Briggs boys volleyball team wins 5th straight title
Wednesday, May 17, 2023
By Jarrod Ulrey
julrey@cbussports.com
Coach Herb Sharfenaker and his Briggs’ boys volleyball team celebrate their fifth straight City League championship after a match with Whetstone May 16. Photo: Kevin Rouch
The moments of inconsistency that at times hindered the Briggs boys volleyball team’s success this spring reappeared near the end of both the second and third sets of the City League championship match May 16 at home against Whetstone.
The Bruins, as they’ve done so many times against league opponents since Herb Sharfenaker took over as coach in 2018, then weathered the storm.
With a 25-15, 25-20, 25-23 victory over the Braves, Briggs captured its fifth consecutive league championship.
The Bruins also beat Whetstone twice during the regular season.
“We finally got that connection going with our (middle hitters), and we haven’t had that for a while,” Sharfenaker said. “We have some times in a couple of our rotations where we lose focus. It’s been like that all year where we’ve been up and down. With this team, there have been times where we’ve lost focus sometimes, but we do well in some things. Feeding the middle is a big key.”
Briggs senior Lefonzie Steward serves against Whetstone in the City League championship match May 16. Photo: Jarrod Ulrey
Among the team’s middle hitters are senior Kevin Bosque and juniors Quinnten Loel and Jayden Simpkins. While Simpkins is 6-foot-4, Bosque and Loel both are 6-3.
Senior Sterling Jackson, who joined Simpkins as a first-team all-league honoree and had nearly 200 kills on the season, is another key cog in the offense.
Senior Abisai Santiago served as setter for the Bruins, who finished 13-10 overall and won the league’s regular-season title at 7-0.
Whetstone finished 12-11 overall and 5-2 in the league.
“We came in with a whole new setter this year and he did what he had to do,” Jackson said. “This team was special because we had a lot of new people and we also had a great group of seniors who played their hearts out every game. It was a great season all around.”
Briggs was leading Whetstone 15-13 in the first set before scoring the next eight points behind the serving of sophomore libero Thaiven Thy to seize control of the set.
The Bruins built a 15-6 lead in the second set before Whetstone rallied to within 18-17, but Briggs scored the final three points on the serving of freshman Te’Shawn Johnson.
Then in the final set, Briggs led 15-9 before Whetstone rallied to within 24-23.
“Every time we’d get close, something dumb would happen,” said Errole Rembert, who completed his 23rd season as boys coach and has coached the girls program for 43 seasons. “The kids played hard, and that’s all I can ask. They learned how to not quit, and that’s the one thing that’s different from the last couple years when they didn’t know how to finish. Hopefully this is a build-up for next year.”
The Briggs boys volleyball team huddles up during the City League championship match against Whetstone on May 16. Photo: Jarrod Ulrey
While Thy was named the City’s Player of the Year and joined Jackson and Simpkins as a first-team all-league honoree, senior Neil Gordon (outside hitter/setter) and junior Max Rogers (setter/outside hitter) were first-team all-league for Whetstone.
Also for the Braves, senior Louie Kime (middle hitter) and sophomore Tre Hart (outside hitter) were second-team all-league and junior Ethan Harrison (middle hitter) and sophomore Tyler Dignan (defensive specialist) made honorable mention all-league.
Also for the Bruins, senior Elijah McPheters (outside hitter) joined Bosque as a second-team all-league honoree and freshman Alex Xayavong (outside hitter) was another honorable mention all-league honoree.
“It’s amazing (to win five consecutive league titles),” Thy said. “It was fun to play another game with all the seniors and all the energy on the court. We did really well hitting. One thing we did really bad at was our communication, but we picked it up in the last set. We had a lot of new players coming from (junior varsity) last year up to varsity, which was a big transition, and we lost a lot of our players but we filled their shoes from last year.”
Among the Bruins’ biggest attributes according to Sharfenaker was his players’ “love for the game.”
Sharfenaker’s son, Justin Sharfenaker, plays collegiately for Lincoln Memorial.
“They go to Ohio State games and watch Justin’s games when they play Ohio State,” coach Sharfenaker said. “So they’re into it. It gets them out of their comfort zone. I’ve got football players, basketball players, wrestling that come out and just end up loving it.”