The boys’ volleyball team at Oak Park and River Forest High School has been on a hot streak for most of the year so far.
Last year, the team earned a one-seed in the state tournament, and with the talent on the team, there was little doubt of seeing them at Hoffman Estates for the IHSA state tournament. However, the Lions of Lyons Township Community High School took down the Huskies in the Sectional Finals 2-1. After that loss of missing the state tournament, there’s fire in the eyes of the Huskies for the 2025 season. Now, the Huskies are on a roll, only losing five of their 25 games so far this season.
As of May 11, there are only three games remaining in the regular season, but there is still work to be done, according to Justin Cousin, head coach of the boys volleyball program and and English teacher. “We need to work on starting fast and finishing strong,” he said. “There has been games where we have [done one of the two], and we just need to work on bringing it together.”
OPRF will be the site of some post-season play. The Huskies have received the one seed in the Hinsdale South Sectional, and received a bye for the first round. With that, there are seven matches to the state title.
The team this year is incredibly young, with just two graduating seniors, Stuart Lippincott and Gavin Martin, showing the longevity of the program. Only one of the seniors, Martin, is a starter, and the starting lineup consists of juniors and one sophomore.
Junior Henry Hullinger says that the coaching staff is what makes the program so successful. “Coach Cousin pushes me harder and harder every single day,” he said. “The support from the coaching staff has been great in preparing us for the games.”
Each team in the West Suburban Conference has an impressive resume, with three teams in the silver division receiving either a one or a two seed in the state series tournament.
Trayce Chrusfield, a sophomore on the team, said, “I think that the teamwork that we have helps us win. We talk and hang out a lot outside of school, and our chemistry is unmatched.”
The volleyball programs at OPRF have been ranked highly the past two years, in part because of the coaching but also because of the past coaching. The Huskies were coached by a man named Don August, who has been memorialized in the OPRF field house since his untimely death in 2020. Cousin inherited the program from the Illinois Volleyball Hall of Famer. “He always used to joke with me about giving me the program,” Cousin said. “We still do team dinners as team building exercises, which is something that he started here.”
So is the team ready for the postseason? Captain Wesley Kochendorfer thinks that “if we focus on our game, we can dominate the competition.” He added, “We are more than prepared for this, but there is still work to be done, and we will not know until June.”
And that’s the beauty of it all; we will never know who will be on their game in June. Volleyball is such an exciting sport, not just to watch, but to support as well. And at OPRF, they are really easy to root for.
At press time, the OPRF regionals were set to occur on May 26 and 27 in the Field House, with the regional championships on May 29, also at OPRF. The sectional site is Hinsdale Central High School, and the state finals will take place at Hoffman Estates.
