Benet's Fara someone to look up to
It was not all that long ago that Rachael Fara first walked into the gym at Benet and only dreamed that someday she might be as good as some of the volleyball players she looked up to on the Lisle campus.
As a somewhat timid, relative newcomer to high-level volleyball — both at the high school and club levels — three years ago, Fara hoped to someday be as good as teammate Meghan Haggerty, now a middle blocker at the University of Nebraska.
After plenty of hard work in the weight room and on the volleyball court, it's pretty clear that the Benet senior's dreams have been fulfilled. The 6-foot-3 middle blocker, who committed to play at Northwestern University two summers ago, has developed into one of the top high school middle blockers in the country, the type of player other girls now hope to emulate.
For her efforts this season, Fara is the Daily Herald's 2014 All-Area Volleyball Team Captain.
Fara helped the Redwings win the Class 4A title her sophomore year, then helped guide an injury-plagued squad to second in the state in 2013. This year she has gotten even better, and she and the Redwings took a 36-1 record into this week's Bartlett sectional as the top seed. Her first kill at the sectional will be her 200th this season, and she also led the team by a large margin with 71 blocks entering this week.
Benet coach Brad Baker, who has guided the program to four state championship matches since taking over the program in 2007, ranks Fara right up there with the best the program has ever produced. But he says Fara didn't just show up with all the talent in the world. She set her sights on becoming a great player and worked extremely hard to reach those heights.
“It helps to grow and end up being tall, but she has spent endless hours in the weight room and on the floor becoming the player she is,” Baker said of Fara, who has been a part of a varsity program that has gone 112-9 over the last three seasons.
“She didn't just walk in the door and well, since she's big and can jump well … to play in the Big Ten you to have a lot more than that. You have to have a certain level of work ethic.”
Fara says it's her competitive fire that drives her to be the very best she can be. Last summer she played up a year and helped Sports Performance's 18 Elite squad claim a national AAU crown in Orlando.
“As a sophomore I was very timid,” said Fara, recently named MVP of the East Suburban Catholic Conference. “The juniors and seniors on the team were a huge part in helping me recognize that I could really play at a high level. Regardless of whether we won state or not, that was an amazing year for me. I still talk to many of the seniors and other players from that team. I have them to thank for so much.”
What those older players helped Fara realize then was that hard work can pay off, but also that in the sport of volleyball playing together as a team is critical.
“I try and go out and give it my all every day,” she said. “I remember when I was a freshman, Meghan Haggerty, who's currently at Nebraska, she was like my idol. I think it's great that younger players or even a player the same age can be inspired by others.
“Now I'm honored to be that role model and at the same time I know that I'm not the best and that there's always someone out there looking to get better than me and to beat me. So I'm always working to make sure that doesn't happen.”
Playing on a Benet team filled with Division I talent and playing in the middle, there are times that Fara might get overlooked in some matches as teammates like Dana Griffin, Tiffany Clark and even sophomore Veronica Snelling are piling up gaudy kill numbers on the outside. But Baker, his team and Redwings opponents know just how valuable Fara is in the middle.
“Middles, really good ones, they don't get enough credit,” said Baker, who was hoping to claim a another sectional title this week and maybe set up a showdown with Mother McAuley at the supersectional with a chance to avenge this season's lone loss. “Defensively, it makes it so much easier for your team to play defense because they close blocks and they put up bigger blocks. Also people are so worried about her that it makes it so much easier for our other kids. They follow Rachael. They make sure they are always committing on her with their blocks, so our other kids get one-on-ones all the time.”
With Fara drawing so much attention, it has been a little easier for Griffin to get some of her team-leading 259 kills and the same goes for the 223 slammed down by Snelling, a sophomore on the outside of Benet's front row.
“Rachael might not get the kill, but there are a lot of times where she should get the assist … we're not going to her because they have two or three kids on her and somebody else has one or no one and that's why we're going to the other person,” Baker said.
Wheaton Warrenville South coach Bill Schreier, who has seen many of the top players in the state this year either across the net from his Tigers or while hosting the Wheaton Classic, which Benet won, is well aware of Fara's value on the floor for the Redwings.
“She should be the player of the year,” he said. “She is the glue that holds that team together, for sure.”
Fara was named MVP this year at the Benet Invite, Wheaton Classic and the Mizuno Cup — all tourneys won by the nationally ranked Redwings — and also is a finalist on the MaxPreps 2014 National Volleyball Player of the Year Watch List.
It is Fara's improved overall play and leadership growth that has Baker putting her right up at the top with the school's best players ever.
“Without a doubt we have been blessed lately to have some great middles, but Rachael is right in with all of them,” he said. “She's actually a little bit bigger than some of the other kids, and everyone has their strengths, but I would put Rachael right there with everybody in any one of the categories as far as hitting or blocking.”
After she helped the Redwings reach the state championship match last year — a loss to Mother McAuley in which Fara and Griffin paced Benet with 6 kills apiece —Baker had high expectations for his leader this fall and she has not disappointed, not in games, or in practice or in the training room.
“Brittany Pavich was hurt last year, a returning starter that helped us win state, and for us to get back to state, and to take second there, Rachael really had to step up last year and take on a much bigger role,” said Baker, who managed to get the team to within one match of a third straight title even after Pavich, a middle now playing at Boston College, missed much of the season. “With how she played last year and going into this year we were extremely excited … we knew she was going to have a great year again, and she has been great.”
But again, it just didn't happen overnight.
“When Rachael first got here she didn't walk in the door as a superstar. She's turned herself into this player,” the Redwings coach said.
Club ball has allowed Fara to play in Japan and the Dominican Republican, just to name a few of Sports Performance's treks, but she takes a special sense of pride in representing her high school.
“Playing in high school is so different than playing club. Here you're playing for your school and you're playing for more people than just your team and your club,” she said. “A lot of people from the area know my name even if I don't know them. But I am playing for them. It's very different and I consider that a privilege.”