Author Archive: vballhall

Leah Hettrick

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Leah Hettrick graduated from Maloney High School in Meriden in 2002. In her senior year her team was undefeated state champions. Leah was named to the First Team All-State team and the Connecticut Gatorade Player of the Year.

After graduating, she played at Springfield College from 2003-07. In her first year she was named Rookie of the year. In her second year, she was named to the First Team All-Conference and was voted Springfield College ‘s Volleyball Player of the Year and most Outstanding Female Athlete for team sports.

As a junior, Leah was again voted most outstanding player and female athlete. She also set three school records: digs per match, digs per game in a season and digs per game for a career. She was also named to the All-New England Region Team.

As a senior, she set the final record for digs in a career. She was named to the All-Tournament Team in two of their largest tournaments. She was named not only to the All-New England second team, but to the American Volleyball Coaches Assoc. as honorable mention All-American.

Throughout her volleyball career at Springfield College, Leah was recognized more than 20 times as an out-standing collegiate player.

 

 

Laurie LaRusso

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Laurie graduated from Indiana University and received her graduate degree from Sacred Hart University. she taught at the elementary and middle school levels and now teaches at Darien High School.

Laurie started coaching volleyball at Darien in 1982. Since then her teams have won 21  FCIAC League Championships and 15 State Championships.  They had 11 undefeated seasons with winning streaks of 121 and 140 consecutive matches- the latter is the 8th longest in high school athletics. They were also named the #1 team in the Connecticut final coaches poll 9 times.  Her career record is now 583-81.

Her players included 65 first team all-league, 28 all-state, 15 most valuable players, four Gatorade Players of the Year and one All-American.

Laurie has been honored as the girls’ volleyball coach fourteen times. Her honors include FCIAC League Coach of the Year, Connecticut High School Coaches Assoc. Coach of the Year and National High School Coaches Assoc. Coach of the Year.

Laurie has also been inducted into the FCIAC Hall of Fame and the Connecticut Coaches Hall of Fame.

Kate Barile-Cotto

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Katie played at the Morgan School in Clinton from 1995-98.

In her first year, Kate was a conference and state champion. In fact, for all four of her high school years, Kate’s team was conference and state champions.

In Kate’s junior year, she was named 2nd team all-state and a Shoreline Conference Scholar Athlete.

Named captain in her senior year, she led her team back to the state finals. She averaged 18 kills per match during the regular season. Then throughout the tournament she averaged 30 kills per match. She was named Most Valuable Player of the Class S Tournament. The New Haven Register named her both Most Valuable Player and to the All-Area Volleyball Team and Connecticut High School Coaches Assoc. also named her to the All-State team.

Kate finished her high school career with an 82-2 record, four conference championships and four state championships. She went on to play that the University of New Haven where she again distinguished herself as an outstanding volleyball player.

 

Nancy Grace

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Grace coached field hockey and softball at Canton and had tremendous success with the field hockey program, winning 295 games, 11 league titles and eight Class S championships from 1985 to 2004. Her Warrior teams finished second three times and she was named the Class S coach of the year four times by the Connecticut Field Hockey Coaches Association. She was a finalist for the National High School Coaches Association’s Coach of the Year award in 2000.

In softball, she coached at Canton from 1990-99, leading the Warriors to seven NCCC championships and a Class S state title in 1991.

Sandy Hastings Reichel

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Sandy Hastings played High School volleyball at Cheshire from 1976-1978. Her teams won two state championships in both 1977 and 1978. Sandy also played on the Junior National Volleyball Team in 1978 and 1979.

Sandy played Division I collegiate volleyball at Rutgers University from 1978-1980. In her first year, her team played in the National Championships at the University of Alabama. She also played at San Diego State University in 1980 and 1981. They were ranked #4 in the country both years.

Sandy also played both USVBA and AAU volleyball in 1979 and 1980 and her teams were nationally ranked.

Mia Malafronte

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Until her freshman year at Amity High School in 1987, Mia Malafronte played basketball and softball and in the fall was a field hockey player. Her parents wanted her to try volleyball so she made a deal with them. She would attend a two week summer camp with CT Volleyball Hall of Fame member Kathy Symonds with the understanding that if she did not like volleyball, she would to not have to play. She fell in love with volleyball and the rest, as they say, is history.

Mia was a varsity outside hitter her sophomore year. That year her team was undefeated going into the State Championship Finals but lost a heart breaker to Maloney – 3 games to 2. The underclassmen vowed to never lose a match again. Her junior year, they defeated Maloney in the State Final and completed an undefeated season. In her senior year, they lost only two games the entire season and both were in the same match to Fitch High School. They met Fitch again, this time in the State Championship match, and won three games to none. They honored their vow and during her three year varsity career, her team was 65 and 1. Mia then played intercollegiate volley-ball for Albertus Magnus.

Mia’s awards and honors are too numerous to mention but include being a member of the 1989-90 Jr. Olympic Team Champions in the Nutmeg State Games. She was named to both the 1st Team All-Housatonic and 1st Team All-State Volleyball teams and was inducted into the Amity Athletic Hall of Fame. She was the Head Coach of the French American School of New York and presently is both the Assistant Head Coach and Junior Varsity Coach at Amity High School.

Megan Miller

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Megan Miller played for Jonathan Law High School from 1996 to 2000. During her high school career, she was named to the All-Conference Team three times and was twice named to the All-State Team. She was both the CT Post and New Haven Register’s Female Athlete of the year for the 1999-2000 season.

Megan played collegiate volleyball for the University of Pittsburgh from 2000 to 2004. During her career, she had 1,239 kills, 92 solo blocks, and 290 total blocks. In the 2002 season, she had a 40 % successful hitting percentage to finish ninth in the nation among Division I players. That season she was named to the Big East Second Team and in 2003 and 2004 was named to the Big East First Team. In 2003, Pitt won the Big East Championship and Megan was named the Most Valuable Player of the tournament. During her career, she was named Big East Player of the Week seven times, and the Big East Player of the Year in 2004. For two years, she was also named to the AVCA All-Northeast Region Team in 2003 and 2004.

Justine Metz

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Justine Metz played high school volleyball at Stamford Catholic from 1980 to 1983. In her senior year, her team won the State Championship. In that year, she was named both 1st Team All-County and 1st Team All-State. When she graduated, she received a full scholarship to Georgetown University.

Justine played for Georgetown from 1984 to 1987. She was named to several All-Tournament teams and multiple times was the Big East Player of the week. She still holds the record for blocks at Georgetown.

In her senior year, Justine earned Academic All-American honors. In 1993 she was inducted into the Georgetown University’s Athletic Hall of Fame.

Barbara Startup

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Barbara Startup graduated from Central Connecticut State College. She began her career at the Newburgh Free Academy in Newburgh New York as a physical education teacher and volleyball coach. She began her administrative career, as an assistant principal at the Vernon Middle School in 1989. After spending five years in Enfield as the Coordinator of Physical Education, Intramurals, and Athletics, Barbara returned to Avon in 1995. At this time, she became the Director of Physical Education and Health Education, Athletics, Intramurals, and Student Activities. In 1998, she became the Director of Athletics for Glastonbury High School.

Barbara has held over a dozen different positions in her career, and has been honored by many groups for her work in all of them. Concentrating on her volleyball-related accomplishments, she has 40 years of volleyball officiating experience including many CIAC champion-ship games and Division II and III college tournaments. In the 1980’s and 90’s, Barbara held one of only two national volleyball ratings in the state. She became a volleyball officials trainer and served as past president of the Volleyball Board of High School and College Officials. For the past 33 years, she has been the scheduling coordinator of the Connecticut affiliated Board of High School Volleyball Officials and is currently serving in that position. She also is presently serving on the CIAC boys and girls Volleyball Committee and as the Assistant Tournament Director of the CIAC Volleyball State Tournament. Barbara is also a member of the National HS Federation Volleyball Rules Committee and is a founding member of the CT Scho-lastic Women’s Volleyball Hall of Fame and continues to serve on its committee.

Jill Tomasello

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Jill was an outstanding and versatile athlete at Westhill. She was a 3-sport standout, earning recognition in volleyball, basketball and softball. A three year starter for Hall of Fame coach Winnie Hamilton, she was an outside hitter her junior and senior years. By her own admission, at 5’6” Jull was not the tallest hitter but she made up for her lack of stature with tremendous power and skill. During her junior year, Westhill started the season without the services of 5 of 6 starters from a 26-0 season and she was the tallest player. With dedication and drive, that team lost only 3 matches. Jill was a big part of that success. She was named the team’s Best Offensive Player and selected to the All-City team.  As a senior, Jill was team captain and her leadership and aggressive play was instrumental in bringing Westhill to the CIAC Class LL finals. It would be the team’s only loss that season. Jill was named her team’s MVP for the third time and she was an All-City selection again. She was also selected to the All-County and All-State teams. Jill was also a 3-year starter in basketball at Westhill. She was team captain and All-City her senior year. She was a 4-year start in softball. She was captain, All-City for 2 years and an All-County and All-State selection her senior year. In 1983, Jill received Westhill’s award for Most Athletic Female.

After graduation Jill spent one year at UConn where she played softball. Her sophomore year she transferred to Quinnipiac College where she was instrumental in starting their varsity volleyball program. She was setter for 2 years and was team captain. Jill received a softball scholarship at Quinnipiac and started 3 years at first base. She was team captain and named to the All-ECAC team.

Jill is still actively involved with sports. She was a volunteer volleyball coach at Westhill from 2000-04 and a volunteer coach at Darien High School’s summer volleyball camp. From 1986-89 she played touch football in the North American Women’s Touch Football League.  She was quarterback for three years, leading her team to three Super Bowl wins and she was named Super Bowl MVP three times. Jill played fast pitch softball for the Stamford Flames Class A Fast Pitch Travel team from 1980-89, her team taking 5th place at the National Tournament. In 1990 Jill started to play slow pitch softball. She played for 6 years, ending her career after her team won a 2nd national championship. Then in 1996 Jill joined the Stamford Storm Women’s ice hockey team. She has played goalie for 12 years, earning numerous team gold medals and MVP awards in USA and Canadian tournaments. She has been team captain for 19 years.