The volleyball world, according to Sean Rooney

For Sean Rooney, a powerful outside hitter with Team USA volleyball, it seems like only yesterday that he was helping Wheaton Warrenville South dominate on the court.

His four-year career at Pepperdine went by so quickly, and just a few years ago he was the youngest member of the U.S. team. Now, at the ripe old age of 26, he admits there are a few younger kids on the team and he's on his way to becoming a veteran. He travels so much and his team wins so often that Rooney has a difficult time explaining where all of his trophies are stored these days.

He does, however, know where to find his Olympic gold medal from Beijing - his dad keeps that for him in a safe place.

This weekend, he'll bring his team to the Sears Centre for a rematch against World League rival Italy, a team they beat in straight sets last month before traveling to China for a pair of 3-1 victories there.

A lot has happened since he gave up playing baseball and basketball in Wheaton and decided to follow in his big sister's footsteps and try volleyball in high school. To catch you up on the international game, his career and his future, here are nine things you should know about international volleyball and Sean Rooney, in his own words:

1. Right now, the No. 1 team in the world is Brazil, and the USA is No. 2 even though we won last year's World League championship and the Olympics. It takes a long time to build up the overall points to take over the top spot. After that, Russia is right there and it's a cluster of teams, like Bulgaria, Italy, Serbia and others.

2. All of the top teams play a little different game. A team like Brazil is a little bit faster of an offense with a lot of ball control and a lot of depth. Our team is a little bigger than Brazil. Right now Russia is real tall and real powerful, and we're kind of between Brazil and Russia in terms of speed and power.

3. What surprises most people about international volleyball is the schedule that we have. Our season is the most shocking to people. We play straight through the summers and fall, starting in April when we get together, and then we split up and play elsewhere. In the World League, we're gone seven weeks in a row for travel and games, and then we have various qualifiers in our hemisphere with the national team. And every year there's a big tournament that runs into November, like the worlds or the Olympics. And then we split up on our own and play with international leagues. We play all over the world.

4. When USA plays Italy, the easiest way to evaluate our game is if we're winning the serve vs. serve receive battle. If we're putting pressure on them with our serves and weren't doing a good job and not getting beat by their serves, then we're on our game. If we do that, we're a pretty tough team to beat.

5. I've played the last two winters in a league in Russia. It's cold and they love volleyball, and that league is starting to take over the world. They play a very high level of volleyball. The games are free. We lived in Moscow as a team, but our home city was in the middle of Siberia, toward the Arctic Circle. For the fans there, we were the main attraction, so it was really cool to have them behind us.

6. I used to keep track of how many countries and places I visited, but I lost count awhile ago. We've had some trips that have lasted longer than it would if you flew straight around the world, going back and forth to Europe, then Brazil and China and back again. All of that travel is pretty challenging on your body, but we manage. Now I'm living in Huntington Beach (Calif.)near Anaheim, because that's where we train.

7. Playing on the West Coast was very challenging. At Pepperdine, it was real competitive every night and very intense, and if you don't show up to play that night you can lose to any team. That really prepared me for the next level of competition. Pepperdine helped me to become a consistent player and realize that I could play at a higher level. - The 1984 USA team was almost all players from California, but now we have a lot more players from the Midwest and East, so the game is developing across the country and catching up to the high level of play on the West Coast.

8. People would be surprised at how competitive we are in the gym. We go at it and want to tear each others' throats out in practice. It gets nasty because everyone wants to play and get a spot. And after practice, it goes back to normal. Once we play another country, we have to band together and play for our country and be there for each other.

9. I will have a life after volleyball someday, but I'm having a good time now. My dad is always reminding me that I have it pretty good as a professional athlete, and if I start complaining about the travel he'll set me straight about having a desk job. Just spend one day with me, he says. I'd love to play in the Olympics in 2012, and especially in 2016 with Chicago having a good shot at getting the games. After that, I'd like to play the pro volleyball circuit (beach) for a few years, and I could do that until I'm 33 or 34 or something.