St. Charles North graduate's most excellent adventure -- in India

The e-mail's subject line said it all: "I'm in India!!!!!!!"

Yep, seven exclamation points.

Rusty Lavaja, St. Charles North Class of '08, was most excited to be in Pune, India, representing the United States at the FIVB Men's Junior World Volleyball Championship.

He'd finished an all-conference freshman season at Brigham Young as the eighth-ranked blocker in the country. Having been invited to be on the 12-person USA Men's Junior National Volleyball Team, led by his coach with the BYU Cougars, Shawn Patchell, the 6-foot-7 middle blocker was in India for the competition July 31-Aug. 9.

The purpose was to win a volleyball tournament, of course. But the mysterious surroundings were certainly a diversion.

"It was definitely different from anything I'd seen before," Lavaja said.

Like elephants. Walking down the road. No wonder the roads were so rough.

"They just don't have the amount of high-quality stuff compared to us," he said. "It wasn't bad at all - it was great, like a learning experience just to see how other people lived. It was unique."

Once he got used to the curry the food was decent, from the bony, finger-lickin' chicken to Indian attempts at American cuisine which didn't quite resemble the real thing.

Lavaja liked the food even if, as they say, it didn't necessarily like him.

Taking advantage of the positive dollar-to-rupee exchange, he purchased an elephant statue at one of the city's teeming open markets.

"I'd never seen that many people in one place," he said.

As for the volleyball, the United States finished eighth out of 16 teams in the fifth time they qualified for the Junior Worlds. It was the country's third straight time qualifying for the event after a 24-year absence. Brazil beat Cuba in the finals.

Lavaja ranked among the tournament's top 40 players in scoring, spikes and blocking, where he ranked 27th with .33 blocks a set.

He marveled at the Iran team's flag-waving followers, and wished some of the gyms in the states drew the big crowds in the gleaming Balewadi Sports Complex. He watched a 16-year-old Cuban player with a 45-inch vertical leap and called the competition "humbling."

"I've got to work on some stuff," Lavaja said.

He's at it right now. Monday was Lavaja's first practice back at Brigham Young, where his course schedule comprises 15.5 credit hours.

"The half counts for volleyball - and that's probably the most hours I spend on anything," he said.

Trend setter

Lavaja wasn't the only local playing volleyball abroad. Batavia's Kristin Hoffman, a sophomore setter at Northern Illinois University, played in Pula, Croatia, as part of the United States' A2 Youth National Team.

Selected from among 100 eligible players nationwide - back in February she attended the National Team tryout in Colorado Springs along with NIU teammate and St. Charles North grad Maddie Hughes - the A2's went to Europe over two weeks in July. They started with training in Switzerland and ended in Venice, Italy, before returning stateside.

The women took fifth place in the volleyball tournament. Like Lavaja's experience, the tournament ran neck-and-neck in popularity with the European adventures the women enjoyed, once they survived the 9-hour flight and a 12-hour bus ride.

Hoffman details her experiences in a blog on the NIU women's volleyball Web site.

Among the team's first experiences upon arriving in Switzerland was, naturally, visiting a nearby McDonald's.

Fly with the Eagles

Benedictine University is hosting a pair of reunions this month surrounding Eagles football.

The first comes this Saturday, Sept. 5, when former Benedictine coach Bill Barz - who also led Mt. Carmel to a state title in 1980 and took St. Francis to the state quarterfinals in 2000 - and his defensive coordinator, Dave Egofske, will be toasted along with their teams and players of the 1980s.

Arriving at the Lisle institution in 1984, the Barz-Egofske duo lifted the Eagles from 0-9 in 1983 to national rankings in 1986 (9-1) and 1988 (8-2).

A tailgate complete with memorabilia and old game films will be held at 4:30 p.m., before the Benedictine-Elmhurst game, and the good times roll right on into a postgame party.

Former Benedictine coach Tom Beck and his players from the 1970s - invited to sit for a team picture at halftime - will be saluted Sept. 19 for Benedictine's homecoming, a 1 p.m. game against North Park. This one has pre- and postgame parties as well.

You don't have to be an old Eagles footballer to join in. To RSVP call assistant athletic director John Morris at (630) 829-1812 or via e-mail at jmorris@ben.edu.

Protect the innocent

Local running magazines are a good place to keep track of current and graduated athletes, primarily track or cross country.

The August edition of Chicago Athlete, for example. We recognize the name of Bastille Day 5K winner and Wheaton Academy four-time all-stater Matt Field, but don't recall the 50-year-old Batavia resident who placed ninth among all men at the Windmill Whirl.

He's right there in the results: "Big Dumb Dork."

doberhelman@dailyherald.com