Although the Pennsylvania College of Technology men’s volleyball season may be short the Wildcats have only three April tournaments before the conference championships in early May first-year coach Patrick Brown hopes it is sweet.
“They definitely have some potential,” Brown said of his team, which opens its season Saturday in a 10-team tourney at Penn State-Delaware. “We still need to work a little bit more on the fundamentals of passing and once they face competition I think they’ll pull together as a team and really start playing well.”
“Essentially, they’re getting two months of practice and a month of play, but playing in tournaments is fun because you’re testing yourself against a lot of different teams. Playing in a tournament is different than just playing a match here and there. It is a lot of play and it can be very draining,” Brown continued. “It’s amazing how much better a tournament can make you just by playing that many times in one day.”
Starters will include sophomores Derick Shofkom, a 5-foot, 10-inch defensive specialist who graduated from Susquehanna High; Ryan Schultz, a 6-1 mid-hitter from Altoona; Jared Guiher, 5-11 outside hitter from Derry, and Scott Eichelberger, 5-10 outside hitter from Northern York. Freshmen starters are David Atkinson, 6-2 outside hitter from State College; Jordan Garrison, 6-3 mid-hitter from Cedar Crest; Justin Rigg, 5-10 outside hitter from Twin Valley, and Doug Politi, 6-3 setter from Bethlehem Freedom.
Brown played on a club team in Kansas and helped coach the women’s club team at the University of Kansas before coming to Penn College.
“This is a new challenge, especially working with the men because men, in terms of playing and coaching, are a lot different than women, typically. It’s much more of a power game, and my personal style is the smart play and the finesse play; so it’s definitely kind of a unique thing,” Brown said.
The Wildcats went 8-4 last year under coach Charlie Baum, losing in the Eastern Pennsylvania Collegiate Conference semifinals and finishing third in the conference.