Let there be no doubt: Fenwick senior Mark Casagranda lives and breathes football.
However, unlike many sports, there is no club season to occupy a football player’s time once the high school season ends.
During his junior year, Casagranda began searching for a new sport to play in the spring. It didn’t take long to find one.
“I had a lot of friends on the volleyball team and I’m pretty tall,” said the 6-foot-2 Casagranda, who attended Visitation grade school in Elmhurst. “They told me to try out and I made the team.”
Picking up a new sport proved difficult. He didn’t have the feel for the game that players develop over many years, so timing was a big problem.
“It doesn’t matter how high you can jump, if you don’t jump at the right time and hit the ball at the right angle,” Casagranda said. “During my junior year, every time I hit the ball it would fly out of bounds. But we practiced every day and I just tried to keep getting better.”
Fenwick coach Kate Whitman wasn’t sure what to expect when Casagranda started showing up to open gyms toward the end of 2013, but she saw some natural ability. She decided to bring him in.
“I ended up keeping him on varsity assuming he would be my third middle,” Whitman said. “But he ended up playing a lot more. He picked the game up really quickly and he works hard at it. He’s just an athlete, very competitive and he wants to win and get better.”
Since he plays football in the fall and spends all his time in the summer training, Casagranda wasn’t able to devote the same amount of time as a player specializing in volleyball.
But when he finished playing tight end for the Friars in mid-November, he turned his full attention to volleyball, hoping to produce one last monster season.
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Casagranda worked out in the mornings and attended every open gym. His strong work ethic was noticed and appreciated by his teammates.
“It’s awesome playing with him because he just shows so much effort and dedication,” junior libero Nick Lillig said. “He’s a great player and considering he’s one of the tallest players on the team we look up to him visually and physically. Plus, he has crazy dedication and it shows throughout the games.”
Casagranda is now starting full-time and is one of the key players for Fenwick this year. Whitman’s goal for Casagranda is getting him to where everything on the court becomes second-natured.
“With him starting so late and this being just his second year, he’s a little more timid with some of the advanced plays,” Whitman said. “I’m trying to spread his offense out and get him running some slides and different plays instead of what he’s comfortable with, hitting the quickies in the middle.”
While Casagranda wants to continue his progress, his main focus is helping Fenwick (2-1) — which defeated St. Joseph 25-20, 25-15 on April 1 — find success.
“Individually, I’m just trying to go out there and help the team win,” he said. “It’s all about winning games. We’re hoping to win our (Catholic League) conference and I think we have a good chance. We only graduated three seniors and as long as we play our game, we’ll be all right.”
Valentin is a freelance reporter for Pioneer Press.