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Mike Conlon (13) will be one of the key pieces for this year’s Holy Redeemer squad, who returns as the No. 1 favorite in the Wyoming Valley Conference despite losing all-everything Mike Prociak to graduation.

Take your conference, put all the coaches in the room and get them to agree on two things in the preseason.

Sounds like a difficult task, doesn’t it? Probably even tougher because the season hasn’t really begun.

Yet, talk with most boys’ volleyball coaches in the Wyoming Valley Conference, and they come to a quick consensus on those two agenda items.

No. 1, the league is really young. The youngest most coaches could remember in recent memory.

Need proof?

“We are pretty young in terms of experience,” said Dallas head coach Nick Diaco as the Mountaineers lost key players in Bryce Mattson and Patrick Madaya, “We have a lot of kids who got that experience on the JV level last year. We just have to keep working hard every day.”

“We are extremely inexperienced,” added Berwick first-year head coach Sarah Warner. “We only have three returners from last year’s squad.”

And prevailing notion No. 2, Holy Redeemer is the overwhelming preseason favorite to capture top conference honors.

It’s pretty easy to select the Royals, to be honest.

While head coach Jack Kablick lost all-everything Mike Prociak, the Royals return almost everyone in all rotations.

And that includes the entire back row.

“In my 17 seasons, I’ve never returned my entire back row before,” the Holy Redeemer head coach said. “You can tell they are just really in sync right now.”

Redeemer is the defending conference and district champ. The team advanced two rounds in the PIAA Class 2A playoffs, knocking out District 3 squads York Suburban and Garden Spot before falling to eventual state champ Northeastern.

“We’ve been to some tournaments, and you can tell how far along we are,” Kablick said. “We’ve seen some tough teams like Freedom, Whitehall, Exeter and Schuylkill Valley, and we’ve done well against them. I’m excited to see what this team can do.”

If Redeemer is the favorite, who would be considered the teams to chase down the Royals?

Three come to mind.

Crestwood has 10 seniors on the roster, and will be led by the Manship brothers, Corey and Chet. Also back is Kyle Price and Chris Dexter, who each had a nice match in a loss to Redeemer in the district quarterfinals. The Comets opened the season with a convincing, 3-0 win over Tunkhannock

“With 10 seniors, we do have high expectations for our squad,” Comet head coach Mike Williams said. “We hope to be at the top of the conference and contend for a district title.”

Greater Nanticoke Area, under the direction of head coach Debbie Gavin, also returns a good portion of her squad – including setter Eddie Lukowski. GNA made a nice run in the playoffs and earned a state berth in 2014

“Right now, we are just focused on our squad,” Gavin said. “We have a nice team. They are competitive kids that want to win. We just need to find the leadership that last year’s senior class brought to this team.”

The biggest mystery might be Lackawanna County school North Pocono. The Trojans, who were the district runners-up to Redeemer last season, lost two strong components in Eric Kramer and Cory Rinaldi. Head coach Jud Holdredge does return three seniors in Nick Linko, Matt Morris and Zack Gething.