BALDWINSVILLE – Starting in the late 1990s, the Baldwinsville girls volleyball team began a dominant stretch rarely equaled by any other program in Central New York high school sports.
If it continues, it will do without the woman largely responsible for making it happen.
Mary Jo Cerqua had decided earlier this fall that, however the 2021 season turned out, it would be her last. Then she made the announcement formal just after the Bees were ousted by Cicero-North Syracuse in the Section III Class AA semifinal.
It came just as news broke that Cerqua was one of three new inductees into the New York Volleyball Coaches Hall of Fame, joining Eden’s Robert Pierce and Hudson Falls’ Gail Schaefer.
Cerqua took over as B’ville’s head coach in 1990, when all area high school girls volleyball was played in the winter and, as a result, Section III teams could not pursue anything more than regional championships.
By the end of the millennium, the Bees were starting a stretch where, with only the occasional interruption, it roared to sectional titles – first in Class A, then in Class AA.
And when large schools switched to a fall schedule, Cerqua’s Bees immediately became a threat to do more. It paid off when, in 2010, B’ville won the state Class AA championship in Glens Falls, a feat it equaled three years later, in 2013.
Right through the 2019 season, B’ville stayed dominant in the area ranks, running its total to 23 sectional titles in a span of 25 years and getting close to a couple of more state championships.
In 2018, two years after passing the 500-win mark, Cerqua nearly lost her position as complaints were made to the school board about her coaching tactics. But after an intense debate where several other former players and parents came to Cerqua’s defense, she stayed.
With that controversy behind her, Cerqua’s Bees put together two undefeated regular seasons in 2021 – one in the spring, and another in the fall, but saw C-NS rise up in the playoffs to deny B’ville giving Cerqua a 24th sectional title.
Dozens of Cerqua’s players would make it to the college ranks, and they would all say that the intensity Cerqua brought to practices made the actual matches easier to deal with.
Cerqua said that she is not done with volleyball and will stay involved with it in different capacities, while also getting time to see her two sons, David (at St. John Fisher) and Daniel (at Belmont) play college volleyball.
This was just the latest instance of a high-profile, highly-accomplished Section III fall sports coach stepping down after a long and successful tenure.
Boys soccer coaches Jeff Hammond (Fayetteville-Manlius) and Aaron Moss (Skaneateles) exited after their respective teams made the state final four and the Lakers won it all in Class B, while Dave Mancuso left as Liverpool football coach.
