No End for Greyhounds' Win Streak

By: Josh Frazer

The most dominating sports team this fall at the Gilman School might not be found on the football field, but in the gym, bumping, setting and spiking. The Greyhounds are 11-0 on the year.

In just seven years, under the direction of coach Neil Gabbey, the Gilman volleyball program has grown from a club sport to one of the strongest programs in the MIAA A Conference, reaching the finals in each of the past two seasons.

Gabbey came to Gilman from the Bryn Mawr School, where he coached girls volleyball, to try and start up a boys volleyball program in 2002. In 2003, Gilman's first year in the MIAA A Conference, the Greyhounds won a match against volleyball powerhouse Loyola Blakefield the Friday night before homecoming. Gabbey said his players received an incredible amount of fan support, and the football team was also in attendance.

"It was like baptism by fire," he said. "We weren't just the other fall sport."

Gabbey credits athletic director Tim Holley and assistant director of athletics Lori Bristow who supported the program in its fledgling years. The support of the administration had a trickle-down effect on the student body, according to Gabbey. Gilman's upper school is still relatively small, and with each student required to participate in at least one sport, the athletics teams tend to support each other.

Since the dramatic homecoming victory against Loyola in 2003, Gabbey's program has grown. He started to recruit athletes who might not have succeeded on the football field or basketball court, but possessed the raw athletic talent to be molded into volleyball players.

"I looked for the fourth-string wide receiver who was 6-foot-4, 130 pounds with good hands "¦ and said, "˜Hey, I could see you playing volleyball.'"

Since 2003, the Greyhounds varsity team is 69-16 overall, and the JV team is 42-2, winning the last three consecutive JV championships. The athletic department at Gilman even funded a trip for the Greyhounds to participate in a volleyball tournament in Penfield, N.Y., the volleyball powerhouse where Gabbey went to high school. The tournament in Penfield has become an annual pilgrimage for Gilman, who placed fifth in last year's tournament.

Gabbey said his 2005 Greyhounds "overachieved and outworked other teams" to capture the No. 1 seed in the A Conference tournament. But they lost the championship to Loyola in what Gabbey described as the best athletic contest he's ever seen. The next season, no longer the underdogs, Gilman reached the finals for the second consecutive year, finishing 15-1 and losing to Mount St. Joseph.

This season, eight players are returning, including six seniors to his varsity squad. Gabbey said the offense revolve arounds two seniors. According to the coach, first outside-hitter Ed Wiese is his "best-hitting senior" and has a chance to eclipse the hitting records at Gilman.

Wiese will share the offense with fellow senior Idy Iglehart, Gilman's middle hitter, who had speed to the net and powerful hitting that Gabbey said was "virtually unstoppable" in 2006, his first year on varsity.

Another senior middle hitter, Kevin Niparko, is returning for his third year on varsity and will anchor the Greyhounds' defense and serve-receive, while Jeff Irwin, another returning senior and three-year varsity player will play opposite hitter, volleyball's version of a designated hitter. He has been working over the summer to assume the setting duties for the Gilman squad.

Not to be forgotten is junior second outside hitter, Asher Kaplan, who is set to take over for Wiese after the 2007 season. He is talented enough, according to Gabbey to make an assault on any hitting marks that Wiese compiles this coming season.

With the wealth of talent already on the squad and a few players moving up from JV to varsity, Gabbey would be content to assume the role as favorites yet again. Even so, he is reluctant to let the team become complacent, instead stressing the need for his seniors to stay focused during the season.

"We've been on both sides of the coin," Gabbey said, referring to being both underdogs and heavy favorites, "We just got to get the first [championship] in the bag."