Mike Zile is back in the saddle of leading a varsity volleyball program, but with all sports on hold, Zile’s second act is on delay.

The highly-successful former Bethlehem Catholic coach takes over Liberty’s program for Neiad Ammary and hopes that an experienced squad gets the chance to show their mettle following last year’s 14-4 campaign.

Back for the Hurricanes this year include Michael Capuano (Sr., setter), Danil Kurtz (Sr., libero), AJ Muffley (Sr., OH), Devin Renninger (Sr., OH), Ruiqi Wang (Sr., MH) and Joey Rachwal (Jr., MH).

“We have one of the most experienced teams in the Lehigh Valley with a core group of five seniors that have experience playing for the high school team and playing club volleyball in the offseason,” said Zile. “The team lacks length and size along the net with only a few players just over 6 foot tall, however, they make up for it with their well-rounded skills with players that can play multiple positions.”

Newcomers this year are Brandon Achey (Jr., OH), Cesar Acosta (So., defensive specialist), Josue Ayala (So., OH), Cody Trauger (So., OPP), Naseem Younes (So., setter/defensive specialist), Aden Bortz (Fr., MH), Elden Campbell (Fr., MH) and Matthew Gonzalez (Fr., setter).

“The players had listed the goals of contending for the league and district titles and qualifying for states,” said Zile. “In order to get there the Liberty program has had a tradition of year round competition under prior head coach Ammary that we were able to carry forward and continue for this season. We added some additional competitions to make the team even more battle tested.”

Now the question remains if there will be anything to be battle tested for.

“Right now we are in a holding pattern and are hopeful that this pandemic trends in the right direction, so that the season can be salvaged,” said Zile. “With the way the news has been, it seems as if there will have to be some dramatic breakthroughs for that to happen.”