Boys’ volleyball honors its seniors

The Port Washington High School boys’ volleyball team cruised past visiting Sheboygan North last Thursday as the parents of the seniors cheered them on in Hawaiian shirts.

The Pirates won, 25-12, 25-10, 25-10, and barely trailed all night against the Vikings, who were missing a couple of players.

Sam Kiss led the team with eight kills. Sawyer Lorier had seven and Will Theisen had five. Mark Krueger had 19 digs and Theisen had 10. Gabe Jerome had 15 assists and Cooper Giese had 13. Krueger made no errors in 19 serve-receives. Port made one error on 32 serve-receives.

After the game, Port honored its seniors, who occupy eight of the 10 varsity roster spots — Lorier, Kiss, Krueger, Theisen, Jerome, Cooper Celmo, Logan Snieg and David Curran.

This is the first group to play four years of varsity volleyball with the Pirates’ budding program under coach Doug Niemeyer.

“This class is awesome. I think all of them have been good but I’ve been with these guys for four years and watched them progress,” he said.

For many of the seniors, volleyball is the only fall sport they’re interested in playing, and they have become close.

“For me it’s pretty much been a family. I’ve been here for four years. Coach Doug is basically another father to me, and all these other people I’ve grown up with,” Celmo said.

“It’s meant a lot to me,” Kiss said. “I started off as a freshman in high school and I didn’t know what I was going to do. It’s really important to me and I’m really glad I did it.”

Theisen said, “It’s meant a lot. I know coaches and teammates have always been there for me. It’s like family for me now. Our class helped bring it up, and Doug has done a great job. We’ve all worked together, done offseason stuff, worked hard in the season. Now we’re known as a solid volleyball program.”

Krueger tried the sport just for kicks.

“It’s just been so fun. I started freshman year just on a whim. My friends told me to join, so I tried it out and it’s the most fun ever,” he said.

Jerome tried playing football at the same time, but that didn’t work.

“I loved the team and the brotherhood here on the volleyball team so I stuck with this,” he said.

“I’ve been here since the beginning and every step of the way these are my guys that stay with me the whole time.”

Port, 13-7 overall and 3-2 and in third place in the North Shore Conference, lost to Menomonee Falls, 3-2, on Monday. The Pirates were to play at Hartford on Wednesday, Oct. 7. They host Cedarburg on Wednesday, Oct. 14, and close the regular season at home against Nicolet on Monday, Oct. 19.