Concordia 2010-2011 Woman’s Volleyball "The Future is Now"
Just one year ago the Concordia Volleyball team suffered its worst season ever. “We couldn’t finish the year due to injury and a lack of numbers. I guarantee that won’t happen this season.” And to speak to Coach Patrick Dietz, coming into his second year as head coach of the Clippers, you would think that the team assembling this year can and could quite possibly win the Central Atlantic Collegiate Conference (CACC) Woman’s Volleyball Championship this fall. “I’m not saying we will win it, but we’re out right better than we were last season.”
Coach Dietz has every reason to be optimistic. The 2010-2011 version of the Clipper Volleyball team will have 13 athletes available to participate. All seven members of last season’s team return for competition this season. Lead by Amanda Byrd (Sr. Clarkston, MI) and Amanda Margedant (Jr. La Habra Heights, CA) these ladies of Concordia look to set the table for all the other sports to come during the year. Amanda Byrd is also one of the colleges many athletes who is in the Fellows Scholar Program. She has been a shining example of a balance in both athletics and education. “I’m excited. I can’t wait for the season to start. We have a pretty good team,” Byrd stated to her coach during one of the team’s early practice sessions.
Joining the two Amandas from the 2009-2010 campaign are Dana St. Cyr (Jr. Cornwall, NY), Alicia Oberle (Jr. Savannah, GA), Courtney Hanson (So. Bellerose, NY), Olivia Thompson (So. Peoria, AZ), and Chelsea Zurcher (So. Crofton, MD). “These young ladies are our foundation. They came back because they saw something in themselves from last season that said, “’Hey, we’re better than our record’ and now they want to prove it,” Dietz gushes.
In addition to the seven returning from ’09, Coach Dietz adds six to the mix for 2010. Five are solid freshman and one is a returning player from the 2008-2009 season. The freshmen are Alexis Balyeat (Fr. Elkhart, IN), Brittany Chappas (Fr. Islip, NY), Hillary Hoffman (Fr. East Meadow, NY), Irina Impellittiere (Fr. Cold Springs, NY) and Alicia Vogel (Fr. Costa Mesa, CA). Each young lady coming in this season adds something new to the team that either wasn’t present during the 2009 campaign or needed to be fortified. The young lady returning to Concordia College is Juliann Gillespie (Jr. Clarkston, MI). Gillespie was an integral part of the 2008 team that also consisted of Margedant, Oberle and St. Cyr. “Having Juli back will definitely help strengthen our attacking ability. She is an athletic hitter who can play multiple positions and bring an additional spark to the team,” said Dietz.
The team last season went through its shares of ups and downs. In the early part of the season they struggled to get a foot hold of what their identity would be. About half way through the schedule Coach Dietz made a line up change on suggestion from one of his players. Once the change occurred the team played with much more consistency and their morale grew on and off the court, even though the victories didn’t come.
Near the end of the season a key player came down with an injury that kept her off the court for the rest of the season. Even with one off the court, the Lady Clippers continued to fight and were successful as they were able to win their only match of the season against Felician College on the Clippers home court. Soon after that victory other players unfortunately came down with other illnesses and injuries and the season came to an end before they could finish the year out.
“We tried to find ways to finish the season out. It just wasn’t meant to be, unfortunately,” recounted Coach Dietz. However at the end of it each young lady went to coach and stated they were most definitely coming back for the 2010-2011 school year.
Enter the 2010-2011 preseason. The team is larger and holes in the roster have been filled. Coach Patrick Dietz sees a team on the verge of a break through. “This is the season we truly begin to make our mark on the volleyball landscape in the northeast. With so many good teams we need to start putting the best product on the court we can muster. The future is now,” stated Dietz adamantly. This point was reaffirmed by first year Assistant Coach, Kevin Cardoza. “We’re a good squad, young, but good! I’m really excited about getting these girls ready and having a really, really good season.” Cardoza comes to Concordia with a solid coaching resume. He has been a CYO youth volleyball coach, aided in coaching middle school and junior varsity volleyball in his Long Island community in Hicksville, NY. Coach Cardoza was a former recruited player of Coach Dietz’s when he was a high school volleyball player. “My goal is to just be another set of hands in helping these girls improve throughout the year,” states Cardoza.
"Last year we were the best seven person, not having a setter, trying to grow into our own, haven’t won a match yet team, than no one in the CACC wanted to play. No one wanted to be the first to lose to us, but they also didn’t have a choice but to play us, and they didn’t want to play us.” Dietz continues, “Our whole season was one of trying to make things happen with fairly little in the tank. We had injuries and illnesses. We couldn’t even finish the season, but we wanted to and if you were a team in our league and saw that kind of heart, you wouldn’t want to play us either.”
When asked if he thought the teams in the CACC were not prepared for the Clippers this season Coach Dietz said this, “Oh, their ready. There isn’t a team in our league, not ready! The question will be are we ready for the bull’s eye that will be put on our backs after we shock some teams? We have two capable setters this year, and that alone changes the make up of our team.” Those two setters are Hillary Hoffman and Alicia Vogel. By having two setters Coach Dietz has secured the ability to move Amanda Margedant back to her natural hitting position on the roster. “Toss into the mix Brittany Chappas, who can set, play solid defense in the back row and can serve “lights out.” Now, we have an eight headed monster that needs to be tamed. We can put any combination in the middle between Alicia [Oberle], Chelsea and/or Olivia. We could have a four or five pronged attack even from the back row. We are not just a one dimensional team anymore”
Not only does Concordia have those players, Dietz added Irina Impellittiere, one of Hudson County’s [Haldane High School] and former Downstate Athletic Club’s most steady players, to the roster. Plus the services of Lexii Balyeat, another spark plug to the motor of what Dietz calls an “untested, turbo charged engine.” “Lexii is just pure energy and speed! I doubt there is a ball she can’t get to. Plus Irina is a pure volleyball player. Her volleyball IQ is one of the highest on the team and that includes me,” Dietz says with a smile. These young ladies will most likely back up the very steady and always improving Courtney Hanson on the outside. “We’re not a seven person team this year. We have depth and competition in practice. That fact alone, in my opinion, has made us better before we walk in the gym.”
The Concordia College Clipper Volleyball team is lead by passionate coaches with a strong foundation of players. Each young lady is gifted in and out of the classroom; off and on the court. They hope to be able to prove it every night and start a new “future” for Concordia volleyball.
The Clippers open their 2010-2011 season on Thursday, September 9th at Molloy College and open their home campaign with a two day home stand. The first match is scheduled for September 17th at 6pm against conference divisional foe Bloomfield College; that will be followed up with contest versus a CACC south power house Philadelphia University at 1pm on Saturday September 18th. Both matches will be held at the Meyers Athletics Center (MAC) on the eastside of Concordia campus.
