Plainview JFK's Villalta brings out best in players

When coach Russi Villalta collared him in the hallway during his freshman year, Plainview JFK middle blocker Steven Coniglio wasn't so much plucked from obscurity. With Coniglio well on his way to his height of 6-4, obscurity wasn't much of an option, no matter how hard he tried.

Then there's Jordan Lefkowitz. Whereas Coniglio tried to evade Villalta (he finally gave up and joined varsity in the 10th grade), Lefkowitz would show up, practice after practice. Never mind that he was cut in 11th grade for not being enough of an all-around player; Lefkowitz knew he had what it took.

Villalta gave in for good on the day of SATs. Four kids didn't show up; Lefkowitz took his test and came to the gym afterward. That sort of blind devotion to volleyball was something Villalta could relate to and, perhaps more importantly, something she could work with.

It took a few months, but it turned out Lefkowitz was right. Now a senior with the reigning county champs, he's the starting setter. Ask him about being cut, though, and he smiles conspiratorially, as if he just pulled a fast one on the program.

There are more stories: Players who weren't considered good enough, or vocal enough, or driven enough. And then there's Villalta, who at 5-6 looks tiny among her cadre of giants. She is unapologetically fiery and unapologetically good at her job - she has won eight county titles in her 18 years.

Coniglio is testament to Villalta's good eye. He balked at volleyball because he was picked on by the team when he was younger. He became a bowler. "She goes to me, 'Do you play volleyball?' " he recalled. "Then she goes, 'Well, now you do.' " The blocker has become one of the premier players in Nassau.

Yes, she rides them hard, and yes, mixed in with the respect the team feels for her, there's that little bit of fear. But for a group that has lost only one conference game after losing four starters, they'll take it. Especially if they're going to topple undefeated Massapequa.

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"She knows what she's talking about," Lefkowitz said. "When she cut me, she said I couldn't hit or block, but she took me on her team, and she worked beside me and she helped."

Tom Giosa is another story. He had the talent to be a leader but not the vocal cords. "He never spoke," Villalta said. She still remembers the first time he cheered a point. It was against Massapequa last season "and he's like, 'Yeah!' " Villalta said. "No one else cheered. It was like crickets. I called a timeout. I'm like, 'Guys, how could you do that to him?' "

Villalta called Giosa "the perfect kid." He plays trumpet, plays board games with his family and watches game film. And what about the right-side hitter's flaw? "Now he speaks," Villalta said.

At Plainview, celebration is part of the training. Villalta trains her boys to shake with the left and grab a plaque with their right. It's a product of her upbringing. She played volleyball at C.W. Post and coached the women's team for three years.

"That's part of the women's game that I brought here," Villalta said. "I remember saying to [Ryan] Miller'' - who wasn't celebrating - " 'Hey, join the party!' He's like, 'Coach, I did my 'whoo-hoos.' "

She's the first to admit that her group is a bit mellow. It's one of the reasons she's taken a shine to Matt Benjamin. He's the class clown - sometimes literally, such as when he starts juggling volleyballs during practice.

The new right-side hitter interrupts her and announces that he loves volleyball so much, he bleeds for it. He moves the tissue covering his hand to reveal a pea-sized scratch. Villalta rolls her eyes, but laughs when he scampers off to find a band-aid.

For all her bluster, she wants her kids to have fun. And on the court, she trusts them. "I don't want them to need me," she said, citing a recent game in which she didn't call a timeout even down 9-1. "I have so much faith in them."

The feeling is mutual.

"Sometimes it's hard when she's yelling at me," Lefkowitz said. "But you know everything she says is to make you better."