Simsbury’s Adam Vincent gets the ball past Glastonbury’s Mark Frigani (8), Paul Brenton (6) and Justin Dadonna (3) in Wednesday night’s CCC win over the visiting Guardians.
SIMSBURY, April 26, 2023 – Simsbury head coach Brian Leblanc saw his Trojan boys volleyball gather some confidence last spring.
Simsbury qualified for the Central Connecticut Conference tournament for the first time and was swept by eventual tournament champion Glastonbury in the first round. And the Trojans dropped a 3-0 decision to South Windsor in the first round of the CIAC Class M tournament.
“At the end of last year, they got a feel on how good they could be,” Leblanc said. “They realized they were volleyball players and invested some time in it.”
Many of the players played during the offseason and were ready to go this spring.
Simsbury earned their spot in this season’s Class L tournament on Wednesday with a 3-1 victory over Glastonbury, 25-16, 21-25, 25-11, 25-20. It was Simsbury’s second win over the Guardians this season and their fifth in a row overall.
Adam Vincent led Simsbury with 23 kills and 17 digs while Anderson Piller had 12 kills and 17 digs. Setter Jason George had 42 assists and 13 digs.
“I felt confident coming into the season because had a lot of players playing club volleyball,” Leblanc said. “We’ve been playing well. Now, we’re a Class L tournament team with our eighth win. To get that eighth win and see us have that success early in the season is something Simsbury hasn’t done before.
“These kids are working hard and hopefully they are on their way to setting school records (for wins),” he said.
Simsbury hasn’t won more than 11 games in a single season. They went 11-11 a year ago and 11-7 in 2003 and 1999. They haven’t won a CIAC tournament game in nine appearances.
And this is a group of juniors getting the job done. There isn’t a senior on the roster this spring in Simsbury.
“They’re all very mature. It feels like I’m coaching a group of seniors even though we don’t have one on the roster,” Leblanc said.
Simsbury returns to the court on Friday when they host South Windsor in Simsbury.
