To say that Vinny Coello is a volleyball prodigy is pretty accurate.
TMJ4's Lance Allan asks, "Second graders against eighth graders? Or second graders with eighth graders?"
"Second graders with eighth graders, against eighth graders," Coello says.
Lance Allan asks, "And you were like?"
"I just didn't care. I just didn't care. I wanted to play!" Coello says.
It all added up to Waukesha Catholic Memorial winning the WIAA State Boys Volleyball title.
"We knew we had the pieces to win state," Coello says. "We had some ups and a lot of downs, but once we got to the end of the season, everyone was really committed to getting better and winning as a team. Pressure is privilege, that's what my coach JW says. I have a screenshot of that on my background of my phone. But we had a lot of pressure going into the season and towards the end of the season, we just kind of stood up to it and that's one of the hard parts about volleyball."
And the junior outside hitter became the Wisconsin Player of the Year.
"That was crazy," Coello says. "I was on a plane when I got named player of the year and we were in like the athlete of the week voting, and I was losing to Jordan who is the setter at DS. I just lost that, and then my mom's like, well you won player of the year, and I was like, I won player of the year?"
Ohio State, Penn State, Loyola, UC-San Diego, and Pepperdine are all interested in him at the next level. But for now? Coello wants to grow boy's volleyball here.
"I love when people come to watch all the super intense games, and there's crowds around your court and there's a lot of energy," Coello says. "All my friends come to the games. Well, at the beginning of the season, they didn't come to the games. But once they started going, they're like wow, this is a fun sport to watch. And now they're just gonna come next year which is great. I don't know, they say it's more fun than watching like soccer and basketball or whatever, and I really enjoy it."
The Crusaders will have to rebuild to defend their title next season but with Coello, it's certainly possible.
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