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This spring has the potential to be historic for the Winchester High School boys volleyball team under the direction of John Fleming, who never takes a season off.
Fleming coaches girls volleyball in the fall, boys basketball in the winter and boys volleyball in the spring, which is on pace to record the program’s 200th win sometime soon.
Fleming has been the boys volleyball team’s only coach since the program came into existence in 2010. They started out playing a club schedule, but just one year later, they were a part of the regular varsity rotation of competitive squads in the Middlesex League.
Last year, the Red & Black finished up with an 18-5 record, before losing in the Division 1 Elite 8 against Natick, the third seed, 3-1. Before that loss, sixth seeded Winchester shutout both Malden, the 27th seed, and Lexington, the 11th seed, by identical 3-0 scores.
“Each season is a little bit different, and each one comes with its own unique challenges,” said Fleming on coaching three different WHS teams in as many seasons. “The spring season is interesting as it comes right after the club season for many of our players, or for others who played other winter sports.
“I think the spring season for seniors, in particular, is the most difficult with so many distractions all around them like the prom, graduation, graduation parties and internship programs,” he continued. “It does take a group of focused seniors to have continued success into June.”
Fleming will once again be assisted by Jackie Oliver, who helps him out with both the girls and boys teams.
“She coaches our JV girls and our JVA boys teams,” said Fleming. “Mike Borgasano, who is my JV boys basketball coach, is coaching the JVB team once again this spring. In addition, we have a bunch of alumni helping out like John Qi, Pete Sughrue, Zach Pless and Roshon de Alwis. Once colleges start wrapping up, we will also have plenty of other alumni coming back to help out.”
Senior outside hitters Tuto Sampaio and Julien He are this year’s captains, and they are now getting their teammates ready for another long postseason run.
“Julien might be our most improved player this year,” Fleming said.
The veteran coach then went on to say that “we have a motivated group, who knows that they will have to work hard to catch some of the other teams in the state,” while adding, “since there are a lot of new faces in bigger roles on the team this season, they also know that it will take a little bit more time to gel. But we have some good depth at the setter and outside hitter positions to overcome any inexperience.”
Sampaio should not only be one of the best outside hitters in the league, but also in the state, according to Fleming.
“He was tremendous in the state tournament last year, and we will rely on him once again this season,” he said.
“Bryan Jiang and Ethan Lubomirski both got significant playing time last year, and so as a result they are giving us some stability right now with plenty of new faces around them,” continued Fleming. “David You has also stepped up to take on an even bigger role this year.”
Fleming considers Lexington to be the team to beat this year in the Middlesex League.
“They have the most returning players, and as a result should have a really talented team,” he reasoned. “We are looking forward to challenging them this year.”
The Red & Black are already off to a successful start after beating visiting Arlington, 3-2 at the McCall Middle School on April 1. They took on Woburn April 3 and will come back home again to begin next week against Newton South (April 7, 5:45 p.m.) and Burlington (April 8, 5:15 p.m.). They will close out the week at Lexington next Thursday (April 10). That match against the Minutemen will start at 5:30 p.m.
