Winning a district title is always cause for celebration. Winning the first district title in the history of the sport at your school is cause for special recognition.

The 2022 District XI 3A champion Northampton Konkrete Kids Boys Volleyball team are the Northampton Press Male Athletes of the Year.

After an EPC-best 17-1 record in the regular season, the K-Kids earned their banner by knocking off Parkland in a thrilling, 4-set final, 25-23, 18-25, 25-21, 28-26. The Trojans were the only team to beat Northampton during the regular season and had denied the Kids an EPC title a week earlier.

The postseason run didn’t end there as the team fought back from a set down to beat the state’s fourth-ranked team, Warwick, in the first round of the PIAA playoffs. The Kids reached the state’s final four by dismissing the District 1 champions, Neshaminy, in five sets in the quarterfinals. Their magical season came to an end against nationally ranked Central Dauphin.

The six seniors who formed the core of the lineup had to overcome long odds and more than their fair share of hardship on the way to coalescing into a championship-caliber squad.

Captain Jackson Fehnel was the only member of the sextet to start during their freshman season in 2019, on a team that narrowly missed qualifying for districts. Their 2020 season was canceled due to the COVID pandemic.

Before the 2021 season started, their middle school coach, Jess Finlayson, lost her battle with brain cancer. Honoring her fight and her memory have been a staple of the team through fundraisers and symbolic reminders in the gym and on the players’ warmups.

The 2021 season saw the team make strides by advancing to both the EPC and District XI semifinals but come up empty in their matches against the big three in the EPC, Parkland, Whitehall, and Emmaus.

All the hard work came to fruition in 2022 as the K-Kids rode a wave of raucous community support with gold medals around their necks and the District XI trophy in hand.

The seniors accounted for almost 90 percent of the team’s court time.

Fehnel was named first team All-EPC as an outside hitter after earning second team honors as a junior. He reached the career 500 kill milestone early in the season against Freedom. Fehnel led the team in digs with 394 and was second with 269 kills. He will be playing college volleyball at Misericordia.

Fehnel spoke about his teammates, “I love all these guys. We trust each other. We know we’re all going to make plays. Every match can be someone different. Everyone gets kills every game, gets digs every game. No one thought that we would be here and now we’re district champions.”

Middle blocker Alex “Big Al” Schoenen also received a first team All-EPC nod. He was a third-teamer in 2021. Schoenen joined Fehnel in the 500 career kill club. He led the 2022 K-Kids with 352 kills and 64 aces. Schoenen was second in blocks with 51.

Setter Keller Repasch earned a spot on the All-EPC second team. He had 851 assists on the season and eclipsed the career 1000 assist mark against Emmaus in the regular season. He was also third on the team in blocks with 42.

Johnny Martinez was named third team All-EPC as a middle blocker. His all-court game was demonstrated by leading the team with 67 blocks and finishing second in digs with 293. He also had 236 kills, good for third on the team.

Outside hitter Duane Milnes was second on the team with 51 aces. He recorded 120 kills and 282 digs. He played all the way around through the 6 rotations.

As a libero, Austin Shetayh was a defensive specialist who racked up 178 digs.

While the seniors led the way, a pair of underclassmen played important roles.

Sophomore opposite hitter Landon Nickischer gave the Kids some explosive left-handed play out of the position and finished fourth on the team in kills with 151.

Junior Nolan Yost, who will take over as setter next year, was second in assists with 180 and third in aces with 40.

While Jake Crossett, Logan Crossett, and Matt Everhart saw limited match action, they proved their value as good teammates and practice partners.

Head coach Sue Arndt summed up the season’s performance by her players.

“They did the impossible,” she said. “They were discounted at the beginning of the season. We weren’t supposed to win districts in other people’s eyes. We won districts. We weren’t supposed to win against Warwick and we won. We weren’t supposed to beat Neshaminy and we did. We got to the point where you play the best of the best.”