Oak Park-River Forest senior Eric Hameister has earned an tasty nickname from his volleyball teammates: Bagel.
It’s not because he’s always spreading cream cheese on a pastry item, or scoring zeros on tests.
His full nickname originally was “Everything Bagel,” and stemmed from an ability to play every position on the volleyball court. Over time, only the bagel part stuck.
“More people call me ‘Bagel’ than anything else,” Hameister said. “People who don’t even know I play volleyball call me ‘Bagel.’ “
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Hameister admitted that he will order one every so often.
“It’s a little bit of cannibalism, but, yeah, I like eating bagels,” Hameister said with a laugh.
Last season, as a junior on varsity, Hameister was one of the first guys off the bench, either as backrow specialist, outside hitter or right-side hitter. But with no upperclassmen setters on the team this season, he accepted switching his role to help the team.
“This is the first year he’s set for us, but he’s doing a pretty nice job,” OPRF head coach Don August said. “We’re trying to get him to be a little more vocal, but he’s handled the responsibility extremely well.”
Hameister is working finding his voice on the court.
“I can definitely get hyped up and loud, but I’m not going to get in anyone’s face or yell at them,” he said. “If someone is not where I want them to be, I don’t want to get into their face. But I do need to get it into their head that they have to be a certain place at a certain time.
“I definitely feel more comfortable than the beginning of the season. It is happening slowly and by the end of the season we’ll be a well-working machine as a team.”
Hameister prepared in the offseason for his experience as a full-time setter. Aware of his new upcoming job for OPRF, he took over that role for his club team, Chicago Elite.
Hameister is still deciding among Illinois, Iowa and Purdue and plans to study computer science, but knows he won’t be playing volleyball in college.
The Huskies (3-10, 0-3 West Suburban Silver) lost on the road to Hinsdale Central 25-14, 25-18 on Tuesday, April 21. Part of the reason was their disappointing serve receive and lack of consistency, August said.
“We’re definitely off to a slow start,” Hameister said. “We’ve played some good teams, so it’s been a little bit difficult, but we’ve been picking up steam. Things are coming together and hopefully we’ll pull more wins together.”
Valentin is a freelance reporter for Pioneer Press.