AllVolleyballLas Vegas Ramblers announce their core roster for the 2020 season.

The Las Vegas Ramblers have announced their core roster for their inaugural 2020 season in the National Volleyball Association, which will begin competition in April. After holding tryouts in the valley in December 2019, and recruiting around the nation, the Ramblers have signed 14 players of their maximum 20-man roster allotted by the NVA for 2020. A lot of thought has gone into these decisions by Ramblers management, and they seem excited at what they have thus far. Team owner Vinny Rodriguez said in a statement, “We wanted to start with the best that Vegas has to offer in terms of volleyball talent. With that core established, we wanted to build another part of the team to train in Southern California, to reinforce that core with the talent that this region offers.” he said. Rodriguez, who has roots in Las Vegas, but played in Southern California, knows the importance of drawing from different areas to compile a legitimate contender. The team is as follows:

Setters: Tanner Maxwell (Grand Canyon), Michael Keegan (IPFW)

Outside Hitters: Sam Holt (CSUN), Gino Gamboa (UC Santa Cruz), Max Osmundson (Hope Int’l), Antonio Boucher (LBCC), Nick England (UCI Club)

Opposites: Quinn Peterson (Juniata), Vinny Rodriguez (Concordia University-Irvine)

Middles: Antwain Aguillard (Long Beach State), Josh Duarte (Concordia University-Irvine), Mark Lane (Golden West College)

Liberos: Ryan Manoogian (Long Beach State), Trevor Robinson (Holy Names)

The team features players with varying levels of experience. There are some guys with high-level college volleyball experience, overseas experience, and even minor stints with the national team. There are also some members of that team lacking that high-level experience. It will be interesting to see how this core group comes together and fares against some tough NVA competition, especially considering they don’t all train in the same city.

“We love that we have a diverse mix of guys. We have youth, experience, high-level, guys hungry for high-level action, and everything in-between” said Rodriguez, “I think this is what the Ramblers were always supposed to be about, and the fact that we team/training is split between Southern California and Las Vegas only adds to that idea. We will all be fired up to compete this season!”

The Ramblers management has expressed heavy interest in signing more players to that core roster before the league deadline. A majority of that interest aimed at college seniors as they finish up their collegiate careers this Spring. It will be interesting to see who is added to this core roster in the next couple of months. Be sure to follow along on Ramblers social media as well as the NVA app.