Although Secaucus High School had won a state-record 18 NJSIAA Group state championships over the years, there hadn’t been a new banner to add to the walls of the Secaucus gymnasium since 2006.
What was once an annual occurrence hadn’t taken place in eight years. It was almost a given that the Patriots would win a state volleyball championship every year before Thanksgiving.
Head coach Sheila Rivera knew what those days were like, considering she was a player on the first four Patriot teams that won state titles (1983 through 1986), then later became an assistant coach under a host of others and was the head coach for the last two in 2005 and 2006.
“At times, it does feel like it’s expected,” said Rivera, who took a hiatus as head coach for a few years to raise her family, then returned a few years ago when former coach Tiffany Aciz Meyer became a mother for the first time. “But there hasn’t been one in a while.”
Andie Lennon is a senior who vividly recalls the last state champion in 2006, because her older sister, Elise, was a key player on that team.
“I remember watching that team play a lot,” said Lennon, a standout basketball player and three-year Hudson Reporter All-Area honoree who signed her letter of intent to play basketball at Caldwell College next year. “I watched them win a state championship and knew that I just wanted to accomplish that as well. I wanted to feel how they felt.”
But for Secaucus volleyball and winning state titles, eight years can seem like an eternity. After all, when Aciz Meyer was a player at Secaucus, she won four titles and posted a career record of 111-1. Under legendary head coach Maria Nolan, currently the head coach at the state’s premier program Immaculate Heart Academy, the Patriots simply never lost back then.
“I tried to explain to these girls what it felt like,” Rivera said of her current team. “These girls have only been in high school for four years. They really don’t know. They asked me all the time and I’d say, ‘You have no idea. You have to find out on your own.’”
However, Rivera knew her team was coming real close. There was a state sectional title two years ago, but losses to eventual Group I state champion Bogota that ended the dream.
“I knew it would take a few years, but I knew that these girls could do it when they were seniors,” Rivera said.
There is one difference now. The sport of volleyball has evolved into a year-round game filled with club teams and AAU organizations and tournaments throughout the entire summer.
Secaucus female athletes never concentrate on one sport. They are all multi-sport performers, thus the reason why they have dominated the Hudson Reporter Female Athlete of the Year award over the years. Aciz earned the honor in 2001 when only one athlete – boy or girl – got the trophy. Others like Nicole Degenhardt (2006), Cory Roesing (2007), Jenna Totaro (2008), Shannon Waters (2011) and Danielle Roesing (2013) all earned the honor after playing volleyball at the school.
“My whole team is going to play basketball in a few weeks,” Rivera said. “That’s just the way it is. What other teams do all year, we have to do in three months. We work extremely hard.”
The volleyball players can attest to that.
“We have to make up for all the lost time,” Lennon said. “It’s just a group effort. We’re all confident in ourselves and confident in our efforts.”
“We’re working in practice three hours a day, six days a week,” said fellow senior Katelyn Schlemm. “We all work well together. We knew that if we had a shot to do it this year, we had to work that hard.”
It’s also a family affair for Schlemm, who is the niece of Rivera, the sister of assistant coach Kyle Schlemmn, the cousin of assistant coach Cory Roesing and cousin of teammate Kristina Ulrich.
“It’s the best part of coming to volleyball for me, because it’s all my family,” Schlemm said. “Even my teammates are my family. We’ve been together in everything since third grade.”
Schlemm is another three-sport athlete, playing basketball in the winter and softball in the spring, like fellow captains Kendall Caruso and Julia McClure.
“We definitely have so much of a connection, because we’ve been together for so long in all the sports,” said Caruso, a two-time Hudson Reporter All-Area honoree in softball who was a key player in the Patriots’ county and state sectional softball champs in 2013. “We all know each other and have each other’s backs.”
McClure is another multi-sport standout who has been brilliant on the hardwood like Lennon, earning Hudson Reporter All-Area honors three times. But she was the reluctant volleyball player.
“I was going out for soccer,” McClure said. “I was a soccer player. But it was an omen for me to play volleyball, even though I never played before. This was one of the better decisions I made in my life.”
Last weekend, the Patriots finally got to add another banner to the wall. They defeated arch-rival Bogota, 25-22 and 25-15, to finally bring home another state title to Secaucus.
“I think we’re comfortable with each other because we play more than one sport,” McClure said. “Our athleticism helps us hang in there, but I believe we became good volleyball players, not just good athletes. We’re good volleyball players.”
The team received a boost from newcomer Carleisha Forteau, a senior who never played volleyball before. Others on the team include Alyson Toman, Alesandra Tringali, Melissa Dehnert, Colleen Burns and Mariam Said. They are state champions, just like other Secaucus teams in the past.
“It really was a great year all around,” said Rivera, who leads the Group I state champs into the NJSIAA Tournament of Champions this weekend with a 33-1 record. “We won our 800th match this year, becoming the first team in the state to do that. We had Andie get 1,000 digs, Kendall get 1,000 assists and Julia get 1,000 kills. Cory is getting inducted into the state volleyball Hall of Fame this weekend. The whole year has been incredible, just one thing after another.”
Like it was supposed to happen.
“You’re really lucky when you get a group of athletes like this,” Rivera said. “They’re such a great team. And Andie finally said to me, ‘Now I know what it feels like. It took four years, but now I know.’”
They all do. The banner will go up on the wall as proof of continuing the tradition and the legacy. It just took a little while.
Jim Hague can be reached at OGSMAR@aol.com.
You can also read Jim’s blog at www.jimhaguesports.blogspot.com.