“I’d like it to be less of a hobby, more of a profession,” said Dillon Lesniak of the City College volleyball team. He was referring to beach volleyball rather than the indoor variety that he plays for the Knights.

“I’d never work a day in my life if that were my job,” Lesniak added.

Lesniak, along with Pierce Stewart, Alexander Epps and Sean Williams, will be transferring to a four-year college next year to play volleyball on partial scholarships.

Lesniak, Stewart and Epps will be attending Lourdes College in Ohio, while Williams is unsure where he will end up but said
Fresno State University is his likely destination.

All four players have a background in either basketball or football but have gravitated towards volleyball.

“It’s more of a team sport,” said Epps on why he likes volleyball better than basketball. “You can’t rely on one person.”
Lesniak agreed when comparing volleyball to football, where one “can rely on physical abilities to make plays.”

“Players in volleyball are equally athletic, and it’s more mental,” Lesniak said.

The “mental game” of any sport may sound like a cliche, but all four young men share passion and intelligence for the game that is evident when speaking to them.

Epps and Stewart are academic All-Americans and were selected by their fellow players to captain their teams.

From 2007 on, Williams spent two years doing missionary work in Brazil, where he became fluent in Portuguese in six months.

Lesniak, speaking of the more methodical game of beach volleyball, compared it to a chess match.

Though the team will have to get some help to make it to postseason play, Stewart is quick to point out that it isn’t because a lack of talent.

“We’ve been ahead in every single match and kind of given it away,” Stewart said.