On the upper east coast in Norton, Massachusetts, lies Wheaton College. The small private school has roughly 1,700 students. For the 2025 and 2026 academic school year, Wheaton will be starting an NCAA Division III men’s volleyball program. It is the 26th sport they will be offering at the college!
Gavin Viano is the Athletic Director for the Wheaton Lyons and stated on their athletic website, “Wheaton is excited to add the growing sport of Men’s Volleyball to our portfolio of varsity sports. Women’s Volleyball was one of the original Wheaton NCAA sports established by the College in 1974. As we celebrate the 50th anniversary of our women’s program, we’re excited to begin this new chapter within the sport of volleyball with the establishment of our men’s program.”
Once Viano announced that the Lyons were going to have a men’s team, he had to make a head coaching hire. After his search, Viano hired Coach Scott Reslow, who has a great national coaching reputation on the East Coast that extends nationally.
“Wheaton is excited to welcome Scott Reslow as our inaugural men’s volleyball coach. We consider ourselves very fortunate to launch our program under the direction of an experienced NCAA head coach and proven recruiter. The future is bright for Wheaton’s newest varsity sport,” stated Viano on their athletic website.
Prior to Wheaton College, Reslow was the Head Coach at Johnson & Wales for 12 years. Sadly, the Johnson and Wales program was cut due to the COVID-19 pandemic. He was named the Great Northeast Athletic Conference Coach of the year for the 2011 season and raked up 174 victories. JWU made 11 GNAC Championship Tournaments in his 12 seasons.
When speaking with Reslow, he was fired up to get back into coaching. “I’m extremely grateful and excited for the opportunity to build the first-ever men’s volleyball team and program at Wheaton College (MA). I feel Wheaton College (MA) has all the ingredients needed to have a strong men’s volleyball presence in the region and ultimately be a solid future contender in the always competitive New England Women’s and Men’s Conference (NEWMAC). I couldn’t ask for a better scenario to be involved in,” said Reslow.
Over the years, I have run into Coach Reslow on the recruiting trail. There is no doubt in my mind he will run a successful program at the highly academic school. Division III men’s volleyball continues to grow, and don’t be surprised if Coach Reslow gets his Wheaton program to crack into the top 25 after a few seasons.
Wheaton’s First Recruiting Class:
Jack Kenyon
Connor Lloyd
Jimmy Ciummo
Cole Arsenault
Sam Smith
Jackson Colton
Jeremy Bullar-Smith
Landon Hanscom
Jacob Hoy
Ryan Rathbun
Masiah Prak-Preaster
Evan Shea
Jordan Rodriguez
R. Bennett Chiappetta
Stephen Dufour
About the Author
Kevin Pratte has enthusiastically been involved in volleyball for over 23 years. Pratte started playing in middle school and was fortunate enough to play NCAA Division 1 volleyball at The University of the Pacific. After his playing career, Pratte got involved in coaching volleyball. In 2009, Pratte was the graduate assistant coach for the University of Nebraska women’s volleyball program. Later in his career, Pratte made coaching stops at University of the Pacific, multiple community colleges, and coached at WAVE Volleyball Club for seven years. Currently Pratte is a physical education teacher in the San Diego Unified School District, San Diego Downtown Breakfast Rotary member, a college volleyball recruiting coordinator, hosts a volleyball podcast show, the owner of the Middle Hitter website and runs a non-profit organization to help raise funds to give boys’ high school volleyball students scholarships to play club volleyball.
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