East spikers continue to uphold winning tradition

Sometimes when you have the tradition that the Wauwatosa East boys volleyball team has, you can easily overlook a successful season.

The Red Raiders finished 27-11, won their sectional title for the seventh time in 10 years and advanced to the WIAA State Boys Volleyball Tournament.

"The expectations for Tosa East and my program are higher than most," veteran coach John Simon said. "The level of expectations are ingrained - we will be competing for the conference championship and will qualify for state.

"Sometimes it's a burden, but I'd rather have it that way. We have no intention of lowering the bar."

The disappointing part of the year, unfortunately, came in the quarterfinals of the state tournament as they lost to a scrappy Germantown team, 3-1, and were knocked out of the running the first night.

"At the banquet on Monday, I said I'm not going to allow myself to judge on how we played Friday night (vs. Germantown) against our season," Simon said. "We had a remarkable season. We played well against some and struggled against some.

"You know it's hard to feel bad. In general, we got better and we got some youngsters playing time."

Among the Red Raiders' losses were three to state champion Marquette and three to Franklin, one of the better teams in the state and two to Waukesha West.

Simon will lose seven seniors - Max Kilpin, Zak Sylvester, Sam Ingrilli, Tracy Johnson, Patrick Nellen, Jack Coakley and Charlie Gagne.

From that group, Kilpin, an all-state player, and Sylvester were three-year varsity players and Ingrilli has been an outstanding setter the past two years.

"They had been around the block," Simon said. "They will be huge holes to fill, but they represented us well."

Kilpin and Ingrilli were first-team Greater Metro Conference choices for the Red Raiders, who once again finished second to top-ranked Marquette.

Junior Ben Mihelich was second team and Sylvester and sophomore Ben Plaisted were honorable mention.

The team awards went to Kilpin (MVP), Mich Dillon (Most Improved) and Mihelich (Top Defender).

Conference scholar-athlete awards went to Kilpin, Sylvester, Johnson and Gagne.