St. Joseph volleyball team raises bar with second straight state championship

In what has become a decorated history for the St. Joseph High School volleyball team, the five seniors from this past school year established a new standard as the program’s first two-time state champions.

The Falcons went back-to-back by winning five postseason matches, culminating with a 2-0 victory against Garfield on June 6 in the Group II championship game.
St. Joseph has now seized five state titles and seven sectional titles. To put that dominance into perspective, only three volleyball programs in New Jersey have won more state titles.

Up until 2022, the New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association crowned only one state champion per season in volleyball. Then it switched to four group champions last year, and yet St. Joseph remains the only Group II school (the second-smallest school designation behind Group I) to ever capture a state title in volleyball.

“Our boys know that each and every day, teams walk into our gym to try and take us down,” said Miguel Cabrita, who completed his 20th season as head coach. “For some programs, beating St. Joe’s is the pinnacle of their season. Our players learn to respect that attitude from other teams and to use it as motivation for us not to just hand teams wins.”

Cabrita knows what it takes as a St. Joseph volleyball lifer, as he was a freshman at the school during its first season and graduated in 1991. He returned as an assistant coach in 1994 and has been part of the staff for every state title beginning in 2002.

In addition to routinely competing against bigger public school programs such as Old Bridge, Monroe and South Brunswick, the Falcons prepare for the biggest matches of the season through advanced training behind the scenes.

“Our boys have become more and more involved in club volleyball in the off-season as well as training at various summer camps to keep their skill sets growing,” said Cabrita, NJ.com’s Greater Middlesex Conference Coach of the Year. “With our athletes coming from eight different counties in New Jersey, the challenge is how do they develop team chemistry in the offseason when they all come from so many different areas and play for different club teams or programs?”

Noah Stout, Shlok Patel, Johan Vaidyan, Jason Nawrocki and John-Paul Farrelly were the five seniors who guided the team throughout the season.

“What we need to do in season is work on the team aspects of the game while also honing their overall skills, ”Cabrita said. “I have always told my teams that we may not start off each sea-son in top form, but we will always finish our seasons at our best, and if they trust in the coaches and in our system, they will see those rewards in the end.”

Junior Gian Gomez stepped into a huge role for the team this year and dominated on the court with 314 kills,20.5 blocks, 124 digs, 10 assists and 38assists. He was also an All-State Second Team selection by NJ.com.

A few others who contributed significantly on the state sheet were sophomore Dominic Nycz (285 kills and 136digs), junior Sam Contursi (436 assists and 107 digs), Stout (375 digs) and Patel(123 kills). Nawrocki brought a uniquevocal leadership.

“What brings our team together especially at the end of practices and before our matches is our faith. We are bonded by our Catholic beliefs, and our boys always pray as a team before each match,” Cabrita said. “Where other Catholic programs may pray before each match, Jason took it to the next level and delivered a personalized, unique prayer specific to the match and circumstances we were going to face and tied it all together with powerful Bible passages that truly inspired our players. Our pregame warm-up would not be complete without Jason’s prayers, and often at times, no matter what the boys were doing before the start of each match, you would hear them all yell over to Jason and say, ‘Jay we are ready, bring us in, let’s pray.’”

St. Joseph boasts an overall record of 818-237 and has qualified for the state tournament in all but one of its 34seasons. The program has developed 34athletes to play NCAA volleyball and 79to play collegiate club volleyball.

Cabrita credits the geographical diversity of the program to the school’s academics, extracurriculars and strong college placements.

“Up until perhaps in the last five years, we weren’t really getting volleyball players because volleyball for boys prior to high school was almost non-existent, ”Cabrita said. “There were some boys that started playing club early before high school, but for those with middle school teams, they tended to be public school teams, and those players traditionally continued on with their high school teams. On occasion, we would benefit from younger siblings of our players who because their older brother got into volleyball in high school, many of them started playing in their younger years. So, when they came to us, they were at an advantage over others just starting.

With many talented players set to return next season, headlined by Gomez, St. Joseph wants to elevate the bar even higher and win a third straight state title. “We are a young team, and now that they have tasted success at this level, they want to get back there again,” Cabrita said.