The Ohio State and Harvard mens volleyball rosters verify what two-time defending Div. 1 champion Needham accomplished in each of the last two unbeaten seasons.
Ben Putnam is now surrounded by teammates from California or the Midwest on the national championship-contending Buckeyes. Same for Owen Fanning through two years with the Crimson.
Between them, two-time All-Scholastic Nolan Leary, two-time All-Scholastic Raymond Weng, and All-Scholastic contributions from Kevin Coppinger, Eli Blumenstein and Ethan McCarron, the Rockets were overwhelmingly loaded with talent. And after all but seniors Weng and McCarron graduated in either 2021 or 2022, the widespread belief in the boys volleyball community was that this year – while it would still be difficult to beat the Rockets – would be different.
But at 15-0 so far with the state’s second-highest strength of schedule, Needham is proving that breaking down its success doesn’t come down to a just handful of star players.
The current 61-game win streak is obviously historic, as was its 120-set win streak last season. This winning is nothing new, though, with only 14 losses to 238 wins since the start of 2013.
“Guys were hungry, guys stayed hungry, and we’re trying to keep our kids hungry in the midst of success,” said Rockets head coach Dave Powell. “We didn’t always quite hit what we wanted to in terms of the end result, but we had some crazy success for a long period of time before the pandemic. It’s not like it’s a recent thing, there just hasn’t happened to be a match loss (recently).”
In 2014, Needham was still looking for its first state championship. The 22-0 Rockets met 22-0 Newton South in the Div. 1 South final, and even led 2-0 in the match. But as part of a 47-game win streak that carried over into an eventual rematch with Needham in the same game the following season, the Lions came back to win on a 15-12 fifth set and went on to take the state title.
There’s never just one or two contributing factors to a program that’s won three state titles and six Div. 1 South sectional finals over the last decade. But there is an attitude that’s helped shape the juggernaut we know today.
Something needed to change, and Needham went on to get revenge in an unbeaten season the next year to end Newton South’s streak and win its first state title.
“The 2014 loss fueled us. It fueled me as a coach to kind of look at the program introspectively and say, ‘Hey, what are we doing here,’” Powell said. “(2015) was just a big year for us because up until that year, we just kind of tried to preach being a good volleyball player. We didn’t really preach toughness and being a good person, and being resilient. 2015, kind of all the pieces came together. Since then, we haven’t always had the most talented team, but we try to squeeze everything out of what we’ve had.”
As great as the 2015 unbeaten squad was, or the last two teams that have anchored this current streak were, two teams that especially stand out in this stretch for Powell came in 2017 and 2018. Not because of a championship – neither sealed the deal — but through getting the most out of what you have in the blue collar, come to the gym ready to work kind of mentality Needham strives for.
The 61-game win streak is great. But that’s not necessarily what the Rockets use to describe success.
“You guys like talking about the streak, but for us, we’re just trying to get a little better every day, corner our own performance and compete in those matches,” Powell said. “That’s what we’re about. It’s hard to uphold those standards to our guys daily, but that’s the standard in the gym. If you’re in the gym, you’re competing. … Kids still have the ability to compete if they’re held to certain standards. It’s not a perfect 10 every day in our gym and there are definitely moments where we don’t hit our daily standards, but we try our best.”
Losing a 2020 season after having a whole year to marinate on an upset loss in 2019 fueled Fanning, Leary, Putnam and Powell to meet five days a week for beach volleyball. Intensity and creativity to get the work in dialed up a notch, and the Rockets haven’t lost since.
Success brings more success in a town like Needham, which now has players committing to the sport as young as the sixth grade. Players are waiting in the wing to step into big roles, evident by the success outside hitter Luke Lorence, middle Alex Gundaker, libero Owen Ching and setter Devin Dellamarggio have found on this year’s team after spending time under last year’s stars. Two of the state’s bests in Weng and McCarron still contribute in a big way to the program that leads the conversation for a potential third straight state title.
— Bus issues continue to plague high school sports in the state, with Newton North arriving an hour late to its Thursday matchup at Natick, O’Bryant staff members having to drive players to Milford on Friday, and a bus breakdown postponing Wayland-Boston Latin.
— St. John’s Prep (9-5) repeats a strong campaign from last year, but impressive turnarounds from St. John’s of Shrewsbury (13-2) and BC High (10-4) give the Catholic Conference three teams in the top 10 of the latest MIAA Div. 1 power rankings after a mostly quiet 2022.
— The 1,000-assists club added two new members this week in Chelmsford’s Victor Lam and New Bedford’s Carter Barbosa.
— Third time is the charm for the young Revere program (13-3), edging Malden 3-2 in consecutive games to improve to 12-0 in the Greater Boston League for the league title.