Kevin Nardone helped lead his college volleyball team to its first NCAA D3 Men’s Volleyball Championship at Nazareth College in Rochester, New York, and said his leadership skills were learned while attending Paul D. Schreiber High School.
“I was always a good vocal leader and was able to motivate people on the court but I didn’t always carry the best attitude or set the best example and I was fortunate enough to have a coach like Maria Giamanco who would call me out on my inconsistencies and push me to be the best teammate I could be,” said Nardone, a 2012 graduate of Schreiber High School. “I also had a teammate, Daniel Minicucci, who was the consummate teammate and set a great example for me and taught me how to be more selfless in my behavior.”
Nardone said that although he and his former teammate went to different schools, they still bounce ideas off one another about their respective teams.
“He is often the first person I seek out when I have a tough leadership decision to make,” he said. “These lessons will live on with me long past my playing career.”
Nardone is about to graduate with his bachelor’s in Business Administration and Finance, with a minor in communications at SUNY New Paltz, where he plays volleyball.
The D3 conference is the largest in NCAA Men’s Volleyball, with over 65 teams participating. New Paltz was ranked number one in the country for the last six weeks of the 2016 season, with the New Paltz Hawks concluding two previous seasons in the semifinals of the national championship.
“This season has been an incredible experience,” Nardone said. “We were so focused on accomplishing our goal of winning a national championship, and worked so hard, and to have that hard work pay off was a feeling I can’t fully describe. It was an honor to bring home the trophy for Coach Petrus and the rest of the New Paltz community. It will be a memory that ties our group of players together forever and I am so grateful to be able to share that with all of them.”
Nardone originally started playing volleyball in seventh grade and said he was looking to be part of the different sports teams, and since he had experience playing with his family and family friends who all loved the sport it felt like a logical choice for him to get involved.
“A bunch of the guys from that 7th grade team ended up sticking with it all the way through high school so it was a very special bond that all of us had that made it such a great experience,” Nardone said.
Nardone was co-captain, along with Christian Smith, a student from Massapequa High School, for both their junior and senior seasons.
In 2015, Nardone was awarded the prestigious Kenneth Burda Award and it was noted that he was the “glue” that keeps the team together especially in the most demanding matches.
He has primarily played the role of Libero, a back row defensive specialist that is most needed against the toughest competition.
“I feel like I did a lot of growing up at Schreiber,” Nardone said. “I slowly but surely learned how to work hard, both in school and athletics. I wasn’t always the most motivated student but I progressed, I began to realize what it feels like when hard work pays off and I was able to be a much more successful student. I also had some great teachers and coaches who were able to give me a little nudge when I needed to work a little harder.”
