Realistically, Lincoln-Way West’s Garrett Konopack knows he’s not going to be the next LeBron James. In the future, however, he hopes to make money for star athletes.
The senior setter, who’s heading to Missouri to study business, wants to be a sports agent.
“Hopefully, I’ll be the agent for LeBron one day,” he said with a laugh. “I want to stay in sports. I’m not a 6-foot-9 athlete, so I’m not going into the NBA or anything like that.
“That seems like a good goal. Make a lot of money.”
As a setter, Konopack has been money. The 5-11 Konopack entered the postseason with 863 assists this spring, only 31 behind David Flores for the program record from 2018.
Many of those assists have gone to Connor Studer, who owns the program record for kills this season with 410.
“I’ve been setting this guy for half of my life,” Konopack said of Studer. “He and his brothers got me into volleyball, and I would have never been here if it wasn’t for them.”
Konopack said he will try to play club volleyball at Missouri. Studer is also looking to play club at Alabama while studying aerospace engineering.
Lincoln-Way West coach Jodi Frigo said she will miss Konopack and Studer. She wishes they could have played a full four years.
“These guys just want to perform the best they can this year and go as far as we can,” she said. “They were both four-year varsity players. Unfortunately, with the COVID years, they got gypped a little bit.
“But they are truly special.”
Studer said he’s been lifelong friends with Konopack. They started playing club for Ultimate when they were 13, forming a tough tag team.
“I became a setter because there were already too many hitters on the team,” Konopack said.
Studer is happy he has been able to put up record-setting numbers this season and that Konopack is on the cusp of his own.
“It was always a dream of ours,” Studer said of the two breaking records. “But I couldn’t imagine it happening in high school.”
Title time: Lincoln-Way West won the SouthWest Suburban Conference for the second time in program history and the first with a perfect 8-0 record.
“It’s awesome being the first team to go 8-0,” Studer said. “It’s surreal. I would have never believed it.”
Marist took the East Suburban Catholic Conference title for the eighth straight year, also going 8-0. The RedHawks have not been beaten in conference since 2016.
Reavis had a perfect 10-0 record in the South Suburban Conference and did not lose a game in that span. The Rams’ last undefeated conference season was in 2018.
Brother Rice tied Loyola for first in the Catholic League Blue with a 9-1 record. In order to achieve that, the host Crusaders shook off a rough 25-12 loss to the Ramblers in the first game Thursday and won the final two games 25-21, 25-13.
St. Laurence won the Catholic League White with a 5-1 record. It’s the second time in program history the Vikings won a league title.
All’s well that ends well: Brother Rice seniors Luke Dwyer and Shauniel Nelson had verbally committed to Cardinal Stritch, which announced in early April it was closing after this semester due to financial reasons.
But the pair did find new homes. Dwyer, a setter, will be heading to Aurora University. Nelson, a right-side hitter, is going to Lourdes.
The two were able to participate in a recent signing ceremony at Brother Rice, along with teammates Nathan Kramer and Jack Osborne, both outside hitters.
Kramer is committed to Santa Monica, while Osborne chose St. Ambrose.
Jeff Vorva is a freelance reporter for the Daily Southtown.
