Wolfpack's Wait Is Over as Volleyball Wins Opener
Makes sense. The match was four years in the making.
Berkshire Arts and Technology played its inaugural match in front of an enthusiastic crowd, completing a long and winding road that started back in 2019.
That was the year the school started thinking about a co-ed team with plans to hit the court in the spring of 2020. A global pandemic got in the way.
Finally, this school year, the school felt comfortable with the idea of packing players and fans into the cozy gym, and those players made the most of the opportunity.
“It’s been so great,” junior Jace Ziarnik said. “I never expected I would be a captain. But I’m going to give [co-captain Marissa Ostrowski] all the credit. I learned everything I know about volleyball from her.”
Ostrowski said she and her teammates needed a little patience to get to this point.
“We waited a long time for this,” she said. “We didn’t even get to play a game in 2020. And it feels great to win.”
Ostrowski was one of the students pushing the school to start a team back in her eighth grade year.
“My mom played volleyball when I was growing up,” she said. “So I would go with her to the matches, and she’d play with me in between. Then, one of her friends was coaching, and I joined.
“Over the summers, there’s a summer league called Pittsfield Tuesday Volleyball. And I did that with my mom, my sister and that coach.”
BArT’s coach, teacher Rich LaRocque, was slated to lead the team back in 2020 as well.
“It’s been a long, long time coming for this school to have a good volleyball team,” LaRocque said. “I’m really, really proud of these kids because they came out here and showed what they could do.”
The Wolfpack earned a 25-18 win in the first set and dominated the second, beating Eagle Hill, 25-10. In the third, with BArT’s starters watching from the sideline, the reserves battled back from an early deficit to earn match point at 24-23 before Eagle Hill took a 26-24 win.
The key to victory for BArT was its serving – not an easy skill to develop when one end of the gym has about a four-foot space from the service line to a cinder block wall and the other end has half that space between the court and the stage where spectators were seated for the match.
“We practice serving a lot,” LaRocque said. “It’s a really important part of the game, and it’s definitely one of the spots where our best players can take over.
“Our space is definitely unique and challenging in its own ways. But we’ve been trying to do our best to practice all the unique things that this place comes with over the course of the practices we’ve had the past few weeks.”
Those practices attracted a big turnout. BArT boasted 16 players in uniform to start a season that will see the Wolfpack play four games total, including a May 3 contest at MCLA’s Venable Gymnasium.
With nine of those players in the eighth or ninth grade, the school’s newest sport figures to be around for a while.
“I am so pleased with the support of the fans that we had here today,” LaRocque said. “And I’m so pleased with the support that our team gave each other. I’m really proud of everyone who was involved.”
