When Northampton’s initial varsity boys volleyball roster for 2023 was released, freshman Caden Dempsey’s name was nowhere to be seen.

Not too surprising because as a setter, his position was occupied by senior captain Nolan Yost. However, before the Kids’ first match of the year Yost suffered a high-ankle sprain, leaving head coach Sue Arndt searching to fill the most important position on the court.

She described Dempsey’s ascension, “He’s an athlete and he’s what I would call a gamer. Put him on the court and he just enjoys it. The guys rally around him. We’ve worked really hard the last couple of days just trying to change things up. The boys respond every time, no matter what the changes are and Caden stepped up and earned that spot.”

Arndt continued, “He’s had some setting experience, but not running a 5-1, which is where he’s the only setter on the court and he plays front row. So he had to learn a lot in a very short amount of time and has handled it well.”

Injury update: Yost is now out of his walking boot but has not yet been cleared for full participation.

Dempsey and the rest of the K-Kids snapped a two-match losing streak last Thursday by beating Allen 25-14, 25-18, 25-11. While Northampton was in no real danger of losing the match, this Canaries’ team was no pushover.

Arndt explained, “Over the weekend in a tournament, they beat us in one game and we beat them in one. So we knew coming into the match we weren’t going to roll over them. This is not the Allen of old.”

During the match Dempsey dished out 24 assist and had 8 digs. Landon Nickerscher led the Kids with 8 kills and had 6 digs and 3 blocks. Brad Chamberlain had 16 digs to lead the Northampton in that category. Logan Berger swatted 7 kills and chipped in 3 blocks. Logan Crossett had 13 digs, 5 kills, and 3 aces.

Crossett, a senior captain, spoke about starting fresh this year, “Last year we obviously had a great season, it’s hard to ignore that, but this year we want to make our own mark. We have a whole new group of guys who really have a chance to impact the legacy of the program going forward. We have a lot of guys who haven’t been in the varsity position before, but it’s really important for us to become a team and work through these challenges.”