Volleyball Bounces Into Heights High School

Did not get enough of volleyball during the recent Summer Olympics in London?

Then you might want to mozy on down to the gym this fall.

For the first time in more than five years, Heights will have student-athletes participating in the sport. And for the first time, girls will be wearing the black and orange of the school colors in this sport.

For a few years Hasbrouck Heights worked with Wood-Ridge High School on a co-op team, but the two schools parted ways about halfway through the turn of the last decade.

A couple of years ago, Hasbrouck Heights Athletic Director Michael Scuilla said that there was a great need for another sport for girls in the district.

"There was a big need to add one more female sport in the fall," said Scuilla. "Hasbrouck Heights students have a big interest in participating in sports."

The district decided to have a middle school program and garner interest for volleyball with the next move to have a junior varsity program this fall.

"We're glad to have the support of the superintendent and the school board to add a sport when other districts are cutting sports," said Scuilla.

But with interest gaining in the sport and having a good turnout for a middle school program last year, the high school decided to jump into the sport.

After having a junior varsity program this fall, the school will have a varsity along with a junior varsity team for 2013.

And for the first season of the program they have chosen somebody within the system - Corinne Miller who helped coach the middle school program last season. She also coached freshman volleyball when Heights was part of the co-op with Wood-Ridge.

With only a couple of practices this week, the new high school coach has been encouraged by the early progress. "They've been doing very well and I've been pleasantly surprise," added Miller.

In addition she understands how a program becomes a quality one as she coached seventh and eighth grade girls in the Bogota school system. The Bogota High School team has been one of the more successful in Group 1.

When the district decided to have a high school program, Hasbrouck Heights had approximately 50 girls sign-up at the end of the 2011-12 school year.

With practice starting this week, Miller and Heights has 27 girls participating with the majority of the new Lady Aviators coming from the incoming sophomore class.

While there are a couple of girls who are weighing their options to play soccer or volleyball, majority of the girls do not play other sports.

Miller said that the goal is to give playing time to all of the players on the roster. "I don't want to have the girls get discouraged," said Miller. "We want to have two teams next year and maybe three teams (possibly including a freshman team) if it is successful,"

According to Miller and Scuilla, the first year of the Aviators volleyball program has 10 regular season games slated, but Scuilla said that in addition they have slated a few quads so he is anticipating 18 to 20 games this season.