At only 17, freshman starting setter Tread Rosenthal is beginning to make history at the collegiate and national levels.
Rosenthal is one of eight newcomers to the University of Hawaiʻi men’s volleyball program this season. Originally from Austin, Texas, he grew up playing beach volleyball in his backyard. He began playing indoor volleyball at 11 years old in a club.
“We started our own club,” Rosenthal said. “It was [called] Empire Spikes Back. It was just a bunch of me and my middle school friends. Probably the best team I’ve been a part of so far in my career.”
Rosenthal only officially began playing for school in his freshman year of high school. He went on to be one of the top players in his class at the high school level. After two years at St. Stephen’s Episcopal School, he transferred to Mira Costa High School in Manhattan Beach, CA. There, he led his team to the CIF Southern Section Division I playoffs.
Being a 2006 baby, Rosenthal was originally projected to graduate high school with the class of 2024; however, he reclassified to the class of 2023 after finishing all his required senior credits through online schooling. He will complete his first year of university before turning 18.
Rosenthal is not the only athlete in the family. His three sisters play volleyball: the oldest at the University of Arizona playing indoor, the middle at Loyola Marymount University playing beach and the youngest playing in high school. His parents, Lindsay and Mike Rosenthal, both played collegiate sports at the University of Notre Dame. His mom was on the women’s volleyball team, and his dad was on the football team. He played nine seasons in the NFL, primarily with the New York Giants and Minnesota Vikings.
Prior to joining the UH men’s volleyball program, Rosenthal became a member of the USA Volleyball Boys National Program.
“When I was 15, they had their first like, camp, kind of,” Rosenthal said. “And then, when I was 16, we went to our first event.”
With his U19 National Team, he participated in the NORCECA U19 Pan American Cup tournament in 2022 and 2023, which consisted of some of the best teams from North and South America. For both years, the team won gold, and Rosenthal was named Best Setter for the tournament. In 2023, he was also the tournament’s MVP. The team also went to the FIVB U19 World Championship tournament, placing fourth.
At the end of the day, Rosenthal’s roots are in beach volleyball. In 2021, he won first place at the USA National Beach Tour Junior Championships, and USA Volleyball Beach High Performance Championship with partner Sterling Foley.
In 2022, he was first in the U19 Beach World Championship Trials with partner Ayden Keeter, and tied for 17th at the FIVB U19 Beach World Championship while on the U19 Beach National Team.
While Rosenthal is still a member of the program, he is unable to participate in team activities while in Hawaiʻi.
“I haven’t gone to the camps just cause I’m in season,” Rosenthal said. “But I’m still like on the list for the teams. Just haven’t been able to go.”
At UHM, in his first season, Rosenthal has started for every game. He has been named the Big West Freshman of the Week four times, surpassing the previous record of single-season awards in program history. The previous record holder was Rosenthal’s current teammate, senior middle blocker Guilherme Voss, who received three awards in 2020.
“When I first heard about him, I was like, ‘okay, we’re getting a 17-year-old kid who just skipped his last year of high school to come play for us, he’s probably going to be a little egotistical,’ is what I thought,” junior middle blocker — and a good friend of Rosenthal — Zachary Thompson said. “But he’s a super chill dude. I was super happy he wasn’t an a-hole.”
Despite being the youngest on the team, Rosenthal was never intimidated or frightened by this new step in his career.
“You gotta be a good public figure, and be a good person for people to look up to and not do anything stupid,” Rosenthal said. “And then, just represent Hawaiʻi as best as you can. They do a lot for us, so we just try to win for them.”
Rosenthal hopes to continue the UH men’s volleyball legacy by helping the team win more national championships. Since the start of the season, the team has gone 14-1 overall, with a winning streak of 13, as of MAr. 3.
