On Nov. 4, the Oswego State athletics department announced the retirement of head volleyball coach, JJ O’Connell, who has served in the role for the past 10 years. Since arriving at Oswego, the Lakers have qualified for the State University of New York Athletic Conference postseason in six of his nine seasons, making semi final appearances in 2015 and 2018.  Prior to his arrival, it had been 16 seasons since Oswego had been in the postseason. He has left a huge impact on his players with his upbeat attitude and belief that his players are capable of anything.

“He’s done a lot for me in my last four years here, he’s been a big part of my life,” Skylar Bechard, a senior player, said. “He brought so much energy to the team, and worked very well with all the girls, me especially, he knew how to push me through everything.”

Even for the younger players who have only played one season with O’Connell as coach, he still had an impact on them. He gave them the motivation to do better and showed them what they needed to do to grow. Even though freshman Grace Taylor has only been on the team for one season, she will still feel the impact without O’Connell being with the team.

“He taught us so much and he was always there for us so it’s going to be weird to not see him on the sideline with us,” said Taylor. 

To junior Emma Fiorentine, O’Connell was more than just a coach, but someone that was easy to talk to. That was important to Fiorentine because that allowed for her and her teammates to get a deeper connection with their coach which made communication much easier. She also believes that with easy communication between the coach and his players it allows for more trust and a stronger relationship. 

“I think the biggest thing that I’ll miss is just being able to talk to him as a person and not really as an authority figure,” Fiorentine said. “It’s nice to have a coach that really understands you and that you can talk about anything with.”

O’Connell himself recognized how hard his team worked to improve themselves throughout the season. It made him proud to see how resilient his players were even though they were not having the success they had hoped for coming into the season. With this resiliency, he also believes that no matter who their next coach is, they will put in the work so they can be at their best. 

“There was no doubt about the passion they have for the sport,” O’Connell said. “They were dedicated to improving themselves personally by setting high goals for themselves that they hoped to live up to, it was awesome to watch.”

O’Connell also reflected on other teams he had coached over his tenure with the Lakers. One team that stood out to him was the team he coached in 2015, where they had a 25-10 record. O’Connell’s team from this season is very similar to his team in 2015 as they had a good mix of young talent as well as veteran players to help guide them. Some players that made an impact on that roster were Rachel Ruggaber and Kelsey Dillon who he saw as veteran leaders on that team. O’Connell found that the players on that team were fun to coach and their success made it all sweeter.

“In 2015 we had a good team,” O’Connell said. “We had everything you would need to be a really good team, from good veteran leadership to good players coming off the bench.”

His final season with the Lakers did not live up to their expectations as the Lakers ended the season with a 12-14 record and a 1-8 record in conference matches. But, they did show signs of improvement towards the end of the season. A bright spot in the season was the strong performance throughout the season by sophomore Georgia Farry. Farry led the Lakers in kills with 186, points with 224.5 and blocks with 57. But even though she had a strong season, Farry knows that she can take steps to improve her game even further and that it takes the entire team to win games and she expects the team to be ready to show growth when the next season starts. 

“One of the big things I’m personally going to work on is improving my vertical jump and knowing when to use certain shots,” Farry said. “We have a lot to work on as a whole going into next year, but a major difference from this year and next year is now we know each other. We already have established a strong chemistry that will be a major factor in how well we work together.”

O’Connell credits the bad season to rust, as the Lakers had not played as much over the last year compared to other teams in the SUNYAC. Even though the season did not go the way he  and his team wanted it to go, he is proud of the improvement they showed throughout the season, especially with the young players on the roster. 

In retirement, O’Connell plans on hiking the Appalachian Trail after Spring break ends. O’Connell said that hiking is one of his passions and he plans on doing it more often during his retirement. But even though he is retired, he still wants to stay close to the game of volleyball. 

From the people at the Oswegonian, we wish JJ O’Connell all the best in his retirement and a joyful next chapter.

William Rogers | The Oswegonian