Dylan Missry may very well be the best volleyball player to ever play at Sachem. Ask his coaches, ask his teammates and ask his opponents. They’ll all agree.
Last season Missry lit the court up. He became the first and only junior to set program records in kills and hitting percentage. He also helped lead Sachem to an undefeated Suffolk County Division I regular season championship.
How good was the team with Missry on the court last season? The Flaming Arrows only dropped four sets all year, meaning they swept every team they played three straight games, except two.
Missry was also named All-County, All-Long Island, a New York State Scholar Athlete and Sachem North’s and Suffolk County’s Most Outstanding Player (MOP). This was all as a junior. In fact, he’s the only junior ever to be named MOP in county history.
“Previously, the award was only for seniors but Dylan was so dominant in his junior campaign that the coaches voted to change the parameters because of what a special player Dylan is,” said Sachem North head volleyball coach Matt Rivera.
Missry started playing volleyball during seventh grade at Seneca. Originally it just started out as another activity for him to take part in, but soon he fell in love.
“I love everything about volleyball,” he said, “the competitiveness, the emphasis on team and just the atmosphere volleyball creates.”
Missry spent his freshman season mostly injured, but has been starting on varsity since his sophomore year.
In the off-season he plays travel ball for the best club on Long Island, the Long Island Volleyball Club (LIVBC). This is one of the best teams in the region and they travel around the country competing against some of the best athletes in America.
The team is packed with talent, and coached by Rivera, but Missry is the true offensive weapon that makes the squad tick. This year LIVBC finished second on the East Coast. Missry had 104 kills in a three-day tournament.
“Unheard of,” Rivera said. “Coaches were literally lined up waiting to talk to him.”
They traveled to Houston where the LI club only lost three matches, to the first, second and sixth ranked teams in the country. LIVBC finished No. 14 in the nation and Missry had a scrum of college coaches interested in taking his talents to the next level.
He’s being courted by Penn State, George Mason, Cal Baptist, UC Irvin and more. To say he is the most sought after volleyball player in Sachem history is pretty accurate.
“Dylan is by far the biggest recruit Sachem has ever had,” said Sachem North volleyball assistant Matt DiStefano. “The best part about him is that he is great kid and a wonderful student-athlete. Our team this year is the most talented team that I have coached in my 15 years in Sachem. If we can get it done, they may go down as the best ever to walk the hallways of Sachem.”
Missry would be the first to tell you it’s not about individual accolades, and it’s about representing Sachem at the highest level. He uses words like “hungry” and “fired up” to describe his team’s potential to make a deep championship run during his senior campaign.
“It means everything to be a Sachem athlete,” he said. “We have the best two coaches on the Island. We also have every opportunity to succeed.”
-Words by Chris R. Vaccaro