Barrington’s Czarnecki has strong focus

Austin Czarnecki is an integral part of the video production club at Barrington High School.

The junior not only handles the filming duties of sport-related activities such as football and basketball, but more importantly, is actively involved in community service, as evidenced by his productions for area special needs organizations such as the local service group Walk On Farm.

“A few of my friends and I wanted to make some longboarding videos,” said Czarnecki of his intro to the hobby, “so I got a small camera and since no one knew how to edit, I decided to take it up. That led to my interest in the video club and now I’m one of the heads of that and do a lot of work for them.”

And as proficient as he may be in the classroom and in film producing, Barrington coach Rob Ridenour can attest that the Broncos are also extremely happy with Czarnecki’s production on the volleyball court.

The libero, who earned all-area and all-conference honors by recording an amazing 496 digs and 20 aces as a sophomore, returns to lead the Broncos to what they hope will be a special season in 2011.

“He’s playing at a high level right now,” said Ridenour of the defensive specialist, who plays bigger than his 5-foot-8 frame. “I’d call him our emotional leader on the court.

“He brings a lot of energy, he’s super athletic and very quick. He makes a lot of those ‘wow’ plays, but he’s also very steady.”

Czarnecki has made such an impression already that he has been chosen as one of the tri-captains of the Broncos this season along with outside hitter Matt Logue and middle T.J. Shanahan. As Czarnecki is the only underclassman amongst the three (Logue and Shanahan are seniors), he realizes that it’s quite an honor being picked to be one of the team leaders.

“Matt and TJ are what I call ‘high volleyball IQ’ guys,” said the junior. “They have an amazing amount of knowledge and know everything there is to know about volleyball, and everything that can happen on the court. The coaches want me to be more of an emotional floor leader, and I definitely plan to be more vocal this year.”

“My job will be to see what’s happening on the court (during the contests), know the opposition’s players — such as whether the setter can dump, who the power hitters are, et cetera, and make sure my teammates are informed.”

Czarnecki started playing volleyball in the seventh grade at Prairie Middle School, and soon realized that he had a talent for the sport, especially at the defensive specialist position.

He started out as a freshman at Barrington by immediately seeing action on the JV squad. He was promoted to varsity during the 2009 playoffs as Ridenour wanted to give the up-and-coming stalwart an early taste of postseason action.

The 2010 season turned out to be a memorable one for Czarnecki, who has club experience playing for Pipeline. He was a starter pretty much from the get-go en route to earning his postseason awards.

“At first, being a sophomore starter, it was very nerve-wracking,” said Czarnecki. “After a while though, as I progressed and got into a groove, I got more confident and felt good about being out there and having people see my playing at my best.”

And the junior knows, as many coaches can attest, that having a top defensive player on your squad is one of the most important requirements of a successful volleyball team.

“I love the defensive aspect of the game,” said Czarnecki. “It’s a different mindset than being a hitter.

“A libero’s job is to make sure the play keeps going, whereas a hitter’s job is to terminate the play. I look at it as myself versus the hitters. They want the ball to hit the floor, where my assignment is to keep the ball off the floor.”

Czarnecki has already started to think about college, with plans of majoring in chemistry or sciences with a possible goal of entering the medical field.

But for now, his focus is on his studies at Barrington and his goal of helping the volleyball team make inroads toward a Mid-Suburban League title and advance farther in the postseason.

“We were eliminated in the second round (of the playoffs) last year,” said the junior. “We hope to do better this year. One thing that impresses me about our team is that we always play together. There were times last year when we clicked and there were times when we didn’t click, but win or lose, we were always a team.

“We’ve got a fabulous coach (Ridenour) that knows how to push us — he knows each of us individually and has the ability to morph into each player’s needs.

“When I first started to play on varsity (as a sophomore), I was amazed at just how competitive and how fast-paced it was. The hitters hit harder, there’s more jump-serving, the blocking, the defense, the hitting is all ratcheted up a notch.”

But with a year of experience under his belt, there’s no doubt that the junior will be up to the challenge in 2011.

“Austin is a great ball-control player,” said Ridenour. “His experience will have a calming effect on the players around him.”