junior setter Rebecca Kreyer and junior outside Aysia Peterson are among the 10 varsity players.

“We had a total of 40 come out,’’ the coach said. “We kept 25 with 10 for the varsity and 15 for the junior varsity."

Scotch Plains-Fanwood will compete in the new Union County Conference, which will be made up of all county schools. The Watchung Conference no longer exists. But rivalries with Union Catholic, Westfield, A.L. Johnson of Clark and Cranford will continue.

“I think it’ll be cool to have everybody in the same conference," Stack said.