Ode to the Top RI Assistant Volleyball Coach…

8/17/23

It’s a rumor that I can neither confirm nor deny, but North Kingstown High School has hired a new assistant coach…

Coach Reslow here, and due to said rumor, I’ve decided to write an article to convey my thoughts on the matter. I don’t become the coach I am today without the influence of four coaches (Dan Greene, Kevin Harrington, Brian Garrepy, and Nancy Somera). So, with Coach Harrington reportingly stepping away from the game, let’s talk about his career and why everyone should be trying to convince him back to their own bench.

Before I was Coach Reslow, I was Rez. I had a disappointing, college basketball career due to my incredible ability to get injured. Could get hurt like no other and at the most spectacular of times. Despite these trials, once my college career was over, I managed to play at a pretty solid level in adult leagues in Rhode Island. Enough of a level, for a friend with connections to offer me a professional gig in Poland. What an opportunity! However, poor choices, an unlucky fall, and hopefully a once in a lifetime national disaster, put the brakes on that path. Crushed and uncertain what to do next, I took a weak job and watched the days go by.

Two years later… It was an advertisement in the paper that actually caught my mother’s eye. “You should apply for this…” She would later provide the same exact advice for an opportunity at a University I’d never heard of in Rhode Island. Well, I went for it. Did the application process and went through the interviews. Didn’t get the gig…but a local volleyball legend named Dan Greene did, and Dan asked to speak with me (I became his assistant coach after the conversation).

Danny was the first guy to get me next level excited about volleyball. DG could ball and realized I still had some miles in the tank left to play, though it would take two more years to be serviceable enough to play for his “semi-pro” team. He also recognized that coaching was in my future. He taught me a lot. Still use some of his drills to this day. However, I would’ve gone back to basketball (I had been an assistant coach at a couple of high school teams for a couple of years) if it hadn’t been for Kevin Harrington.

I knew him as Harri or Kev…

I first met him at North Kingstown Volleyball Camp. From there, Kev invited me to be a middle on his team for a tournament at MIT. I remember accepted the invitation, and then panicking afterwards as I was nursing a back injury that really had me wobbling. DG asked why I was going if I was hurting so bad? My answer was quick, “You turn down something like this, and you may never get asked again!” Wearing a back brace and taking lots of Advil, I pushed through. Had a solid tournament, for a borderline novice, and started getting invites regularly.

At that time, Harri was the most impressive volleyball player I knew. Dude was 6’2, huge shoulders, long, golden hair, and moved like a panther. Everything he did was smooth and calculated. I saw him set and play libero and every play he made looked effortless. He had won high school state championships…I wasn’t into volleyball then, really, and couldn’t tell you how it went…I may have not even been in the state at the time… Though it’s rumored that he’s absolutely in the conversation for the top boy’s setter to ever come out of Rhode Island. He even coached the North Kingstown Skippers for a little bit post high school graduation (03-04), having solid seasons despite (or perhaps because of) his youth, easy-going manner, combined with his ability.

Thinking about them as both set at a high level…Dan Greene played the game like the German bobsled guys from Cool Runnings ran their races (1993 flick staring John Candy and Doug E. Doug). Precise. Efficient. Kevin Harrington played the game like Bret Maverick from the 1994 movie Maverick starring Mel Gibson and Jodie Foster (That’s a good one, kids…check that flick out!) …coy, easy going, affable, until the opponent dropped his guard and then Harri would pull the gun with the hammer already drawn back…he knew what he was doing from the beginning. With a sharp wit, yet an easy-going ease to him, Kev would dissect teams, winning matches while the opponents couldn’t help but like the guy.

Harri’s level would eventually take him to Rivier College where he was a part of one of the best men’s volleyball teams to ever come out of the Northeast. That 2006 Riv team would go to the Molten Final Four as Harri and another setter, Nhut Chau, split time throughout the year. To give a little perspective on that season, the Molton Final Four was the Division III Championship before the NCAA sponsored it. It was created in 1996 and it disolved in 2011. Throughout the sixteen-year existence of the Molton Final Four, only one team from the Northeast ever made it…the 2006 Rivier Raiders quarterbacked by Nhut Chau and Kevin Harrington.

I remember Rivier coming to JWU’s gymnasium, before I was the coach there, and scrimmaging the team I played for with Dan Greene. If I recall, it was a pretty even matchup, with local legends like Pete Weremay, Booh Brennan, and Steve Santonastaso leading the way while guys from up north like Ray Capes (though Ray attended PC in his undergrad) and Chad Jones rounding out the talented squad (if I remember correctly)…needless to say I was the least talented, and least experienced, player in that unit…I busted my ass though to fit in. Enough so, that if I had the eligibility left (turns out rule wise, I didn’t), Coach Kolek offered an invite to come to Rivier to get my master’s and run middle. I actually did have a year of NCAA eligibility left due to injury, however in those days it could only be with your old school, so it didn’t materialize (that rule has since changed).

Tragedy struck in Kev’s last year at Riv. Later on, I spoke with Rivier head coach, Coach Kolek and he mentioned that at the time he had planned to run a three-middle offense with that Riv team because he felt that Harri was the smartest setter he’d had to date. That was saying something as Chau was excellent and there were other very good offense orchestrators that came through his program. Plans changed quickly however as Kev would break his leg at a match at MIT. Just up for a block, came down, and snapped his leg…sadly, as gruesome as you can imagine. Surgeries, rehab, and pain followed. The MIT guys sent him gear and get-well cards. He would play again, but never at the level he had peaked at. His playing career basically ended at the cage at MIT.

Before going any further, there are no questions that Kev has his demons…as do we all. It’s not my place to write about them. I can, however, absolutely empathize with losing your career suddenly. I’ve also had some significant injuries that nag and leave you in constant pain for a long time. The frustration with both of those items is not easy to deal with. The difference with my battles with the above is that my injuries happened at one time, and losing my career happened twenty plus years later. Both of Kev’s happened at once and that is extraordinarily brutal.

Once Harri’s playing career was over, it was an easy transition back to coaching volleyball. His way of giving information just translates so well to young aspiring players. When Kev was teaching you how to play, there was a mysterious fun to it. You never felt like the weight of the world was on you. He’d say something like, “You know, if we play the ball like this, good things are going happen, and we like good things!” Harri was also very honest about what he saw. “Hey, our effort level is just not good enough to win. If we want to push this team right now, make one extra effort play on each rally and the sun will come out.” He never shied away from what he believed in the game, and he refused to sugar coat a situation. I would see this firsthand…

In 2009, I was named the fifth, and final, head men’s volleyball coach for Johnson & Wales University in Providence, RI. My first call was to Kevin Harrington. I needed a coach that would bring instant credibility to a progam that was a joke. The year prior to my arrival, JWU had lost twenty matches, was in the cellar of the GNAC, had been banned from the BU Tournament, and their top player was doing most of the coaching and recruiting. My job those first two to three years was to restore order, get the ship going the right way, recruit like crazy, and bring respectability back to the program. Landing Kevin as my assistant coach was the first step. He accepted, reluctantly, as he worried that he might not be able to stomach where we were at the moment. Coming from the elite to the bottom, I could understand his reservations.

None the less, Harri ended up staying with me at JWU for six years. Year one was unbelievable in the truest sense of the word. My first college practice had only three players. We played the runner up of the NECVA Tournament, Newbury College, first and then hosted the mighty Rivier Raiders right after. Sets were to thirty points back then, and Kev and I often found ourselves praying to get to fifteen. We were four and four after eight, but from there the wheels came off. Still, the highlight of the season was a five-set defeat to MIT that year. We pulled out two ridiculous sets and the MIT coach, Paul Dill at the time (Paul’s a legend and has been the face of MIT volleyball for two decades at least), couldn’t believe what was happening. Set five, Dill spun the dial and Kev alerted me. “Rez, he’s got his middle starting in four (their M1 was from the Netherlands and killed us all night). The match-up is not good for us.” Harri was right, but I retorted, “Do we even have a match-up that is good for us?” “Nope. Just thought I’d let you know. We’ll need them to make six errors to have a chance, and Pete’s going to need three aces from the service line (Pete was Petar Yanakiev, our starting OH2. Freshman at the time from Bulgaria. Pete now teaches surfing in San Diego).” Needless to say, we didn’t get those perimeters for success, and we fell, but it did show that Kev and I belonged at the college level…with plenty to learn from the bench.

During his tenure with JWU, Harri was instrumental in helping me design the program. We’d constantly discuss drills, style of play, strategy, video, and recruiting. He also was my barometer for my lectures. I’d dig into something important at a stop in training or at a time out, and immediately following I’d check with Kev to see what he thought. I loved that he’d tell me exactly what was what. Too long, Rez…happened a lot. I fought to get the “That’s a good one, Coach!” as that was the highest praise. His stories of his playing days with Riv were massively valuable and his reputation allowed him to critique players who needed it. Whereas I was new, almost everyone in the college volleyball world knew Kevin Harrington. From Rochester, NY, to Nashua, NH, we’d enter the building and Kev was our representative.

After our first year, I brought on Brian Garrepy as another assistant coach. Coach Garrepy was also an NKHS product and had recently left coaching the NKHS girls to give his try at the college level. He’d ultimately stay with me for 11 years. From there, Harri was the offense coach and Garrepy was the defense coach. Garrepy, with a larger gift of gab then I, also took on a lot of the duties on the recruiting side, while Harri did his best to make sure we didn’t embarrass ourselves. Harri was the guy who made sure we knew the rules, the warm-up protocol, to not hit angle in split hits, how to show respect to a team, to appreciate the play, and the understanding of what it really takes to win on a consistent basis. He set the posts and we were always trying to cross the goal line. Remember, Kev played for one of the top teams ever to come out of the Northeast, thus his greatest frustration with his time at JWU was that our players never, during his tenure, truly embraced the time, effort, and dedication it took to win. At Rivier, it was a culture. For JWU during this time, it was a daydream and a nuisance for our players.

“One time, I was playing, and the ball was shanked off a pass at my leg. I began to make a play on it, when my teammate reached out and batted the ball in frustration. He immediately stopped, looked at me, and apologized intensely. I brushed it off with a laugh, hey, it’s ok, man. No worries. My teammate was insistent though, no, I robbed you of a chance to make an incredible play and I’m deeply sorry. Every bad play on the ball, is an opportunity to make an incredble play on the next touch, which is why we run and dive after ever shank. I never forgot that, and I hope you don’t either…”

Kevin Harrington - Assistant Men’s Volleyball Coach for Johnson & Wales University (2009 - 2014)

Our best teams during his tenure were the 2012 and 2014 seasons. Combined record of 36 - 28, with the 2014 team being the first JWU team under the Reslow coaching era to win 19 matches and tie the most in school history to that point. Both 2012 and 2014 teams lost in the semifinals of the conference. Long distance in a short time period, from laughingstock to in the mix in four years, and Kevin and I were the initial architects of it all.

Also during this time, Kev teamed up with Dan Greene to coach the Prout School’s girls volleyball team in Rhode Island. Prout at that time had already won two Division Two state championships, but bringing on Harri cemented their level and led to three more years of dominance. This included winning one more Division Two championship in 2008 and then moving up to Division One and winning the state championships in 2009 and 2010. Lots of “W’s”, a t-shirt scandal, and plenty of players playing at the next level were just a few of the results of this Harri / Greene collaboration. The 2009 Prout Girls Volleyball Team was inducted into the The Prout School Hall of Fame nine years later in the 2018 class. Meanwhile, the 2006 Rivier College Men’s Volleyball Team that went to the Molten Final Four (the only Northeast team to ever go) was inducted into the Rivier University Hall of Fame as well.

After six years, funding for the men’s volleyball program at JWU was cut. I had to make a tough decision as I was no longer able to keep two assistants on board. I ended up sticking with Coach Garrepy as Garrepy was the clear choice for recruiting as we all felt that we needed better players to make the final push. Kev was very gracious with the decision, and even remained only a phone call away as the seasons continued which I would often utilize. From there he decided to dedicate his time to a fledgling club program that just sort of popped up onto the RI volleyball scene. South County VBC was in its infancy, and both Dan Greene and Kevin Harrington would lend their time and expertise to help get the project off the ground. Today, South County VBC is the top club in Rhode Island for both girls and boys, competing regionally and nationally. The main draw for the organization is the level of coaching the player can get there. That started with Kev, DG, and Michael Harrington (Club owner…no relation to Kev).

2015 was also the year that Brian Garrepy, Kevin Harrington, and Corey Maack retook the North Kingstown High School girls’ volleyball program. All three had done stints at the helm before, and they, at some point, had gotten together and decided that they could run the program by committee going forward. Garrepy would be considered the head coach, but really on paper alone. All three men would share the load. Harri took the reins of the Junior Varsity (JV) program as well, which would be crucial for the success that followed. Upon the appointment of this three headed monster of coaches to the NK coaching staff as well as Harri to the development side of the program, they’ve won five state championships and four JV championships. Countless players have gone through the NK system, playing for Harri at the JV level and then gone on to play significant roles on the varsity team to then play college volleyball. Large amounts of players learned the basics, as well as the mentality, of volleyball from Coach Kevin. 2015 to 2022, five championships is the third most dominate era since the 1979 to 1990 run by Toll Gate high school (during that time period, Toll Gate won 10 state championships) and the 2000 to 2006 run for East Providence where they won six state championships. All three schools lead the way for the most rings ever with Toll Gate on top with 14 titles, North Kingstown with 11, and East Providence with 7…Prout has 5, with three at D2 and two at D1.

With state championships as a player (two of them in 1996 and 1997) for NKHS, four GNAC championships at Rivier, coaching five state championships for NKHS girls, three state championships for Prout, and four JV state championships, not to mention the wins at the club level…it’s hard to think of another person who has won as much as Kev from Rhode Island. The fact that he’s not in the North Kingstown Athletic Hall of Fame as a player is shocking enough, but he should be up there for coaching soon, which I have no doubt that all three guys (Harri, Garrepy, and Maack) will enter at some point for this run they just completed.

In March of 2021, Harri discovered he had advanced melanoma in his left leg. It was significant, would require surgeries as well as yearly treatments. In response, the RI volleyball community quickly mobilized to help. Raising north of twenty thousand dollars to help with medical costs as well as hosting volleyball tournament fundraisers through South County VBC, it also became an opportunity to recognize Coach Harrington for all he’s contributed to the volleyball world. Well earned, it was one of those things where I thought to myself…it’s too bad we have to wait for something awful to happen before we praise someone we care about. It may just be the way of things, though. We go through our lives with one adventure after another and it’s only when we see the end, that our second life begins and we show gratitude (got that sentiment from Astérix & Obélix: The Middle Kingdom, goofy French movie on Netflix. Loved it more than I thought I would)…

Thus, the man who could arguably be described as one of the winningest volleyball guys in Rhode Island history is stepping away from the game. It could potentially be the first time he hasn’t been involved in volleyball in thirty-three years! Countless players have learned the game in some form from the man. Countless matches have been altered by his knowledge, expertise, or level of play. During our time at JWU, I would see something happen during a match, then quickly turn to Kev to get instant clarification. I know Coach Garrepy and Coach Maack have done the same thing at NK. He was one of the best assistant coaches for me at the college level and grew into being arguably the best high school girls assistant coach for North Kingstown. I also know that I’ll be trying to lure him back to the bench with me. Having Kev on the bench during the beginning of my college coaching career was huge. Tactics, drills, humor, perspective, he would give it all and it made me feel pretty nerve free in those first moments in the profession. And, I’m suuuuuch a better coach now then I was then, so Kev, if you’re reading this, let’s go a couple more rounds on the boy’s club circuit!

If this is the end, however, congrats on a hell of career Coach Harrington and know that those that really know, know (also remember the greats always come out of retirement, so I’ll see you soon).

Coach Scott Reslow

Moravian College - Class of 1999

Head Men’s Volleyball Coach for Johnson & Wales University (2009 - 2020)

Head Boys Volleyball Coach for South County 18 Blue (2021 - Current)