Cinnaminson High School Class of 2010’s Ryan Kenny has become the fourth alumni from Cinnaminson High School currently playing professional sports. 

Following in the more famous footsteps of TJ (’08) and Max (’11) DiLeo  playing professional basketball in Germany and Matt Gono (’14) playing for the Atlanta Falcons football team, Kenny is professional volleyball player born in the UK  who moved to  New Jersey before becoming a 2010 graduate of Cinnaminson High School.

Kenny found his love for volleyball here at the high school, first playing the sport competitively in the spring of 2007.

“I actually played (first) here as a freshman (at Cinnaminson HS),” he said.

Today, he is playing in a town in Bliesen, Germany and his team is named after the town. “I play for TV Bliesen” He states.

Bliesen is a lot like Lancaster, Pennsylvania.

He says, “ I really like it… It’s a friendly play… very landscapey and rural.”  According to a translated version of German Wikipedia, “In 1994, the 1000th anniversary of Bliesen was celebrated,” so it is a town that has been around for a long time.  

Kenny also participated in other extracurricular activities here at Cinnaminson High School. “I was the guitarist for Jazz Band”.  While at CHS, he also played soccer and volleyball for four year, ending his senior year on the first-team All-South Jersey volleyball team.

Not only did he do extracurricular activities, but Kenny was studious.  His senior year schedule was filled with Honors classes and he graduated in the top half of the class that came to be known as the “bubble class” because the class of 2010 started CHS with 263 students and graduated with 243, nearly 40-50 more students than most graduating classes.  Kenny did well even in a super-competitive class.

“(I did) fairly well; I finished with a 3.5 GPA,” he said

After graduating high school, he furthered his education at Montclair State, but did not play volleyball there.  Instead, he got into another aspect of the sport.

“I actually did not play competitively in college, but I did (help) coach the women’s team. It was after college that I started playing again,” Kenny explains. 

Kenney coached for two years as a freshman and sophomore while at Montclair, with his first under year under Eddie Stawinski, a new coach at Montclair in 2011.  He also continued coaching with the Phoenix volleyball club and Sideout Sports volleyball clubs during his time at Montclair.

Kenny describes his current TV Bliesen team dynamic as a positive one.

“We are all very supportive and diverse,” he says.

At the time of the interview, the Bliesen season had started in September and was still currently going on.  The season ends in April. They practice between 3 and 5 times a week.

“We have about 5-6 matches left,” Kenny say when the interview was conducted in February. 

Kenny gave inspiration to people who want to pursue a professional sport.

“If you really love the sport, make a career out of it and take it to the next level. Just stick with it!”

Good luck to the Bliesen team!