Boys volleyball: Christian Heritage, Grayslake Central extend friendly series

"Goodbye Mr. Cook!" Grayslake Central boys volleyball coach Dan Erlenbaugh yelled from across the gym on Tuesday night.

And with that, Jeff Cook, the Christian Heritage Academy boys volleyball coach, ran over to Erlenbaugh to give a quick handshake. Then he headed toward the exit to catch his team's bus.

Interesting that Erlenbaugh would address a rival coach as Mister.

But it makes sense when Erlenbaugh explains it.

"He (Cook) always says, 'You can call me Jeff,'" Erlenbaugh said. "And I'm like, 'Nah, it's Mr. Cook.' That's the way it was growing up. He was Mr. Cook. It's just one of those things where I would feel weird saying 'Jeff.'"

Erlenbaugh, in his second year as head coach of the Grayslake Central boys volleyball team, which is also in its second year of existence, used to play volleyball with Cook's son Adam at Buffalo Grove High School.

Erlenbaugh was a setter and graduated in 2004 while Adam was a defensive specialist and graduated in 2006. The connection between Erlenbaugh and the Cook family is how the volleyball series between Grayslake Central and Christian Heritage Academy, a small school in Northfield with only 60 students, developed in the first place.

The two teams played last year and Christian Heritage was the season opener for Grayslake Central this year.

Christian Heritage wound up out-lasting the host Rams this time, 25-23, 17-25, 25-13. Grayslake Central starts the season 0-1 while Christian Heritage moves to 2-0.

"It's been nice to start these games playing each other," Erlenbaugh said. "It was just one of those things, we ran into each other, we talked, he (Cook) told me about where he works and once I found out that we were getting a (boys volleyball) team last year, I made sure to schedule his team so that we could play each other."

Grayslake Central, Erlenbaugh says, is still in learning mode in Year 2. Last year, only Keegan Zack had any club volleyball experience. Now, a few more players do. But there is still a lot for the Rams to work on.

"We are definitely in a better position than last year," said Zack, who led Grayslake Central with a game-high 9 kills. "We're getting better. But it's only our second year and we're still figuring out about the mentality that we need to have, about how to not get down when we lose a point or don't make a play. If you mess up a hit, mess up a set, you walk away and keep on playing."

Christian Heritage was forced to deal with its own version of adversity. After a strong first game, the Lions let Grayslake Central steal the second game. Errors played a role in that loss.

But Christian Heritage got back on track in the third game with some nifty hitting out of the middle. Middle hitter Christian Lee had a team-high 8 kills.

"The biggest thing in the middle is timing and us getting in sync with the setter (for quick sets)," Lee said. "As we get more comfortable, we'll be able to do that more."

Nathan Burg and James Tina added 7 and 5 kills respectively for Christian Heritage. Austin Rockel added 7 kills for Grayslake Central and setters Matt Kozak and Javier Ortiz finished with 12 and 7 assists respectively for the Rams.

"We're pretty small as far as boys volleyball teams go, but we're pretty athletic," Cook said. "These first two games, we've used some pretty nice shot selection, nice sets and good choices. We're playing smart.

"It's always fun to come up here and see Dan. We're a small school, without a very long history, only 10 years. This is a good match for us."