Following at least three years of planning and some seed money, Roberts Wesleyan officially began a men’s volleyball program with the team’s first matches versus Farleigh Dickinson January 17 and 18.
“It’s one of the fastest growing sports; a place called First Point USA provided us with some grant money to get started as well, so some of the leaders in men’s volleyball across the country provided some seed money to go ahead and do it,” Athletic Director Bob Segave said.
“It’s a great sport for us to add with our women’s program. It made sense for a lot of reasons, and we’re excited to host a Division I school for the first couple of matches.”
Mike Dedee, who played volleyball locally at Bishop Kearney and Genesee Community College, was hired in May 2023 as the first head coach, but previous women’s head coach Doug Porterfield and Segave provided a bit of a head start with some recruiting.
“He played on the west coast and lived on the west coast for a while and played at a high level and his connections back here have been incredible,” Segave said. “He’s already run a big camp where the USA Volleyball from UCLA came here and worked with our players, taught them his system and they brought in hundreds of young players.”
The Redhawks will play a mixed schedule against Division I, II and III schools this year and then winnow down to just Division I and II going forward. For early sets through two matches, they started up to four freshmen and two sophomores.
“I knew when I got hired that there was a lot of work to do hitting the ground running and I just couldn’t wait to have everyone come on campus at the end of August and get going,” Dedee said.
“I was very fortunate to get some guys who were transfers with some good volleyball experience, some guys who were on campus already…and then recruited some freshmen. I’m just very blessed with what I walked in to.
“We have a smaller roster with some really good players and we’re juggling some things. It was very intentional to play a Division I team in our first couple of matches, so I hope the fans keep coming out because we wanted to see what we had and what we had to work on before we really get going this season.”
Junior hitter Alex Caton was part of the very successful Spencerport varsity boys program winning Section V titles his final two seasons and has attended Roberts for the last two years without knowing if his competitive volleyball career was over.
He was honored to be named one of the two inaugural co-captains for the Redhawks.
“It took some time to find the right guy (coach), but once we found coach it was great,” Caton said. “Once he got on board it was reaching out to recruits…and he’s just put in the work to get us to where we need to be, and we just need to give back what he’s given us.”
Caton did not play on the first night, but started the third set on the second, one of those personal moments to remember. “It was just ‘let’s get to business; it’s about time.’ I just wanted to be out there with the guys and do what we love.
“Now it’s finding that rhythm, getting our sets at the right spot, setting up our block, playing around it and having fun.”
