Jamie Bruno grew up in Westerly, learning to play volleyball on the beach. His philosophy now, following 18 seasons as the head girls’ volleyball coach at Griswold High School revolves around defense.

“I was always a big defensive player, so being a tough defensive player,” Bruno said. “Never giving up on any play and going after it no matter where it is. ... I’m kind of self-taught. I learned some of the finer techniques when I went to college, but we learned a lot on our own.”

Bruno will serve as the coach of the team representing the Eastern Connecticut Conference in the ECC vs. SCC Volleyball Showdown, a senior all-star game which will take place Jan. 29 at Mohegan Sun Arena. The ECC players, including Griswold’s Ruby Logan, will face off against a roster from the Southern Connecticut Conference.

The players will each wear their school jerseys for the first-time special event, which will be live streamed by GameDay. Awards will be presented to the Most Outstanding Player of each team, as well as the SPIKE Award (sportsmanship, perseverance, integrity, kindness, effort) awarded to a player on each team.

The Griswold Chamber Choir will sing the national anthem.

“It’s something they’ve never done before,” Bruno said. “It is strange this time of year, after high school volleyball, but it’s a good experience for the seniors to get one last matchup.”

Bruno, a 1992 St. Bernard graduate, played competitive 2-on-2 beach volleyball with his older brother Brett. His first coaching position was as the junior varsity team at East Longmeadow, Massachusetts. He coached for one year at Westerly before moving to Griswold, where he teaches physical education.

The Wolverines, with Bruno’s daughter Bella as the freshman setter, were 13-9 this season with a berth in the second round of the Class M state tournament.

Bruno’s team was 22-2 during the 2022 season, reaching the semifinals of the Class S tournament.

Members of the ECC roster are Skylar Bell (East Lyme), Tessa Cantone (Fitch), Kylee Gill (Ledyard), Kiera Stewart (Bacon Academy), Emerson Lane (Waterford), Logan (Griswold), Avery Brooks (Lyman Memorial), Madeline Nordstrom (Plainfield), Chloe Yip (Killingly), Aneiris Pacheco (Windham), Zoie Farrar (Montville), Melodie Anderson (Putnam), Emily Peckham (Ledyard) and Alexandra Chabot (NFA).

Tickets are $10 and can be purchased at https://am.ticketmaster.com/mohegan/Seniorclassic

Travel agents

The schedule for Old Lyme’s boys’ and girls’ indoor track teams this season have included several high-profile meets that coach Alyssa Mercaldi hopes will get the Wildcats ready for the upcoming Shoreline Conference and Class S state championship meets.

On Saturday, Jan. 6, Old Lyme traveled to The Armory Hispanic Games, the 30th annual running of the prestigious event at the Nike Track & Field Center at The Armory in Washington Heights. The Wildcats departed at 5 a.m. and returned home at 8:30 p.m., only because they left early due to impending weather.

“It’s open to pretty much every school on the East Coast; I thought that running and competing against other teams not just in Connecticut would help prep us a little better for State Opens and New Englands,” Mercaldi said.

“I asked the kids if they would be interested in it. They wanted competition that would push them. We got into it. We put our entries in. ... It was a really, positive experience. It was an eye-opening experience. Running with different people really helped engage them (that week) in practice.”

The Wildcats’ schedule has also included the Relay Rust Buster Invitational at Southern Connecticut State University, the East Coast Invitational in Providence, the Old Saybrook Qualifier and the Joe Sinicrope Invitational.

Old Lyme currently has the third-ranked girls’ 4x200-meter relay team in Class S in 1 minute, 51.10 seconds, a time the Wildcats’ team, anchored by Zoe Eastman-Grossel, ran in their preliminary heat at The Armory. Aggie Hunt is the No. 1-ranked miler in Class S (5:46.57), as well as leading Old Lyme’s 4x800 team to No. 1 status.

Said Mercaldi of the season: “It’s been good and exciting.”

And more

During halftime of its girls’ basketball game last week against Fitch, Ledyard unveiled its latest state championship banner, with the boys’ cross country team winning the Class M state championship in the fall. The ECC champion boys’ and girls’ cross country teams and boys’ soccer team also received their championship patches. ... NFA senior pitcher Hailey Smith recently committed to play Division II softball at the University of Bridgeport.

v.fulkerson@theday.com