When the boys volleyball season ended in the fall of 2007 at Burnt Hills-Ballston Lake High School in upstate Glenville, N.Y, nobody could have imagined that four of the team members would be playing on three different “final four” teams in the 2010 Molten Division III Men's Invitational Volleyball Championship in Kenosha, Wis.
Outside hitter/libero Mike Bynon (pictured top-right), libero/defensive specialist Sam Guba (top-left), right-side player Alex Houghtalen (bottom-left, images courtesy of Nazareth College) and outside hitter Mike Pelletier (bottom-right, image courtesy of Springfield College) all wound up playing college volleyball at the NCAA Division III level. Bynon is a sophomore at Carthage College in Kenosha, Wis., Guba is a sophomore and Houghtalen a freshman at Nazareth College in Rochester, N.Y., and Pelletier is a freshman at Springfield College in Springfield, Mass. Carthage (20-11) plays Springfield (17-10) on Friday in a semifinal match at Carthage's Tarble Arena, with Nazareth (19-14) taking on California-Santa Cruz (14-6) in the other semifinal contest.
Playing for championships is nothing new to this quartet. Burnt Hills-Ballston Lake, coached by Paul Sander, won the 2007-08 New York State Public High School Athletic Association state championship after finishing second in the previous season. Carthage's Bynon was a three-time All-Suburban Council Conference honoree, the league MVP and Albany Times-Union player of the year” his junior year and a five-year varsity starter.
“It's amazing that all four of us are in the final four,” says Bynon. “After choosing schools, we all knew that success would come because of the great programs we chose. But to think that four guys from the same school in New York would be in the final four is quite amazing. We were a very successful team in high school, and at the club level, so I think that we all knew that success in college was possible. We're looking forward to seeing each other this weekend. If someone were to tell us five years ago that the four of us would end up in Kenosha, Wis., competing for a national championship, we would have laughed.”
“Sam Guba and I graduated together,” noted Bynon, “and it was fun to keep track of where the other was thinking of going to college. As for me, my top-three choices just happen to be represented this weekend. I know a lot of guys on the Nazareth squad, and coach Cal Wickens runs great program, so that was definitely a school I was looking at. Alex and Sam are at a great program at Nazareth, and they'll both do great things there. Springfield was also a definite choice for me because of the success and the history that the program has. Mike Pelletier is a great talent at Springfield and will do many great things there. So, this is not only a great opportunity one or two us to bring back a national championship for our schools, but also for our family and friends back home in Burnt Hills, N.Y.”
