Schools

Coach, Core Four Lead Stoughton High Volleyball to First Postseason Berth

The volleyball program started in 2008 and has endured some growing pains, but is postseason bound in its fourth year, thanks in large part to Coach Ken gay and four seniors—Quattrucci, Chlus, Lopes and Chica—all of whom were with the team since day one.

“I knew we’d go oh-fer,” varsity volleyball coach Ken Gay said of his team’s first season, four years ago. “[We would be] lucky to win a match."

Sometimes, the Black Knights were lucky to win a single point.

Back in the first season, against Hockomock League powerhouse , Stoughton lost a set 25-1, and that one point was because of a Canton miscue.

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But, it was the “happiest 0-19 team I could ever work with,” Gay said.

“The bus rides were so fun,” senior Andrea Chica said. “At that point it wasn’t about winning; [it was about] having fun with your team.”

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“[There was] not enough skill there to get frustrated,” senior Malykah Lopes said.

The Stoughton High volleyball program started play in 2008, thanks to an aggressive fundraising campaign and the generosity of the community.

Before the team even started playing the program had to raise $12,000, and an additional $8,000 before year two. This program was going to be self-sufficient. The nets cost $5,000 and floor sleeves had to be installed in the floor of the gymnasium to hold the net.

Then Gay had to rounded up a group of players. He was able to fill out his roster—15 for both his varsity and junior varsity squads for the premiere season.

But while the finances were secured and girls turned out to play, the wins didn’t come in year one, and they didn’t come in years two or three, for that matter.

However in 2011, the program’s fourth year, Stoughton’s .

Heading into Thursday’s Hockomock League crossover match with Mansfield High of the Kelley-Rex Division, Stoughton is 9-7, and has already earned a berth in the postseason tournament—a first for a program that won a combined seven games in its first three years.

"We planted the seeds four years ago. This year, the crop comes in, and obviously, it's a pretty good crop," Gay told Patch after Stoughton beat Sharon last Friday on the road, . The straight-sets win was the sixth consecutive victory for Stoughton.

The team is full of talent, but is carried by four seniors who have been there since the program’s inception: Julia Quattrucci, Katherine Chlus, and the aforementioned Lopes and Chica.

These seedlings, so to speak, have seen significant playing time from the start. They are Stoughton’s core four, and it’s not just because they are the senior members of the team—they’re quite good.

Lopes and Chlus are both on pace to record 100 kills from the outside hitter position by the end of the season; Quattrucci has 200 assists this season as the team’s setter; and Chica has 1,500 career digs at libero—300 this year, which is actually less than last season’s total because the team is now more consistent in other areas.

“People made fun of us for not winning a game [four years ago]; now we’re the top team in the school,” Quattrucci said.

All four came in thinking they would give volleyball a try their freshmen year of high school. It’s now their passion; their primary sport.  

And so, with the four remaining original varsity players set to graduate, they had .

“We realized it’s all or nothing, it’s the last year to step it up,” Chlus said.

“Before we’re just freshmen playing against juniors and seniors,” Chica said.

“Now we’re seniors; [we] have no excuse. We have four years of varsity experience,” Lopes added, finishing Chica’s sentence.

The four of them did that frequently during an interview before the start of Monday’s practice.

“Our team is like a married couple,” Quattrucci said. “We started out crazy in love. Now that we know each other, been here four years, bonded so well—bring everybody else in [and we] know how to play with each other.”

“We’re not afraid to use constructive criticism; we’re not scared to share our thoughts,” Lopes said.

After winning four games in the program’s sophomore year, the team took a step forward in terms of level of play in year three, but Stoughton’s record didn’t reflect that—3-17. The Black Knights (the minimum margin of victory for each set) in 2010.

“We thought as a team we were better than we really were,” Chica said of the 2010 squad.

“This year we overcame those two points and close loses,” Quattrucci said.

“We play to the end more this year,” Chlus said.

But Stoughton was only 3-6 at the start of the 2011 season. That sixth loss came on Oct. 3 , a match Stoughton could have won. Yet, their next loss didn’t come until Oct. 25 at Canton, , including that all-important ninth win at Sharon, which guaranteed the Black Knights a spot in the tournament.

Now that Stoughton is postseason bound, the focus shifts to carrying this success into the tournament.

“We have to be hungry enough,” Gay said. “I hope we’re not just happy to be there.”

Lately, the team has been executing the spread offense effectively, creating multiple options in the front and back rows, making it difficult for the opposing team to target a single Stoughton player. The team has more depth and productive middle hitters to compliment its outside hitters. The team receives significant contributions from juniors Emma Zuk (who is set to be a four-year varsity player next fall) and Nicole Daniels and senior Anthony Jeudy, among others.  

All this has undoubtedly played a factor in the team’s improved play, but so has Brad Pitt, or more accurately Brad Pitt playing Oakland A’s general manager Billy Beane.

Gay said he saw the film Moneyball, which chronicles how Beane built Major League Baseball’s A’s. The team is 6-2 since then.  

“It changed my thinking,” Gay said. “I expected more from them than I should; I had to change my thinking from champion cheerleader to analyzing and feeding them what I see. [I] took the challenge of improving as a coach.”

It has always been a learning (and growing) experience for all four players, and coach Gay. And, sometimes they have butted heads, but they never lose respect for him, and he never loses respect for them.

The players said they feel there is a “great player/coach relationship.”

“He’s done so much for the team,” Quattrucci said of Gay. “He’s so passionate about the team.”

“It’s going to be hard to replace these guys,” Gay said of his core four. “I don’t want this year to end.”


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