Boys Volleyball Captains Act As Assistant Coaches Too

Jeremy Chaitin, Chris Lew, Jason Weinberg and Adam Dabrowski are busy.

The four students at Clarkstown North are not only juggling their senior year of high school and preparing for college with playing volleyball, but they’re also the team’s assistant coaches.

“We have 21 kids on the team, we practice in one gym and I just can’t keep my eyes on each player all the time to see if they’re doing what they’re supposed to be doing properly,” said North boys volleyball coach Kerry Sullivan, a social studies teacher at North. “They’ll pull aside a younger player during practice and go over some things with him, and they do it without me asking them to.”

Technically, they aren’t assistant coaches. They’re the four team co-captains. But to Sullivan, and the rest of the team, the four seniors are on the coaching staff.

“We feel like we need to do it because we’re the captains,” Chaitin said.

Dabrowski said when they were the younger players on the team, the older players did the same thing for them.

“They’ve definitely helped me to be a better player,” said Alosh Alex, a sophomore in his second year with the team. “They’ll tell us where to play on the court, what we’re supposed to do and if we mess up, they’ll take us aside and give us pointers. They’re always nice about it, and never scream at anyone if they do something wrong.”

It’s important to Sullivan to have the extra help. The boys volleyball team is only in its fourth year as a varsity sport.

“I have players coming to me at 16, 17 years old asking me to teach them how to play,” she said. “They might play in gym class once a year, but they don’t really know all the rules and how to play properly.”

Right now, the team, and most of the teams at other schools, have an A team and a B team. The A team plays a best of five-game match, and the B plays right after in a best of three-game match. Sullivan said she is hoping the sport continues to grow around the county so schools can form JV teams to help the learning process.

So as the team’s only coach, Sullivan is grateful for her senior leaders to help teach the younger players how to play a sport they might be unfamiliar with. The captains themselves were pretty unfamiliar with volleyball when they started as well.

“As a freshman, I didn’t even know we had a team,” Chaitin said.

Chaitin, Dabrowski and Lew joined as sophomores out of curiosity and because they were looking for something new to do.

“I didn’t see the light until our junior year,” Weinberg said.

Luckily for them, the four who have been friends since elementary school discovered they really enjoy volleyball. Lew said it’s “very intense.”

“It’s the most fun, energetic sport,” Dabrowski said. “You’re always moving around.”

Weinberg said they played over summers with each other to get some more experience, and they’re happy when they see new people on the team, as they want more people to play volleyball and join the school teams.

“We’re all friends on the team,” he said. “We get along really quickly with the new players.”

Sullivan said each of the four boys brings something different to the team, on and off the court. Chaitin is the team’s setter, and “really dictates the offense,” Sullivan said. “I don’t have to tell him what to do ever.”

Lew has grown the most as a player, Sullivan said, adding he plays on the outside to the middle. He excels with his strength and positioning, Sullivan said.

“Physically, he leads,” she said.

He’s also the quietest of the four.

“I didn’t know he talked until last year,” Sullivan said.

Weinberg is the team’s libero, its defensive specialist.

“His eyes are on the entire court,” Sullivan said. “He’s taken on a lot of the passing responsibilities.”

Dabrowski is more a utility player, having played every position during his time with the team.

“He’s respectful. He will run through a wall if I ask him to,” Sullivan said.

As the sport grows, Sullivan said it’s important to have players like her four senior captains who can lead on the court and instruct off it. And even after they’re gone, the four seniors hope the team and sport itself continues its upward swing.

“Everyone should play,” Chaitin said. “We need more teams. If anyone is thinking about going out for volleyball, I’ll tell them to go for it. It’s a lot of fun.”