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Light Drizzle Fog/Mist Back-to-back big winners
Spartans volleyball coach reflects on conference title
Fresh off of taking home last year’s A/C3 division conference title, Valley Stream North High School girls’ volleyball coach, Mary Parisi, was already eyeing another championship run this year.
She changed the name of her team’s group chat to “20-Back-to-Back-22,” setting the expectation of back-to-back championships from the get-go. The Spartans’ coach knew there was no time for the team to rest on its laurels with a goal to extend its reign for another season.
The 2022 squad isn’t the same team that won the crown the year before.
“We graduated some key players who were in some key positions — like we lost two setters and our libero, which are like our quarterback and our running back and our shortstop,” Parisi said. “We had a team meeting in May to assess our current strong points and what we needed to work on.”
By the time the previous school year came to a close, Parisi wasted no time in rebuilding her team. She hosted open gym sports clinics over the summer to recruit fresh talent and pick the more well-suited players. By the start of the season, she had methodically overhauled her roster and filled in the key player gaps.
It’s one thing to assemble a team, it is quite another getting them to play well together, noted Parisi.
“Last year, we kind of started out at a higher level of skill, whereas this year, we really had to practice getting to that level and build upon what he had,” she said.
Getting the veteran players “to mesh and click well with” the new recruits took time and effort, but no matter their position or level of experience, each girl had their eyes trained on winning.
“They always want to compete and win, my girls,” Parisi said. “No one who’s on the court doesn’t want to win. Everyone worked hard to just play to their maximum ability.”
Whether the girls would gel, was decided on the court, in their first game together. The team had been accustomed to starting off their season strong with a season-opening win. This year, they faced rival Bethpage, a team they had no problem defeating in previous seasons.
That changed Sept. 8 in a five-set loss. The Spartans’ coach made a point not to show any nerves.
“That was a memorable moment,” Parisi said. “I told the girls there was still a lot of volleyball left in the season and to keep working on it. We just knew we really had to get in sync.”
In fact, it seemed the loss didn’t curb the team’s ambitions. Instead, it snapped them back with sharper purpose and focus. By the time the second game rolled around, they won. And then the next one. And the next.
“We went on a 13-game winning streak,” said Parisi. “It was a tremendous rebound. And each game we just kept getting better and better till we kind of found our rhythm.”
It wasn’t a simple path to the top, noted Parisi. There were a lot of close games with edge-of-your-seat developments and high-pressure toss-ups. That, explained the Spartans coach, is the nature of volleyball.
“It’s a mental game, a fast game, and the score can flip and the momentum can change between teams almost instantaneously,” Parisi said. “You make a mistake, and the other team gets to serve and that’s two points right there,” she said.
The team shaped themselves around drills and simulated plays of high-pressure situations to toughen their mental resolve. Parisi’s serene, reassuring presence and energetic style of coaching instill a sense of determination and steely grit creating a balanced and effective team.
After a four-way tie for first place in the conference, the Spartans took the championship with a win against H. Frank Carey High School, to become back-to-back champions.
“We knew were going to have to battle it out with some of these teams and we sure did, and the conference proved to be that way. It was a very competitive conference,” said Parisi. “But throughout, we knew we could definitely win this. We can win. And we did.”
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