Tough to top Barrington’s Czarnecki

OK, so who’s the toughest kid in high school sports?

Football middle linebacker? Heavyweight wrestler? Hockey goalie?

Maybe a gymnast on the still rings?

You can make an argument that the toughest guy out there has to be the player who puts himself in harms way on almost every play — the volleyball libero, by tradition small in stature but huge in heart.

Consider this: What’s the natural reaction of a relatively sane person when they see a large, round, fairly inflexible object screaming straight at their head at up to 140 mph?

Get out of the way, naturally.

But not the libero, who has to be just a little crazy by nature. This defensive specialist is not on the court to play dodgeball — just the opposite, in fact.

His job is to position himself to not only take the full force of the rocket serve or powerful kill attempt — he also must attempt to redirect the ball to a perfect position near the net so his setter can set up his hitters.

It’s an assignment that takes a special set of skills to do well, and Austin Czarnecki just might be the best one in Illinois.

The Barrington senior, at 5-foot-10 and 150 pounds, was one of the major driving forces in the Broncos’ ride to a third-place state trophy at this year’s state finals.

Czarnecki had 420 season digs and also served 21 aces in earning co-Mid Suburban League West player of the year honors and the nod as honorary captain of this season’s Daily Herald All-Area Team for Cook County.

“The best compliment that I can give Austin this year is that he has been unbelievably stable,” said long-time Barrington coach Rob Ridenour. “When we look at film of defense, he is almost always in the right positional spot.

“In the past I’ve called him our emotional leader, but this year he has been our rock. He’s the guy we can always count on to make the right play, and he’s also been a model of leadership for our younger players.”

Czarnecki started playing volleyball in the seventh grade, and quickly warmed up to being a libero, getting some assistance along the way from two older sisters who’d also played the position.

And even in the beginning, he understood the courage it would take to be successful.

“For awhile, I was wondering why I was doing this,” said the senior. “It could be incredibly painful.”

Czarnecki, who explains that his approach to playing defense is to “never let anything hit the floor,” has used his stellar talent to keep moving forward, climbing up the ladder to become of the top players at his position.

All of which culminated on June 2 when the Broncos defeated Minooka to claim the state’s third-place trophy.

“We always had the potential,” said Czarnecki of a senior-laden team which has been together for several years, “but in seasons past, we didn’t have the maturity level it took to succeed.

“This year we were more mature and that led to a higher volleyball IQ.”

It also led to a special bond between himself and his teammates.

“It’s a great group of guys,” said Czarnecki, who along with graduating seniors Bryan Dolan, Ryan Sarkar, Brett Adams, Taylor Ganzer, Charlie Kingwill, John Bach, Jeff Hochstein and Tommy Leonard will leave behind quite a legacy for future teams to follow.

“We like to say that on the court it’s all business, but on and off the court we have a lot of fun together. I just can’t say enough about how great it feels for us to take home a trophy from the state tournament.

“It’s something we’ll remember all our lives, and we’ll be able to say that we left our mark on our school.”

Now it’s off to Loyola University for the graduate, who will study biological sciences and also try for a walk-on role on the Ramblers’ volleyball team.

And if he brings even a small fraction of the commitment and dedication he showed at Barrington to the lakefront, Loyola will be very lucky to have him.

“Just thinking about not having Austin on our team next year is making me nervous,” said Ridenour. “He just covers so much ground — he’s passed 622 balls this year, and the next closest guy on our team only had 325 attempts.

“His serve receive score of 2.54 is the highest since I have been the coach at Barrington.”

And when asked of his most memorable moment as a Bronco, Czarnecki reaches back to three years ago, playing his first varsity match as only a freshman.

“I came in as a serving sub,” said Czarnecki, “and I served the ball right into the net — and went right out of the game.

“But later I got back in there and got my next serve in. It’s funny how you look back on something like that.”

It’s a sure bet that future Barrington players will be looking back on Czarnecki’s career and trying to emulate the role model.

“He was the type of guy,” said Ridenour, “that other players wanted to become because of what he contributed to our program on and off the court.”