Senior a force at the net for Chelmsford High boys volleyball team

CHELMSFORD – Edgar Valdez has been the Chelmsford High boys volleyball coach since 2018.

Over his eight years he’s been blessed to coach loads of outstanding players, but he’s never had a star go on to play at the collegiate level.

Until now.

And senior Liam Quinn is not only going to continue to play after high school, he has earned a partial scholarship at Division 1 Merrimack College.

On top of that, the 6-foot-3 left-handed outside/middle hitter didn’t start playing until his freshman year.

“I only tried out because I wanted to do a spring sport,” he said. “I just liked it so much that I decided that I wanted to focus solely on that sport. I tried (indoor) track my sophomore year but didn’t like it as much as I like volleyball.  I used to play football and basketball, but I just liked volleyball too much.”

Quinn is making the leap to the collegiate level because he’s the best player in program history. He has broken the all-time marks in kills and aces in a career and is closing in on 1,000 total points between aces, kills and blocks.

“He’s just a force at the net with blocking and hitting,” said Valdez. “He’s got an incredible serve. He goes back there and sometimes he goes on some runs which really help us. The thing I like most about him is he is a competitor and just likes to play. He loves to play, but loves to win and hates to lose.”

Quinn has been a huge factor in the Lions’ 15-3 record and No. 11 state ranking. And that comes after starting the season banged up.

“He fractured his foot (playing volleyball in the summer) before our season started and didn’t get a chance to practice or play with us until a few days before our first game,” said Valdez. “He’s come back, looked pretty good and has gotten better as the season has gone by.”

On the season, Quinn has 335 kills, 118 digs, 49 blocks and 64 aces.

Last year, as a Sun All-Star, he finished in the state’s top 10 in kills with 306, while he added 94 digs, 35 aces and 28 blocks. His top performance came against Lowell, one of the state’s top programs. In the Lions’ first win over the Red Raiders since 2021, Quinn finished with 26 kills, 10 blocks and ten digs.

He said learning the game, and learning how to hit the ball properly and with force, was easy.

“I had played baseball and football growing up, so I just had to copy that same arm motion from baseball,” he said, noting that his father Chuck played football at WPI, his mother Carolyn played tennis at Assumption, and his two younger brothers Dillan and Shane play baseball and lacrosse, respectively.

“I just developed more techniques from there. If you know how to throw a ball overhand, (hitting a) volleyball is easy to pick up. It’s just the timing that’s harder to get (acclimated to),” added Quinn.

Quinn’s excellence goes well beyond the volleyball court. He’s a member of the National Honor Society, plans on majoring in biology with thoughts of either becoming a doctor or doing research, and he’s also a part of the school’s Acca Pella Group, which has made it to the regional semifinals each of the past three years.

“I’ve been singing as long as I can remember. I love music and it was my first passion, even before volleyball,” he said.

He’s hoping to be singing a winning tune when the state tournament begins next week.

“We can go as far as we want to. It’ll take the metal part of the game to bring us down. If we can stay up with the mental part of the game and keep our energy up, we can (advance) as far as we want,” said Quinn.