A day of sand volleyball and a visit to a local park for some ice cream.
For Lincoln-Way East junior Molly Hackett, it was a pretty fun and delicious way to meet her new volleyball teammates from Lincoln-Way North.
“It was right before our summer league,” Hackett said. “It was a nice icebreaker.”
The bill for the ice cream, though, must have been a doozy.
New Lincoln-Way East coach Kris Fiore and his wife dished it up for many of the 25 players who eventually came out for the varsity. That’s enough players for two teams, and that’s exactly what Fiore put together for the summer league at Palos Courts.
The results? After Tuesday, the Lincoln-Way East Blue team was 8-0, and the black team was 7-2.
Makes you wonder how powerful the Griffins are going to be when he puts the best girls from the two teams together.
“There is a lot of talent,” Fiore said with chuckle. “I’ve been very impressed. You wonder how the kids are going to react with not knowing each other, but it’s been a very smooth transition. They’re working hard and they’re working well together.”
It promises to be brutal come cut day at East.
“Yeah, cutting day is the worst day of the entire season,” Fiore said. “It’s going to be tough. I plan on having a huge roster, between 16 and 18, but I would imagine that we’re still going to have some very good volleyball players get cut.”
It’s what happens in the first year after you pare four schools down to three, like Lincoln-Way Dist. 210 did when North closed in June due to financial difficulties.
But it doesn’t have to be totally painful.
Junior Madi Corey, who played on North’s sophomore team in 2015, said that she received a warm welcome from the girls at East. She smiled when I asked her how she’s adjusting to being a Griffin.
“I’m very energetic about it and I love it,” Corey said. “With all of these players combined, we’re going to have such a great team. And it’s a great atmosphere.
“At first I was very nervous, but everybody was like, ‘OK, this is happening and there is nothing we can do about it. We have to do this and we will.’ There was nothing negative. And you know the people you play with in club, so I have a lot of friends on the team from East and it’s nice.”
On the flip side, new Lincoln-Way West coach Matt Lawrence only has a few transfers from Central, but he is excited about one incoming freshman – Kirsten Leitshuh, the younger sister of 2015 Central graduate Toni Leitshuh.
“The girls are working better together every day and have made big improvements just the last couple of weeks,” Lawrence said. “They’ll be a fun group to coach.”
New Central coach Mary Brown, meanwhile, is moving over from North, where she earned Daily Southtown Coach of the Year honors in 2015.
With a handful of East players shifting to Central, Brown has a group of 20. And there is a lot to learn across the board.
“We were not real successful (in summer league), but I didn’t expect to be,” Brown said. “We’re bringing the two groups (of kids) together. And I’m a totally different coach (to them) and I don’t know anybody. It’s going to take some time.”
Senior Val Connolly, one of a handful of players who transferred over from East, is confident that part of the process is moving along smoothly.
“It’s kind of strange being a Knight, but I think it’s going to be fun,” Connolly said. “The girls (from Central) were so nice from the beginning and so welcoming. It’s nice when you have people encouraging and cheering you on when they don’t even really know you. It helps a lot.”
Twitter@tbaranek
