Rockford's top boys volleyball teams are rivals on the court, best friends off it
Jefferson volleyball players were returning to Rockford on a long bus ride from an early season tournament near St. Louis. Hononegah players were also returning from a tournament. Suddenly, phones began to ring on both buses as the J-Hawks and Indians shared their tournament experiences with each other via FaceTime.
“We were just chit-chatting,” Hononegah senior Chase Kemmet said.
The Bears don’t “chit-chat” with the Packers. Ohio State and Michigan don’t pal around. Even in the NIC-10, Hononegah and Boylan basketball and football players don’t go out for ice cream together. But in the NIC-10’s newest sport, the two best teams are close friends with each other.
“I love them,” Jefferson four-year starter Jayden Chanthayod said of the Hononegah players. “They are my closest friends. I went to middle school with some of them. We play club together. We hang out. It’s where we came from.”
This is only the seventh season that boys volleyball has been an official NIC-10 sport. There are also only eight Rockford-area boys volleyball teams, all in the NIC-10, vs. more than 30 high school basketball teams. Friendships abound all across the NIC-10 in boys volleyball, with Hononegah and Jefferson players being especially close.
“The volleyball community is really tight-knit, especially compared to basketball,” said Hononegah 6-8 senior Braydon Savitski-Lynde. “Basketball is so wide. I had friends when I played basketball, but it wasn’t ever a whole team of people. Volleyball is different.”
“That,” said Jefferson coach Nicole Miller, “is just the culture of boys volleyball in Rockford. They all play together in the offseason. In the summer, you can catch kids from East, Harlem, Hononegah and Jefferson on the sand courts at Sinnissippi. You can catch them playing club at VC United. You can catch them at the UW Sports Center for open gyms. The bulk of these kids who really love the sport, you can find them at any time at any place playing volleyball.”
And in the NIC-10, you can see the closest-knit of these friends battling each other for the conference title.
“That's the awesome part of it,” 6-7 Jefferson senior Matthew Ekberg said. “You get to fight against your friends.”
They also share a common goal: to grow their sport, a sport that has only 29 NCAA Division I teams and that is offered as a high school sport in less than half of the 50 states.
“Men’s volleyball is something new,” Hononegah’s Kemmet said. “It’s unique. We all share that. It’s fun for all of us to share and relate to one another. That brings us closer. All around the conference, Boylan and Harlem, all those rivalry schools in football and basketball, we have something new to share in volleyball.”
They can’t share victories when they meet head-to-head. But being friends does not lessen the rivalry.
“We want to fight to see who can have bragging rights over each other,” Jefferson's Chanthayod said. “I want to make sure I am better than you. Make sure I stand on top.”
“It might even make it more competitive,” said Savitski-Lynde, one of the league’s first big recruits, who has signed with Division I Ball State. “The guys you know, you want to beat them bad. We talk trash through the net.”
“We mock each other during the games,” agreed Jefferson senior setter Andy Nava. “We’re good friends. We grew up with some of them since middle school, which is forever. But when I go into a game, I try not to be friends with them for that one hour. I try my best during and then laugh it up after.”
Contact: mtrowbridge@rrstar.com, @matttrowbridge or 815-987-1383. Matt Trowbridge has covered sports for the Rockford Register Star for over 30 years, after previous stints in North Dakota, Delaware, Vermont and Iowa City.
This article originally appeared on Rockford Register Star: Jefferson, Hononegah boys volleyball teams are rivals, best friends
