Bisignani chases assist milestone amid tight-knit Latrobe boys volleyball team’s bounce-back year

By: Dave Mackall
Sunday, April 13, 2025 | 9:52 PM

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It marked a joyous union of boys volleyball stars when past met present last week at Latrobe High School after the Wildcats’ 3-2 WPIAL victory over Penn-Trafford.

Eric Vosefski, say hello to Eric Bisignani.

In the aftermath of the Section 2-3A match, Latrobe coach Drew Vosefski walked across the home court to meet his son, and the two enjoyed a brief celebration of Latrobe’s eighth consecutive triumph to start the season.

The coach then called on Bisignani to join them.

“I had the two Erics meet, and that was fun. It was so enjoyable,” Drew Vosefski said.

Bisignani, a 6-foot-4 setter and one of five seniors in Latrobe’s regular rotation, enters Monday night’s Section 2-3A match at Norwin with 921 career assists. While in his final season he wasn’t likely to match Vosefski’s career total of 1,296 from 1999-2003, he appeared destined to join him as the only boys players to reach 1,000 total assists.

“Eric Bisignani has about a 99% chance this year to break that 1,000 mark,” Drew Vosefski said.

Latrobe’s overall all-time assists leader is Lily Fenton, who finished with 1,535 with the girls team from 2019-23. She currently attends Notre Dame as a preferred walk-on setter for the Fighting Irish women’s team

After a down year last season, the unbeaten Latrobe boys team was ranked second in Class 3A ahead of the current year’s second Western Pennsylvania Coaches Association WPIAL Top 10 poll, which was due out early Monday.

Meanwhile, the Wildcats (8-0, 4-0) stood seventh in the latest Pennsylvania Volleyball Coaches Association Top 10.

It’s becoming a bounce-back year for Latrobe in Class 3A after spending two seasons in Class 2A, where the team struggled a year ago, finishing 5-5 in section play and 6-10 overall.

“A lot of us have been playing together for seven years,” Bisignani said. “We play club ball in the summer, fall and winter, and playing in different states against the best teams in the country for that long has made us a better high school team.”

Latrobe’s current core of senior players — sophomores on a 9-1 team in section play — battled through that rough stretch last season following the graduation of eight seniors on an elite 2022-23 squad two years ago.

“Last year, we didn’t do too well,” said Owen Ward, a 6-3 outside hitter who is headed to Division III Saint Vincent next season. “We were all playing for ourselves because we’re all so close. I’m sure we wanted to prove dominance over each other. Of course, we go at each other sometimes even now. But we’re so close, we feel comfortable doing that.”

After a wildly successful offseason in the club team ranks, Latrobe appeared poised to make a turnaround, even with a move upward to Class 3A.

Vosefski expanded his club team and brought together more of his players, many of whom had been scattered around various other teams.

His group responded by winning seven club-level events.

“In the offseason, those guys were up at (Bisignani’s) uncle’s gym working their butts off to say, ‘I will be ready,’” Vosefski said, referring to the residence of Dr. Greg Bisignani, a Greensburg-based orthopedic surgeon. “I told them, ‘I will keep you guys together if you want to put this in the books.’ They all said to a man, ‘Yes.’”

While Ward saw the most playing time during the high school season as a sophomore at Latrobe, he and his classmates observed a tight group similar to the current team.

It still resonates, the players say.

“Playing together so much has really helped our chemistry on and off the court,” Latrobe senior Tyler Bauer said. “Whether it’s going to team dinners or hanging out at someone’s house and having poker nights, we just seem to constantly be all together.”

Senior middle hitter Jay Sumner, a former hockey player at Latrobe, began playing volleyball just two years ago. He said he wishes he’d have played the sport earlier.

“Joining the volleyball team has been the best decision I’ve made,” he said. “I feel that I’m so close to everyone here that playing alongside them feels like second nature. They push me to be better, and I can push them to be better.”

Senior Luke Fiore put it this way: “It’s awesome to be playing volleyball with your friends. It’s awesome to have been friends with your teammates for so long, really, since we were kids. It’s really a great experience to win these games and be so accomplished in the sport. A lot of times, it makes you want to play for each other more than for yourself.”

Drew Vosefski, a self-proclaimed volleyball lifer in his 30th season as either a boys or girls coach at Latrobe, seemingly couldn’t be prouder of a team.

“What I am most impressed with is that these guys stuck together. They have a bond that is difficult to describe,” he said.

Long after the team’s latest victory, Vosefski sat on a bleacher in Latrobe’s gymnasium, which, by then, had emptied out. Papers were strewn on benches in front of and beside him. A duffel bag leaned against the base of the seats with folders peeking out the top.

“Today is my birthday,” said one of the few remaining folks as he walked over to greet the coach.

Vosefski looked up and replied: “Oh, it is now? That’s nice. Mine is tomorrow.”

With that, the now 67-year-old Vosefski flashed a smile, packed up his belongings and headed for the door, surely satisfied with the Wildcats’ latest outcome and already looking forward to their next opportunity for success.

Tags: Latrobe