2004 Boy’s Volleyball New York State Champions

The 2004 Team paved the way for every Hamburg team that followed, setting up Hamburg as one of the gold standards in WNY and NY State for many years that followed.  This team was uniquely small in numbers until a member brought in a new friend to fill in a missing piece of the puzzle.  As it seems in many championship teams, “the whole was greater than the sum of its parts.”

The 2004 team was led by Co-Captains, David Hatten and Jeff Hartman, who were both named to All-State Tournament- 1^st team, and All-WNY- 1^st team along with Ryan Johnsen. Nikolaj Prychodko was also named to the All-WNY-1^st team. Rounding out the major contributors that had an incredible impact on this team’s success throughout the season, were Patrick Abulone, Colin Murtha, and Matt Lardo.

Going into 2004, Coach Carroll knew he had a talented team, but they started slowly losing to Canisius in their first contest, as well to them again in the semi-final of the Clarence Kick-off Tournament.  However, after the Clarence Tourney, the team started to find their rhythm, winning the Eden, Sweet Home, and Orchard Park tournaments, and going undefeated in divisional play, with a perfect 12-0 record. The Purple and White then breezed through to the Section VI final, with a meeting with West Seneca West, and the most celebrated Men’s Volleyball player to ever come out of WNY, Matt Anderson, who has been on TEAM USA for the 2012, 2016, 2020, and 2024 Olympic Teams as a player and captain.   Hamburg beat West Seneca West 3-0, to advance as the Section VI champion in the NYS tournament.  The State Tournament is a seeding of the Top four schools after pool play. Hamburg garnered the #2 seed, and defeated Burnt Hill of Albany, with the right to place for the overall Class A NYS championship, against perennial powerhouse, McQuaid Jesuit of Rochester, who were the #1 seed. The Bulldogs played a near perfect match, their passing percentage of Hartman, Abulone, and Murtha was an astounding 95%, when 80% is considered well above average! The middle hitter/blocker tandem of Ryan Johnson and Nikolaj Prychodko were only blocked 1 time in the final match, it was one of the highest played matches of any team in NYS history! After the match, the McQuaid AD wrote the team a congratulations letter and said, “You flat out deserved this.  Our team was great.  You were simply unbeatable and your young men were not going to be denied.”

The 2004 Boys’ Volleyball team finished the season with a 30-3 record, and the Class A New York State Championship.  David Hatten was named MVP of the NYS tournament.