HHS boys spikers set for strong finish
HUNTLEY – Huntley’s boys volleyball squad continues to make strides for the second half of the season.
The Red Raiders notched a victory over Rockford Guilford and a three-set loss to Rockford Auburn. Huntley is the lone Fox Valley Conference school to offer boys volleyball. In the win, HHS won 25-21, 17-25 and won the battle 25-23.
“We were missing our best player and managed to find a way to win thanks to other guys stepping up,” HHS head coach Gerard Marchand said.
Marchand described the lineup changes and they worked out. “Eddie Breutena played defensive specialist instead of setting,” the coach said. “Jack Butzon played in place of Jayden Bell. Adrian Martinez had a good on defense and our serve receive was on.”
Boys volleyball starts
Marchand has coached all levels of girl volleyball at HHS and played the sport in high school and college. He described how the program, now in the sixth year with about 40 total players, began.
“We got our program started in 2016 with a few boys who wanted to start a volleyball club at HHS,” he said. “We had a meeting after school one day to see how many boys were interested. There were many but only a handful stuck it out. We had a really athletic group of soccer and basketball players who would have made a heck of a team if they would have had some experience. I found us some games and even entered us in some tournaments that first year. We competed against some pretty good teams but could not win with very basically zero experience.”
Challenges early on included that Marchand was a “one-man-show” as match scheduler, worker organizer, trainer and bus driver, due to the sport not an official HHS team yet.
“I knew I had to stick it out for the boys at the time and all the kids who are playing now,” Marchand told My Huntley News. “It was hard, but it was worth it for what we have now.”
Marchand noted there were positives even back in the rookie year.
“We had a ton of fun,” the coach said. “I even had a coach comment after playing us in a Schaumburg Tournament he had never seen guys have that much fun playing volleyball. We probably only had 12-15 regular players that year.”
The regional assignment, yet to be announced, is coming up, with Huntley assigned to the Warren sectional.
