Given Glenbrook North’s rich history in boys’ volleyball, a 2-3 record and a sixth-place finish in a 10-team tournament seems unlikely to generate much optimism.
This is a program that won the state title in its second year of existence in 1993. It finished second in 2004 and 2012 and third in 1998.
Still, veteran coach Chris Cooper saw something in the sub-500 showing in the Buffalo Grove tournament Saturday.
“I’m not even sure we won a game in this tournament last year,” he said. “I know we didn’t make the playoffs. We went home early. So we’re ahead of last year.”
The squad finished with a 21-14 record last year and tied for the Central Suburban League North championship with Deerfield with a 9-1 mark. The team lost all of its main players except Rob Chatterton (286 kills).
The Spartans racked up a 25-18, 25-15 win over Grant, lost to Buffalo Grove 25-21, 25-23, beat Lake Zurich 25-19, 25-18, lost to Sandburg 25-15, 25-22 and dropped a 25-17, 25-17 decision in the fifth-place game to Evanston.
“We’re really working with a lot of new guys and when you play a good quality team, it showed some of the things we need to keep working on,” Cooper said. “We need to find a few other people than Rob to get a few more kills. If we do that, we should be all right.”
The coach also said junior libero Danny Martens had a steady tournament and junior outside hitter Jeremy Doman had some big kills.
Other members of the roster are seniors Terry Shapiro, Kevin Lee and Joe Doherty, juniors Ethan Kirshenbaum, Joe Ferber, Dillon Balk, John Simon and Matt Lillig, sophomores Chase Bolan, Danny Voronav and Matt Biebrach and freshman Jack Ferber.
“A lot of these players are new to varsity and they still need to pick up the speed of the game,” Cooper said. “Almost everyone plays club ball, so we have a lot of room to grow.”
