Post by cyberVBmidwest on Oct 12, 2004 7:19:14 GMT -5
chicagosports.chicagotribune.com/sports/highschool/cs-0410100201oct10,0,4262310,print.column?coll=cs-highschool-navigation
Adamczyk a cut above the others
Barry Temkin
October 10, 2004
Most athletes are embarrassed to be cut from a high school team.
Ashley Adamczyk is proud of it.
Of course, most cut-day casualties give up the sport in question, trying a different pursuit or maybe just MTV and a bag of chips.
Adamczyk refused to do that. She had loved volleyball since 3rd grade and wasn't about to give it up even after that August day in 1999 when the list of varsity volleyball players went up on a Mother McAuley gym door and her name wasn't on it.
That love, along with determination and sweat, explain why Adamczyk is now playing volleyball at Northeastern University in Boston. She is eager to tell her story, hoping it will inspire similar grit in others.
"I just wanted people to see my story," she said last week. "I wanted coaches to be able to say, `If you didn't make the team, it's OK because people like Ashley Adamczyk went on and worked hard still played in college.'"
Making the varsity volleyball team at McAuley, which has won 12 state volleyball titles, is a daunting challenge. Adamczyk, a junior in 1999, had been, by her own description, "really bad" on McAuley's freshman B team. But she had worked hard that season, the following one on the junior varsity team and with the Sports Performance Volleyball Club.
In the end, she was the victim of a numbers game. McAuley keeps 15 varsity players, and probably only one or two are defensive specialists, Adamczyk's role then and now because of her 5-foot-6-inch height.
She didn't approach that list on the gym door until the other hopefuls had departed because she didn't want her chagrin or her glee to play out in public. One look left her devastated.
"Not then, but later in the day when it sunk in," she said. "And later that week, when I saw everyone go to practice, that's when it really started to hit me."
Mother McAuley coach Nancy Pedersen likes cut day about as much as she likes losing to Queen of Peace, especially because she realizes she is lopping players good enough to start at other schools.
"Ashley definitely worked hard," Pedersen said. "She was dedicated, but that's not the only thing we choose on.
"It's like completing a puzzle. It's what we need at that particular time."
Pedersen said she always urges players she cuts to stick with volleyball, whether it's as a club or recreational player, a manager or a statistician.
Adamczyk, using rejection as motivation, stayed with Sports Performance to pursue her dream of getting a college volleyball scholarship.
"It was definitely a disappointment, but it made me want to work harder than ever," she said. "I thought, `Michael Jordan got cut from his high school team once, and he's still doing what he loves. Why can't I do that?'"
So she did. Adamczyk, in fact, improved so much in the next two years that Ohio State offered a scholarship. Dazzled by an invitation from a Big Ten program, she accepted with barely a second's thought.
It was a mistake. Adamczyk, quiet and shy in high school, was uncomfortable at a huge university as well as with the high-stakes atmosphere of a top-level volleyball program.
"I pretty much picked Ohio State for volleyball, and when you're picking someplace you're going to spend four or five years at, you have to consider the whole picture," she said. "It was just a little too much."
After a year, she enrolled at Moraine Valley Community College. Moraine Valley coach Terri Langellier had been a McAuley assistant coach in 1999, and she didn't expect much from her new player.
"I think when Ashley played at Mother McAuley she was very mechanical," Langellier said. "I thought she might be the same way, but she was incredible.
"I had never seen anyone serve-receive like she did. She was the hardest worker I ever met and probably the best player I ever coached."
After receiving junior college All-American honors, Adamczyk chose Northeastern over Michigan State. It has been, she said, a perfect fit socially and athletically. She has finished her transformation into an outgoing personality and became one of her team's top players.
Last season Adamczyk led the America East Conference in digs. Last summer she was named the best defender in an under-20 international tournament in Italy.
This season, the senior already has broken the Northeastern record for digs in a game.
"She's just fantastic," Northeastern coach Ken Nichols said. "She was the No. 1 defensive player in the conference last year and continues on that path this year.
Adamczyk wants to continue playing after college, perhaps professionally overseas. She also wants to become a volleyball coach.
That, she realizes, will mean cutting kids who love the sport. She doesn't really dread that, though, because she knows that even the unkindest cut isn't the end of the world . . . or volleyball.
"It would have been a nice experience," she said of playing for the McAuley varsity, "but at the same time I'm very thankful because I think being cut adds a nice touch to my story.
"Just because you don't make a team doesn't mean your career is over."
----------
btemkin@tribune.com
Copyright © 2004, The Chicago Tribune
Adamczyk a cut above the others
Barry Temkin
October 10, 2004
Most athletes are embarrassed to be cut from a high school team.
Ashley Adamczyk is proud of it.
Of course, most cut-day casualties give up the sport in question, trying a different pursuit or maybe just MTV and a bag of chips.
Adamczyk refused to do that. She had loved volleyball since 3rd grade and wasn't about to give it up even after that August day in 1999 when the list of varsity volleyball players went up on a Mother McAuley gym door and her name wasn't on it.
That love, along with determination and sweat, explain why Adamczyk is now playing volleyball at Northeastern University in Boston. She is eager to tell her story, hoping it will inspire similar grit in others.
"I just wanted people to see my story," she said last week. "I wanted coaches to be able to say, `If you didn't make the team, it's OK because people like Ashley Adamczyk went on and worked hard still played in college.'"
Making the varsity volleyball team at McAuley, which has won 12 state volleyball titles, is a daunting challenge. Adamczyk, a junior in 1999, had been, by her own description, "really bad" on McAuley's freshman B team. But she had worked hard that season, the following one on the junior varsity team and with the Sports Performance Volleyball Club.
In the end, she was the victim of a numbers game. McAuley keeps 15 varsity players, and probably only one or two are defensive specialists, Adamczyk's role then and now because of her 5-foot-6-inch height.
She didn't approach that list on the gym door until the other hopefuls had departed because she didn't want her chagrin or her glee to play out in public. One look left her devastated.
"Not then, but later in the day when it sunk in," she said. "And later that week, when I saw everyone go to practice, that's when it really started to hit me."
Mother McAuley coach Nancy Pedersen likes cut day about as much as she likes losing to Queen of Peace, especially because she realizes she is lopping players good enough to start at other schools.
"Ashley definitely worked hard," Pedersen said. "She was dedicated, but that's not the only thing we choose on.
"It's like completing a puzzle. It's what we need at that particular time."
Pedersen said she always urges players she cuts to stick with volleyball, whether it's as a club or recreational player, a manager or a statistician.
Adamczyk, using rejection as motivation, stayed with Sports Performance to pursue her dream of getting a college volleyball scholarship.
"It was definitely a disappointment, but it made me want to work harder than ever," she said. "I thought, `Michael Jordan got cut from his high school team once, and he's still doing what he loves. Why can't I do that?'"
So she did. Adamczyk, in fact, improved so much in the next two years that Ohio State offered a scholarship. Dazzled by an invitation from a Big Ten program, she accepted with barely a second's thought.
It was a mistake. Adamczyk, quiet and shy in high school, was uncomfortable at a huge university as well as with the high-stakes atmosphere of a top-level volleyball program.
"I pretty much picked Ohio State for volleyball, and when you're picking someplace you're going to spend four or five years at, you have to consider the whole picture," she said. "It was just a little too much."
After a year, she enrolled at Moraine Valley Community College. Moraine Valley coach Terri Langellier had been a McAuley assistant coach in 1999, and she didn't expect much from her new player.
"I think when Ashley played at Mother McAuley she was very mechanical," Langellier said. "I thought she might be the same way, but she was incredible.
"I had never seen anyone serve-receive like she did. She was the hardest worker I ever met and probably the best player I ever coached."
After receiving junior college All-American honors, Adamczyk chose Northeastern over Michigan State. It has been, she said, a perfect fit socially and athletically. She has finished her transformation into an outgoing personality and became one of her team's top players.
Last season Adamczyk led the America East Conference in digs. Last summer she was named the best defender in an under-20 international tournament in Italy.
This season, the senior already has broken the Northeastern record for digs in a game.
"She's just fantastic," Northeastern coach Ken Nichols said. "She was the No. 1 defensive player in the conference last year and continues on that path this year.
Adamczyk wants to continue playing after college, perhaps professionally overseas. She also wants to become a volleyball coach.
That, she realizes, will mean cutting kids who love the sport. She doesn't really dread that, though, because she knows that even the unkindest cut isn't the end of the world . . . or volleyball.
"It would have been a nice experience," she said of playing for the McAuley varsity, "but at the same time I'm very thankful because I think being cut adds a nice touch to my story.
"Just because you don't make a team doesn't mean your career is over."
----------
btemkin@tribune.com
Copyright © 2004, The Chicago Tribune
