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Look around the Wyoming Valley Conference, and you’ll notice a few new faces scattered throughout.
Go to Hazleton, and you’ll find Anna Kachmarski – a Holy Redeemer grad looking to turn around the Cougar program.
Head toward the Back Mountain, and you’ll spot two new coaches: Chris Kukosky at Lehman and Mike Shmakov in Dallas.
Then, you have RJ Tomascik. He’s the new coach at Wyoming Valley West after serving as an assistant to the boys’ program under former head coach Joe Czopek, who left to coach at Wilkes.
Tomascik isn’t a newcomer at all. He’s served as the girls’ head coach for over five seasons. His teams have nearly 35 wins in the last three seasons, so he’s no stranger to success.
“Really, not much has changed with the exception that we miss coach Joe,” Tomascik said. “We’ve pretty much done the same thing we’ve done each year, and we also went to the same two preseason scrimmages. The transition has been effortless.”
One thing hasn’t changed however, and that’s the teams at the top of the conference.
The preseason Class 2A Top 10 rankings done by the Pennsylvania Volleyball Coaches Association have Nanticoke Area (8), Holy Redeemer (9) and North Pocono (10).
Combine those three with the veteran Valley West Spartans who return 10 seniors, and the prowess and experience Mike Williams has at Crestwood and the top of the WVC looks pretty strong.
Redeemer, Nanticoke and Crestwood all qualified for Class 2A states in 2016, while Valley West reached the Districts 2-11 subregional postseason.
“We are ready. We feel that we can be competitive against every team in our league,” said Williams, who returns his son Michael, the best setter and one of the top servers in the WVC entering 2017.
Each of the top teams bring something different to the table.
Redeemer has the best underclassmen attacker in the conference with junior Ben Rachilla, and the league’s best libero in Mike Mohutsky.
Nanticoke Area is going to be scrappy, and Debbie Gavin always has her team ready. Add to the mix that she returns front-row attacker Justin Casey and a strong nucleus of senior leadership.
Valley West has double-digit seniors including Tyler Kleinbach – who will be in the mix for Player of the Year in the Wyoming Valley Conference.
“You know what you are going to get,” Redeemer head coach Jack Kablick said. “Nanticoke returns a lot, and are always well prepared. Crestwood is tough, and Valley West has a lot of seniors. I’m excited for our team, and I really like the make-up of this squad. I like the pace that we will be able to play with, and I know that our setter is going to do a good job. And it’s going to help that we return our entire back row.”
Back to the new head coaches, who appear to have some work to do.
Dallas and Lehman will be young with little-to-no varsity experience, while Hazleton has to navigate through the rigors of a District 2-11 subregional should the Cougars qualify for the postseason.
“Building a stronger program won’t happen in one season. It’s a process,” Kachmarski said. “The important thing for this season is to make sure that all the players have a chance to play the game. If we win, we win as a team. If we lose, we lose as a team. My top goal is building a team. Winning will come from there in time.”
And it won’t take long to learn how the league may play out.
In the first two weeks alone, Nanticoke, Crestwood and Redeemer will all take the court against each other. It won’t be the last time though, as all three paths will eventually cross in May’s Class 2A postseason bracket.
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