Finding a suitable balance

Cary-Grove senior Danielle Smith says she hasn’t had a problem juggling her club volleyball team at Sky High and her varisty volleyball and basketball seasons. (Northwest Herald file photo)

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For Brennae Benda, the decision to play volleyball year-round wasn’t easy.

The Woodstock senior knew there would be things she would have to forgo.

Basketball, she decided, was one of them.

Moved up to varsity basketball as a sophomore, Benda enjoyed the back-to-back seasons of volleyball then basketball.

Until it became too much.

“Volleyball was really my passion,” Benda said. “Playing [year-round] really gives you more exposure, and I knew I needed that.”

Benda is one of a several local athletes who opted against continuing to play basketball in favor of varsity volleyball and off-season training with one of the local volleyball clubs.

Choosing to specialize in one sport, many local ahtletes found, increased their chances of landing a college scholarship, especially when they are able to participate in club volleyball in a hotbed such as McHenry County.

The pressure to choose, Benda said, came from no one. But the time came when she only could do so much.

“It’s a really hard decision for anyone to make,” Benda said.

“But I think if you want to excel in any sport and play it at the next level, you have to step back from your life a little bit and think about your future.”

Benda is headed to Arkansas Tech on a volleyball scholarship – one she received through additional exposure from playing with her volleyball club, Crystal Lake-based Sky High.

A glimpse around the area shows more than 10 senior volleyball athletes moving on to play at the Division I level next fall.

But this season’s senior class hasn’t yielded any Division I-bound girls basketball players.

McHenry County has established itself as a hotbed for volleyball, with Sky High and Club Fusion fielding several off-season teams on which local varsity girls play.

Is it possible, if a Division I scholarship is the goal, to play both sports?

“We have a policy where we encourage our athletes to play multiple sports,” Scott Harris, president of Sky High, said. “We do not turn away any athlete because of other commitments. We’ve got girls playing at the highest club levels on our teams who compete in other varsity sports.

“But because volleyball in our area is so strong, it brings a lot of scouts and [Sky High] becomes a very easy place for athletes to be seen. Almost 100 percent of our athletes who chose to play college volleyball go on to play on a scholarship. Parents and athletes see this and it helps them gravitate toward volleyball if they have a passion for the game.”

There are more than 300 colleges and universities sanctioned by the NCAA that offer 12 full-ride volleyball scholarships each year for D-I; there are eight full-ride scholarships at the D-II level. Over 7,500 volleyball scholarships are available each year to high school girls, with NAIA opportunities factored in.

The NCAA numbers are almost identical for girls basketball. In total, the NCAA can award 7,310 girls basketball scholarships each year, making it almost equally as easy to receive either scholarship, according to the NCAA numbers.

Sometimes, practice times for club volleyball and varsity girls basketball conflict.

“We try to work with our kids every year and make sure they’re able to do all the things they’d like to do,” Jacobs girls basketball coach Ed Haugens said. “That’s the point of high school athletics. Some kids might be pressured to [play just one sport]...but if our kids feel any pressure, it’s from outside sources. Kids want to play varsity athletics, and I don’t think that should be hard for them to do.”

Some have found that balance.

Cary-Grove senior twins, Danielle and Brianna Smith, have learned how to juggle club volleyball, varsity volleyball and basketball with some ease.

The Smiths play volleyball for Sky High during the varsity basketball off-season until C-G’s varsity volleyball season begins again in August.

Varsity basketball players since they were sophomores, the Smiths have become assets to the team.

“We’ve always made all of our coaches very aware of what our intentions were,” Danielle Smith said. “We never had any pressure from anyone because we wanted to play both.”

The twins would like to pursue volleyball in college and are listed on Sky High’s Web site as two of the top unsigned seniors.

Harris said during the Smiths’ junior basketball season, Sky High allowed the twins and a few other local players, including Woodstock’s Becky Stoltz, to work their volleyball practices around their basketball practices.

Stoltz opted not to play hoops for Woodstock this year and is also one of Sky High’s top unsigned seniors.

Tailor-made practice times were not available this year and the Smiths simply took this winter off from volleyball practices regularly, but attend tournaments with Sky High if their weekend is basketball-free.

“This year we went back to a different practice schedule because it had been hurting the strength of the club overall,” Harris said. “But they are not penalized for missing volleyball practice.”

Harris said he doubted missing Sky High practices hurt the Smiths’ chances of receiving D-I scholarships, either.

“There are scouts at all the events we go to. Certainly they won’t be seen as much as they will be after [basketball season],” Harris said. “But I haven’t seen it hurt anyone.

“It’s been my experience that most of the girls who have given up playing basketball gave it up on their own and they did so because they see a lot of success in the club volleyball scene.”

That success is one of the reasons the Smith twins were not willing to choose.

“Once varsity basketball is over, we can start getting back into [club volleyball] and get looked at a little more by some colleges,” she said. “I think we’re both just happy it’s been able to work out.”

Sometimes, though, it simply doesn’t.

Crystal Lake Central, for example, won the IHSA Class 3A state volleyball title this season and is sending many of its players on to play D-I volleyball.

None of those athletes is on coach Mendy Benson’s basketball roster, but nearly all of them play for either Sky High or Club Fusion.

“It might have to do with a lack of overall success,” said Benson, whose team is 3-19 this year. “But I do know there are four girls at Central who will be D-I athletes that used to play basketball and do not anymore.”

Rachael Thornquist, a senior right side hitter for the Tigers’ state championship team, is headed to Seton Hall on a volleyball scholarship.

A varsity basketball player as a freshman at Central, Thornquist eventually chose volleyball over basketball partially because of the area’s volleyball success and because dedication to a sport comes at a price.

“I got tired of eating peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for dinner and not being able to do my homework because I was so busy,” Thornquist said. “Choosing one sport made life a whole lot easier.”

She was still occasionally asked to rethink her decision to walk away from hoops, but knew she had made the right choice.

“I felt like my options for a scholarship were better in volleyball considering the area,” Thornquist said. “And it’s the sport I love the most.”

Flexibility between club sports and varsity teams ultimately determines, then, whether girls basketball and volleyball can compliment one another completely.

“I don’t think any club program is hurting my basketball program,” Haugens said. “But sometimes I think, if there’s not some flexibility on both parts, it might hurt the kids.”

• Maureen Lynch is a sportswriter for the Northwest Herald. Write to her at mlynch@nwherald.com.