Opinante Steps Down As Boys Volleyball Coach; Program Heads To Fall

Phil Opinante said Friday that he is stepping down after five years as coach of the Garden City boys' volleyball team and that the program will be moved from the spring to the fall starting with the next school year.

Opinante made the surprise announcements moments after the Trojans' season ended with a 19-25, 15-25, 22-25 loss at Jericho in the second round of the Nassau County playoffs. He has been coaching the girls' varsity squad, which already plays in the fall, the past 14 years and will remain in that capacity.

"This is my very last season in (25) years coaching boys varsity volleyball," he said. "It's a sad day. I really had a lot of fun with these guys. My job was to teach the game and be competitive and make it fun and that's exactly what we did."

Opinante was given the option to choose between the boys and girls teams and ultimately chose the latter. The girls' team just completed their first season in Conference II and finished fourth. They won the Nassau championship in 2007 after being the finalists the previous campaign.

"I have a (junior varsity). I have a strong program and I'm going to stick with them," he said of the girls.

Opinante said he knew last autumn that this would be his final year at the helm after learning of the sport moving to the fall. He gradually let his players know during the season about his plans, but some had learned earlier than that.

"I actually found out about it last season," junior setter Logan Becker said. "He's been talking about it for the past three years, but he made it official last season so we wanted to go out with a bang and give him a nice going-away present."

Two of Opinante's former players are expected to have new roles in the program next season. Mike Weiner, the coach of the girls' JV team the past four seasons, will likely take over the boys' bench with Jen Pomponio, the captain of the 1997 squad, replacing Weiner. Pomponio, a two-year physical education teacher at Garden City High School, coached the seventh grade girls volleyball and JV softball teams this season.

"I recommended that Mike take the boys' program," Opinante said. "I have confidence in Mike and he probably would be hired as a varsity coach elsewhere because of all the changes in the fall."

Opinante first took over the girls' team in 1996 after 10 years at Sheepshead Bay High School coaching both the boys and girls. In March 2005, the Garden City boys' volleyball program was born after eight juniors successfully petitioned the school board to form a team. The players, which began as a JV squad, asked Opinante to be their coach and he accepted.

The team jumped to the varsity level in 2006 and won the conference championship by upsetting a much stronger Lawrence team in five close sets. After going back to JV the following year, the program returned to varsity and claimed another conference championship in 2009.

Opinante is adamantly against the move to the fall, calling it "a sad state of affairs."

"There's no one, athletic director, coaches, players, no one is happy about this decision," Opinante said. "It's (like that) across Long Island. It's being done because of fear of a lawsuit that might bankrupt the school district because some parent might want to see his or her son in the state championship in boys volleyball in the fall, just like the girls are."

According to Opinante, Nassau County is either the eighth or ninth section in New York State to agree to the move. Seven were needed to make it official.

"Coaches are losing jobs, there's not going to be enough officials, we're not going to have good quality coaching, it's a bad situation all around," he added.

Another problem that Opinante foresees is the students' well-being and overall education.

"They're not going to have enough gym space, they're talking about the girls piggybacking, varsity and the JV playing back-to-back," he said. "If we go to an away game, the kids are going to get home 9-10 o'clock at night and they should be home studying and sleeping. It's not a good thing."

On the other hand, the competition for student-athletes will likely be less in the fall compared to the spring, where there are other options such as baseball and lacrosse, which is extremely popular on Long Island.

"I don't get a lot of guys trying out," he said. "The numbers are low because we go up against three lacrosse teams and three baseball teams in Garden City. I think in September that will be in our favor though. I think we'll have some converted baseball players from the spring who will be playing volleyball in the fall."

But that theory will work in reverse too. Brandon Badgett, a junior outside hitter who had a terrific season, will be playing soccer in the fall. Becker said he will give up soccer to return to the volleyball team.

"It's going to be a lot different because we're going to have the two girls' teams going so our practices are going to be off," Becker said. "Everything is going to be switched up. It will throw us off a little bit but it's not that big of a deal."

On top of his coaching duties, Opinante said that he is also starting his own volleyball club in November with some of his former players called "The Sport Time Volleyball Club."