Lavaja makes cut for U.S. team
St. Charles North graduate Rusty Lavaja, an incoming sophomore volleyball player at Brigham Young University, is on the U.S. National Junior Team playing in the 2009 FIVB Men's Junior Volleyball World Championships in Pune, India.
Among 12 men selected from some 800 who tried out, Lavaja will celebrate his 19th birthday in India competing with the U.S. team.
The FIVB championships began July 31 and will continue through Aug. 9. A 16-team competition split into pools of four squads apiece, the first round of pool play ended Aug. 2. In its pool, the USA finished in a three-way tie with India and Belarus with 2 wins and a loss.
A 6-foot-7 middle blocker who joins his college coach, Shawn Patchell, with the National Junior squad, through pool play Lavaja was ranked the 24th-best blocker in the tournament, with .55 blocks per set.
Jay Petty, a Downers Grove North graduate who is a redshirt freshman player at Lewis University, qualified as an alternate on the U.S. National Junior Team. Both Petty and Lavaja played with the Sports Performance Volleyball club that trains at the Great Lakes Center in Aurora and produced current National Team members Sean Rooney (Wheaton Warrenville South) and Andy Hein (West Chicago).
To keep tabs on the U.S. National Juniors, check the Web site, fivb.org.
United for the cause: Called "a massive achievement" by Campton United Navy coach Mark MacKinnon, the under-16 boys soccer club based in St. Charles finished tied for fourth in the country at the US Youth Soccer National Championship, held July 21-26 in Lancaster, Mass., outside of Boston.
"It feels really good, it was really surprising," said Robbie Johnson, an incoming junior at Geneva High School.
"We knew we had the potential to get to the regional and to win the regional, but the truth is it was really unexpected. But once we got to the nationals and once we got into the first game, we found we could play with these guys. We could play with these guys, and we really are top-five in the country."
Johnson, a defender, joined three other Geneva players on the 16-man squad: Kevin Hilgart, Seamus Kaminski and Brady Wahl. St. Charles East offered starting goalkeeper Nate Esler, Jordan Stallman, Dylan Tucker and Chris Tomek. St. Charles North kicked in Noah Anthony, Nickolas Lutsch, Zachary Matuszak, Nate Pauer and Eric Russell.
Tucker has played with the Campton club since he was a U-7 player. Wahl, Hilgart and Pauer joined the next year.
Montini's Zander Carpanzano, a two-time all-Suburban Catholic Conference pick from Glen Ellyn, was named co-captain with Wahl.
"It was an honor to be able to play with the best teams in the country and compete with them, and even to be able to watch some of the other games," said Carpanzano, a defensive back. "The level of soccer was just really great."
Carpanzano said Campton's surge "kicked off" with its play in the Midwest Regional Championships in Sioux Falls, S.D. Campton earned wins over teams from Kansas and Minnesota and a tie with a Missouri team to reach the semifinals. It beat an Ohio squad 5-1 then defeated the Kansas City Wizards Juniors 1-0 to reach the final six U16 boys teams in the country. At nationals Campton's record was 0-1-2.
The highlight at nationals had to be a 1-1 tie with the eventual national champion Dallas Texans, one of 2 goals Dallas allowed in its three matches.
Johnson's diving header 29 minutes in gave Campton a 1-0 lead until Dallas' Aaron Simmons scored with just 8 minutes left in the match.
"Brady played a perfect ball and I was just able to stick my neck out and poke it in," Johnson said.
Carpanzano stuck his neck out and said nationals were "a once-in-a-lifetime experience."
It united Campton United.
"I can't name one guy on the team who I don't respect," Johnson said. "We're one unit now and it's nice to have them around you when you're in tough spots."
Campton will get more chances. The boys' top-four national finish clinched a berth in the National League for 2009-2010. Starting in December in North Carolina the same weekend as the NCAA men's Final 4, Campton will also play in Florida and California with a shot at an automatic berth into the 2010 US Youth Nationals.
First, it's back to high school ball.
"We get a lot more respect from other players, they're always asking us how was nationals," Johnson said. "We don't put ourselves above them as players - we will end up not playing as well. But it's definitely a good thing for coaches to see."