Riley Massey continued the family tradition.
Hanging championship banners in the De Smet Jesuit gym has become a Massey family affair ever since Riley’s older brother, Trent, stepped foot on campus in 2020.
Two years ago, Trent led the Spartans to the Class 3 boys volleyball state championship as a senior. Last year, Riley was a key cog on De Smet’s Class 5 boys basketball state championship squad, and this year he capped off his stellar high school career by leading the Spartans to the boys volleyball state championship.
But those titles didn’t happen in a vacuum. The Massey’s parents were basketball and volleyball coaches at O’Fallon High in Illinois and were high-level athletes themselves.
“They’ve spread a lot of wisdom to me, and I’ve learned a ton from them,” Riley said.
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Massey, a 6-foot-4 outside hitter, put it all together in a spectacular senior season. He averaged 3.42 kills as De Smet compiled a 34-1 record.
Massey’s play and leadership earned him All-Metro boys volleyball player of the year honors. He and Trent, who was boys volleyball player of the year in 2023, are the only two known siblings in any sport to earn the publication’s highest prep sports honor.
Riley, who was also a key part of that 2023 volleyball championship team, learned a lot about leadership from his time with Trent.
“When he was a senior captain, he was always steady and he kept us calm,” Massey said. “And I kind of took that from him. Having all that time with him, he taught me a ton.”
Riley Massey saved his best for last, blasting 34 kills with just five errors in the state semifinal and title match combined.
He put down a career high 20 kills, including the match winner, in the championship against St. Louis U. High.
“What’s remarkable to me isn’t the number of kills, it’s how few errors, and that’s him just being smart, picking and choosing his shots,” De Smet coach Tim Haffner said. “The state championship point, I mean you could tell by the way he jumped, he’s swinging away at that ball. He knows the situation where I can swing away. He knows the situation where I need to be smart, put this ball in play and give ourselves a second chance.”
Massey showed his knack of playing his best when the pressure was at its highest during De Smet’s run to the volleyball championship in 2023. Riley, a sophomore, matched Trent swing for swing as they each put down a team-high 10 kills in the championship match.
Riley Massey led the basketball team in scoring during its championship campaign in 2024, and he was one of the leaders for a Spartans basketball team that has lost just nine games over the last two seasons.
“I’d say the main thing, obviously, was just realizing that it’s just a game at the end of the day, and putting my trust in my teammates, and also just realizing, like, man, I put in a lot of work, and I just want to trust that work,” Massey said. “And just, if I trust that work, I know good things will happen.”
Massey’s knack for coming in clutch comes from a combination of genetics and upbringing.
With two parents who are coaches and an athletic older brother, Riley literally grew up competing. Playing two years up with Trent on his club team when he was a sophomore also helped.
“I was 16, playing against 18-year-old guys in open (division), and it was tough,” Massey said. “But I had to raise my level and that definitely helped me a lot.”
Massey has also shown his versatility for De Smet. As a freshman and sophomore he was a setter and a right-side hitter in a 6-2 offense and didn’t play back row. The addition of setter Ryker Whittle allowed Massey to move to outside hitter the last two seasons, where he has also thrived as a six-rotation player.
He played every position for the Spartans except middle hitter, and Haffner believes he could have done that too if the team needed it.
“He is just a freak athlete that he could be a wide receiver on a football team, and he could be great at it,” Haffner said. “He could be midfielder on the soccer field, running the show, and he would have that vision on the field and be able to distribute the ball and all those things. And so, I’m lucky that volleyball was one of his sports, but he really he could have picked and chose whatever sports he wanted to excel at, and that’s what he would have excelled at.”
Massey said he and the returning seniors knew they had something special this season after losing to Lafayette, the eventual state champion, in the playoffs last season.
“We were hurt, we were a little bummed, but we knew we had a lot of great pieces coming back,” Massey said. “We had a very talented group, a very tight knit group, that we knew if we did what we needed to do and went in and worked every day, our end goal would eventually be accomplished.”
Massey also excelled in the classroom. He was named one of De Smet’s 12 Men of the Year, an award given to seniors who distinguished themselves as representatives of the school.
“I mean, it definitely means a lot, because not every student can get that,” Massey said. “I just wanted to do everything to the best I could, not just sports, but school, like taking part in different clubs, different events. I just wanted to be the best I could and just put myself out there to everybody and in making good relationships.”
True to form, Massey isn’t taking time off this summer. Less than two weeks after graduating and securing the state volleyball championship, he was off to North Dakota State, where he will attend on a basketball scholarship.
Massey, who plans on majoring in finance, is taking a summer class and is working out with the team so he can hit the ground running. He is happy to end his volleyball career on a high note.
“I love to win, and I love both of the sports, it was definitely hard to pick one for college,” Massey said. “The pressure was kind of similar for most, but I would say volleyball, I wouldn’t say it was a little less pressure, but just knowing this is going to be my last season playing volleyball, and I was like, ‘You know what? I’m just going to go out there and give it my all.’ That’s just kind of where I got my energy from this whole season.”
Read about the St. Louis area’s top high school boys volleyball athletes and their accomplishments from the 2025 season.
