Fishers junior Jack Powell prepares to hit a serve during the Tigers’ semifinal match with Zionsville last Saturday at the Peru regional. Fishers swept the Eagles, then went on to sweep Homestead in
the championship match to win the regional title and qualify for the inaugural IHSAA state finals. (Julie Brown)

Posted By: Richie Hall
May 25, 2025

Welcome to the IHSA boys water polo State championship featuring Naperville North, who jumps into this game for only the second time in program history when they finished as runner-up in 2007. Now the Huskies strap up and look for that first state championship, but they must take care of New Trier. The Trevians are searching for state title number three after back-to-back first-place finishes in 2022 and 2023. The Huskies defeated Brother Rice in the quarterfinals and Whitney Young in the semifinals. This highlight is sponsored by BMO.

Trevians open a big lead in the first half

The Trevians make the best of the low-scoring first quarter as Caden Carberry shows off the skipper to give New Trier a 2-1 lead after one.

New Trier opens up a can of dominance in the second quarter, starting with Holden Hiebeler popping out of the water and scoring another goal for the Trevians.

Here they come again, and with a new scorer. That contestant is Caden Adrianopoli, who beats the shot clock and gives New Trier a commanding 5-1 lead.

The Huskies bring the ball to their end, and they get a much-needed goal from John Riordan to make it a 5-2 game.

The Trevians keep hitting the gas. Carberry skips it in from a long distance, and New Trier takes a 6-2 lead at the break.

Huskies flip the script in the second half

The Huskies’ second-half game plan is to feed Mason Hofmann. Jacob Podkasik lobs to Hofmann, and he will do the rest from there to pull his team within three.

North gets a stop on defense and brings it the other way. Jack Reif picks up the ball and lobs to Hofmann, who scores out of the blue, and the Huskies trail just 6-4.

The next possession is looks similar, but this time, Jack Reif has the goal, and we have a one-score game heading into the final quarter.

The second-half climb continues for the Huskies because Hofmann scores yet another goal, but it’s a big one, as North ties the game at 6-6 early in the fourth.

The Trevians want to take the lead back, but Huskie goalie Caleb Uson intends to keep the score even. He makes the crucial save, and momentum stays with the blue and orange.

Caden Tsao puts the blue and orange in front

That gives Naperville North a chance to pull ahead with under five minutes remaining. Caden Tsao wins the one-on-one battle to give Naperville North its first lead of the game, 7-6.

Naperville North captures first IHSA boys water polo state title

After North chews a lot of clock and makes big time stops, the Trevians have one last chance with 17 seconds left. Hank Woodman aims for the equalizer but Uson denies access. The Huskies run out the final seconds, shutting out New Trier in the second half, and we have a winner. For the first time in program history, Naperville North captures the boys water polo IHSA state championship after a 7-6 comeback win over New Trier. The Huskies finish the season with a final record of 32-4. A special moment for head coach Kelly Reif and her son Jack.

For more prep sports highlights, visit the Naperville Sports Weekly page.

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — The sounds at Queens University of Charlotte’s Curry Arena were familiar enough, even if the sight was not.

Who in North Carolina can’t immediately hear the sneakers squeaking and the bellows from the stands and not think of basketball? Sure, the players jumped high, celebrated big moments, huddled for timeouts — but there were no hoops in store on this day.

This was boys volleyall, a sport that isn’t yet sanctioned by the N.C. High School Athletic Association but is in its ninth year of holding its own state championships.

It has experienced exponential growth and now boasts 135 teams across the state, public and private, with more lined up to join next year.

For the first time in its nine-year march towards sanctioning, the finals and semifinals were hosted on a college campus — fittingly at Queens, the only Division I athletics program in the state with a boys volleyball program.

There was enough interest in 4A to have its own bracket, where West Forsyth defeated Hough 3-1 (21-25, 25-22, 25-21, 25-18). All 3A, 2A, and 1A schools had their separate bracket, where Triangle Math & Science defeated Mount Pleasant in an epic 3-1 match (25-19, 34-36, 25-13, 25-10).

Previous iterations of the final bracket have split teams up in other ways, but this year’s was streamlined to fit what the NCHSAA does — separating them by size of school.

The changing of the playoff format is intentional, hoping to make it as easy as possible for the NCHSAA to adopt boys volleyball as the newest sport in the near future.

“It just reflected the growth of the game. We saw about a 50 percent split from 1A to 3A and 4A. We modeled that after lacrosse. I think anytime you can mimic something they’re already doing, it makes it easier for them to say yes,” Sarah Conklin, Director of the N.C. Boys Volleyball Association.

A humble beginning

Conklin played volleyball in college, representing the Charlotte 49ers. When her oldest son, Garrett Garcia, was in middle school, he asked if he could play too.

The natural answer was no. There was no boys volleyball team.

“Well, can’t we just start it?” he said.

That was the humble beginning of a nine-year passion project for Conklin, as she went to bat for a sport that didn’t exist. She found cooperation in Union County — at the middle school, high school, and even club levels — and the journey began in 2016-17 with four middle schools: Marvin Ridge, Weddington, Piedmont, and Parkwood.

Growth was slow for the first years — the pandemic stifled any early momentum — but the last four have seen exponential growth.

In 2022, only seven schools participated.

It more than tripled to 25 in 2023.

In 2024, it was up to 68.

This year, it was at 135 — more than 2,000 percent growth in four years.

Conklin has heard from dozens of athletic directors who don’t want to add another sport until it gets official sanctioning. She notes that while some schools have been enthusiastic in embracing the sport, others are far from it. Some teams did not practice or play on campus as a result.

“Our ADs, our wonderful teachers, are spread incredibly thin,” said Conklin, who now coaches her youngest son at Weddington. “I don’t begrudge an AD (for saying) ‘I don’t want one more thing to do in the spring.’ That’s why we try to make it as easy as possible.”

“We’re limiting the opportunity for so many young athletes to not only to get a college scholarship but to just be part of a team and find a place to belong,” she added. “The camraderie that boys volleyball brings is unlike any other because you have to work so closely.”

Falling in love with the game

The game has the same rules as the girls, but there are some noticeable differences.

There are those moments of togetherness after a big point, just like the girls game, but also a few stare-downs and mean-mugs on faces of players after a big point that are more remniscent of a basketball player getting an “and-one.”

The jump serves also stand out. While rare in the high school girls game, most of the Hough and West Forsyth players tossed the ball 20 feet into the air before timing their leap.

North Carolina has had club teams for awhile, and is home to some pretty good talent.

There are currently two North Carolina players on the U.S. National U19 team — Thomas Demps IV of Broughton (whose older sister Jade was N.C. Gatorade Player of the Year) and 6-foot-10 Grant Lamoureux of West Forsyth, who graduated in the fall semester to enroll at national power Pepperdine.

Conklin said that club interest hasn’t sparked high school interest (there isn’t yet a team at Broughton for Demps, for instance) but the reverse. Once players encounter the sport at a high school setting, they then seek out club options.

Not every team has a club player, but they also don’t need one.

Other sports backgrounds have made the transition to the game easier than it appears.

A wrestler might make a great libero, or a goalkeeper a great middle blocker.

But over everything else, a willingness to learn and improve is all that’s needed.

“There’s a lot of courage involved and vulnerability to learn a sport as a high school guy. A lot of guys have only been playing a few years — even if they play club — (so) they still remember what it was like to not be able to pass the ball with your forearm, because you don’t grow up doing that.,” Conklin said. “But they learn so quickly so as a coach it’s so rewarding because you have win after win almost every practice and they learn so quickly.”

Path to sanctioning

Conklin is on the board of directors of First Point Volleyball Foundation, which works to grow the boys’ game in a number of states. When a North Carolina school adopts the sport, she and her team offer to handle scheduling. There are also grants for first-year and second-year teams to help ease the transition.

This year, her team even calculated teams’ RPI to mimic how the NCHSAA seeds its brackets.

Everything is done to make a seamless transition into NCHSAA sanctioning, but it’s not as simple as just gaining popularity.

For a sport to be officially adopted by the NCHSAA, it must meet at least one of two participation thresholds for two consecutive years.

One of the two thresholds is if at least 50 percent of schools within a single classification offers sport. They hit that benchmark this year. Fifty-four of the 103 schools in 4A fielded teams.

One down, one to go.

However, the “50 percent of a classification” rule is getting phased out and, starting next year as the NCHSAA expands from four to eight classifications, the bylaws will have just the one remaining threshold: a sport must be played by at least 25 percent of all NCHSAA member schools to be sanctioned.

But good news: that should be met as well.

With 446 total NCHSAA members, the 25 percent threshold comes out to 111.5 schools. Already, eight schools have told Conklin they plan on having teams next year, which would bring the total to 113 — enough to meet a required standard for a second straight year.

Girls flag football, another sport on the cusp of sanctioning, has hit thresholds in back-to-back years but has other hurdles, like differences on field size and preferred season (spring or fall) among schools.

Volleyball has no such incongruity among its participants, which could make for quicker sanctioning.

Conklin hopes that both sports can make it across the sanctioning finish line.

She knows what volleyball has meant for her sons and her players.

“What I love is I’ve never had a guy step in my gym who doesn’t fall in love with the game,” Conklin said. “You almost have to keep them from playing so much.”

SHREWSBURY — Sign up for Shrewsbury’s volleyball clinic!

From Wednesday, June 4, to Friday, June 6, from 5 to 7 p.m. join Shrewsbury Head Volleyball Coach Brett Crandall and the rest of the volleyball program to improve your game. The clinic will work on passing, hitting, setting, serving, and team-based games.

The gym opens at 4:15 p.m., and the clinic is open to fifth- through eighth-grade girls. Each camper gets a Shrewsbury Volleyball T-shirt as part of their registration. It’s $90 per person, with a discounted rate for siblings: $90 for the first, $80 for each additional sibling.

More information here: 

https://www.shrewsbury-vb.com/clinics/

middle-school-clinic

By: Paul Schofield


Sunday, May 25, 2025 | 11:01 AM

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Latrobe boys volleyball coach Drew Vosefski said he was concerned about playing Penn-Trafford for a third time.

Even though Latrobe had won the previous two section matches, the Wildcats faced a different Penn-Trafford squad in the WPIAL Class 3A quarterfinals May 15 and Vosefski’s worries became reality.

The sixth-seeded Warriors rallied to stun the third-seeded Wildcats, 3-2, by the scores of 21-25, 28-26, 25-18, 18-25 and 16-14.

The Warriors (12-7), who lost twice to the Wildcats (16-2) in section play, faced second-seeded Seneca Valley in the semifinals and gave the Raiders a scare before falling 3-2.

They were scheduled to play fifth-seeded Pine-Richland for third place May 23 for a berth in the PIAA playoffs.

Schall said the Latrobe match swung in the second game when his team started to serve better.

“Once we did that, we put them on their heels,” Schall said. “I am really proud of how we played. It was a tough match, and we put everything we had into it. I guess I did too.

“In Game 1, we did not give them much trouble with our serves. We served better starting in Game 2. We had some guys who really served well. We started putting them in some tough spots.”

Latrobe dominated the first game. Penn-Trafford swung the momentum its way in Game 2 early, but Latrobe battled back and tied the score at 25-all.

The Wildcats actually took a 26-25 lead before the Warriors, behind a kill by Caiden McDonald and Nick Laskey, rallied to tie the match, 1-1.

Schall felt Owen Gisi played well up front in all five games with his blocking ability.

The teams split the next two games, Penn-Trafford winning 25-18 and Latrobe answering 25-18, to set up the thrilling Game 5.

“This is playoff volleyball,” Vosefski said. “We had beaten them twice, but there is an old saying is when you get punched to the face, how much do you punch back? They punched back.

“Beating a team for a third time bothered me, but I am not going to make excuses. They played well.”

In the final game, the winner is the first team to 15, win by two. The game was close and went back and forth.

Penn-Trafford took a 12-10 lead, but the Wildcats tied it 12-12. Penn-Trafford went back up 14-12 as Gisi, McDonald and setter Natheniel Rugh started making plays.

Latrobe senior Luke Fiore tied the score 14-all with a service ace, but the next serve sailed long, setting up the final point, and McDonald finished it with a block.

“That was a tremendous team we beat,” Schall said. “They have an excellent setter and hitter. But we stepped up. I knew we would have to be really good, and I thought we’d be in the ballgame.”

Seneca Valley held off a ferocious effort from Penn-Trafford, picking up a 25-20, 22-25, 25-20, 20-25, 15-3 win to reach the WPIAL title game for the fourth time in the past 10 years.

Schall said he was happy with the Warriors’ effort.

“I’m really proud of the guys,” Schall said. “We were a third-place team in our section. I thought we were pretty good. I’m proud of the guys for the way they fought hard through the match. Unfortunately, we needed to get through that stretch in the fifth set still in the ballgame.”

Penn-Traffird’s biggest challenge was to find a way to handle Seneca Valley’s middle blockers, 6-foot-9 Brandon Suski and 6-5 Jordan Hoover.

Owen Gisi and Nick Laskey hit well for the Warriors.

“We handled their middle guys OK,” Schall said. “(Hoover) had a fantastic fifth game hitting and blocking. We did well enough to take their big guy (Suski) out. They had to put another guy in. We had to serve well.”

Paul Schofield is a TribLive reporter covering high school and college sports and local golf. He joined the Trib in 1995 after spending 15 years at the Daily Courier in Connellsville, where he served as sports editor for 14 years. He can be reached at pschofield@triblive.com.

Tags: Penn-Trafford