Brother Rice’s Luke Dwyer found out after a nap.
Shauniel Nelson found out later in the day from a teammate.
On April 10, the two Cardinal Stritch recruits were told that the Milwaukee university was closing after this semester. It caught a lot of people by surprise.
“I woke up from a nap and my mom came in looking like … not happy,” Dwyer said. “I was like, ‘What’s up?’ And she just told me Stritch closed.
“The first couple of days, I was a little rattled.”
Nelson experienced a similar feeling.
“I actually found out from another one of my teammates,” Nelson said. “He said, ‘What are you going to do about Stritch?’ I was like, ‘I’m still going to Stritch. What do you mean?'”
Dwyer, a senior setter, and Nelson, a senior outside hitter who transferred from St. Rita, have been scrambling for the past couple of weeks to find new homes.
“It’s been hectic,” said Brother Rice coach Dan Dwyer, who is Luke’s father. “But I think they will land on their feet.”
To add to the whirlwind of activity at the Dwyer household, the Cardinal Stritch coach is James Dwyer, Luke’s older brother and Dan’s son.
“He definitely took a hard hit,” Luke said of James. “I don’t know what he’s doing with his job right now, but he is making sure that all of his college recruits and current players go somewhere before he worries about where he is going.
“He’s not in the best spot, but he’s making sure that his players are good.”
Among those players, Jake Evanish (Brother Rice) and Kyle Pietrzak (Marist) both earned second team all-conference honors this season in the CCAC for Cardinal Stritch.
Luke Dwyer and Nelson, meanwhile, are back on the recruiting market.
The Crusaders, who are one of the elite teams in the state, took third in the Smack Attack they hosted over the weekend, even though Nelson had to miss Saturday because of a family funeral.
After the initial shock, the Brother Rice duo is looking positively toward the future.
“Now, I feel like I can be in a spot where I can still go somewhere I like and play and enjoy it,” said Luke Dwyer, who has been in talks with Aurora, St. Ambrose and William Penn.
Nelson is also receiving interest.
“A lot of doors opened for me, but at the same time, some closed for me with the opportunities I had before I committed to Stritch,” he said.
Fore-gone conclusion: Lincoln-Way East’s Joey Glennon, a senior middle hitter, committed to play volleyball at St. Xavier. He will be teammates with his brother, John, for the first time in their career. John will be a senior next season.
But Joey, who golfed four years for the Griffins, wanted to see if he could join St. Xavier’s golf team as well. He had an impromptu tryout with coach Alan Lynn.
“I went up to campus with my clubs and hit in front of him,” Glennon said. “It was enough to get an offer.”
Glennon used a few wedges to start and moved to a 7-iron to convince Lynn he would be good for the Cougars.
“He said, ‘If you don’t hit it this far, you will have to buy your parents dinner,'” Glennon said of Lynn. “So, I hit it like five yards further than I said I would.”
Broadcast update: Lemont’s Andrew Kula successfully defended his state championship in broadcast news at the Illinois High School Association’s journalism state finals Friday in Normal.
Kula, a senior outside hitter, also won in 2022. That inspired him to go to Missouri to study broadcasting.
Jeff Vorva is a freelance reporter for the Daily Southtown.
