Fusion 18 Black truly on mission

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Prairie Ridge’s Taylor Brauneis and Crystal Lake Central’s Julie Jeziorowski enjoyed their trip to Europe a year ago when they played volleyball and did plenty of sightseeing.

This year’s spring trip for the Club Fusion 18 Black team will be much less expensive, and in many ways, more rewarding. The Fusion team, which has six local players who are among the area’s best, will go to Nicaragua from March 21 to 29.

The players will compete in five matches, but they also will visit hospitals and work in an orphanage every day while they are there.

“It will give us a chance to learn about ourselves helping out in the orphanage,”
Brauneis said. “It’s like a mission trip.”

Brauneis said the team discussed going to Europe again, but the main drawback was the travel cost. She said the trip to Central America will cost about half what the trip to Europe would have.

Local players making the trip will be Brauneis, Jeziorowski, Hampshire’s Amy and Kara Wehrs and Central’s Lindsay Anderson and Caity DeCoster.

Fusion 18 Black went to Italy, Austria, Germany, the Czech Republic and France last year.

“Last year was a once-in-a-lifetime experience,” Jeziorowski said. “It was amazing the things that we saw. I’ll remember those for the rest of my life. This year’s going to be exactly the same. We’re excited about helping people and doing something we normally wouldn’t do on a daily basis, visiting an orphanage and a hospital.”

The trip lands on some players’ spring breaks, while others will make the trip a week before their schools’ spring breaks. There will be plenty of educational and cultural value for the players, several of whom, such as Brauneis and the Wehrs twins, are taking Spanish IV in their high schools.

“My Spanish teacher loves it,” said Amy Wehrs, who also will make the trip before her school’s spring break. “Our teachers are for it. They’re helping us and letting us take our finals early.”

The players will each take 50 pounds of items, such as soccer jerseys, shoes, baseballs, notebooks, crayons, pencils and other things that young children might like.

“I’m really, truly excited about it,” Amy Wehrs said. “We’ll play international teams and help people out. It’s interesting to be able to help as well as play volleyball.”

• Joe Stevenson covers high school sports for the Northwest Herald. He can be reached at 815-526-4513. He also can be reached by fax at 815-459-5640 or by e-mail at jstevenson@nwherald.com.