For Barrington star Jessica Horwath and those in her orbit, life is always like a day at the beach.
The 6-foot-1 senior outside hitter, who has committed to play beach volleyball at Arizona, brings a sunny disposition and a dazzling array of talent wherever she goes.
Horwath excels in the classroom, where she is a straight-A student, and in both beach and indoor volleyball. Her physical skills are remarkable, and her buoyant personality inspires her teammates.
Just ask junior setter Gwen Adler, a tremendous athlete in her own right. Adler helped the Fillies advance to the Class 4A state finals in both volleyball and basketball last school year. They finished third in volleyball and second in basketball.
“I think so much of how I have decided to play volleyball, or just even the mindset going into it, I’ve learned from Jess,” Adler said. “Just the continuous positivity, like picking each other up after every point, I’ve gotten that since I came into Barrington High School.
“Her play is out of this world. But just her personality on the court and willingness to support everybody, I think I’ve implemented that into my style of play.”
Backyard beach
Barrington’s topography, of course, lacks anything resembling a beach, which means those who want to play beach volleyball have to travel.
To remedy that, Horwath’s parents, Anne and Rich, had several truckloads of sand brought to their backyard to make a sand court. Horwath was in the seventh grade then and had just started playing indoor volleyball.
The Horwath court has become a mecca of sorts for local volleyball players.
“Especially when we have time off in the summer, a lot of my club teammates come there,” Horwath said. “Even Gigi (Navarrete), the libero from McAuley, has played there.”
The list also includes Benet’s Annie Eschenbach, Lake Zurich’s Chelsea Williams, Stevenson graduate Amanda Holsen, Barrington graduate Amanda Cleary and Barrington junior outside hitter Hope Regas.
Cleary is playing beach at Missouri State, and Holsen plays indoor at Columbia. Navarrete (Northwestern), Williams (Miami of Ohio) and Eschenbach (Xavier) all will play indoor in college.
Adler has yet to play on the Horwath court due to AAU basketball commitments in the summer, but she said she hopes to join in one day. Horwath’s parents sometimes play two-on-two matches with Horwath and her older brother, Luke, a student at Notre Dame. They even play in the rain. Rich Horwath was a star goalkeeper at Hoffman Estates and UConn.
The beach court was the genesis of Jessica Horwath’s decision to concentrate on volleyball. She also competed in basketball, soccer, and track and field, where she did long jump and hurdles, in junior high.
Horwath quickly became proficient at both indoor and beach volleyball and had Division I offers in each. She took her time in deciding which to pursue at the next level.
“After my sophomore year, I was talking to coaches for beach and indoor,” Horwath said. “I wanted to play a bunch of beach, see how I felt about it, so I did that for the rest of the summer.
“Then I played high school volleyball last year, which is so much fun. Then I did sand training to see if I wanted to pursue that full time.”
Horwath competed in junior AVP events during summer 2021, and in September of that year she was the only girl from the Midwest selected for the USA Volleyball Beach National Team Development Program. She attended a session in Gulf Shores, Alabama, where the NCAA beach championship tournament is held.
After returning from Alabama, Horwath led the Fillies to their first state trophy since 2006. She had 371 kills to lead the team for the third straight season, 271 digs, 35 aces and 24 blocks, and she earned Illinois Prep Volleyball second-team all-state honors.
Horwath then opted to eschew indoor club volleyball to train full time at Progression Beach Volleyball, a Darien-based club where she was coached by Bryan McDermand.
That solidified Horwath’s decision to pursue beach volleyball.
“I had some offers for indoor, but I really loved beach because there’s a lot of strategy and different things you can do,” she said. “You have to be involved in every single play, which I really loved.
“I thought it was new, something different, and I thought it kind of fit who I was.”
Horwath went on recruiting trips to Southern schools like Florida State but quickly focused her attention on Pac-12 schools. Arizona stood out for multiple reasons.
“I went to their camp and loved the campus,” she said. “Arizona weather in Tucson is fabulous, so if I’m playing outside, I want to be nice and warm.
“They have great facilities. They have five beach courts, which is the most in the country. The girls I met there were so happy to be there, and that’s the kind of culture that I wanted.”
High culture
Barrington has created a great culture under coach Michelle Jakubowski, and Horwath, a fourth-year starter, has played an outsized role in that. Bubbly and positive are her default moods.
“She’s had that since her freshman year,” Jakubowski said. “It’s just who she is. It’s a testament to her parents for raising such an amazing kid, but she has always been that way. It’s like a 25-year-old in an 18-year-old body.”
Horwath has demonstrated natural leadership since the beginning of her time at Barrington.
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“She was on our school’s student athletic leadership team as a freshman,” Jakubowski said. “My former athletic director was like, ‘God, it doesn’t seem like she’s a freshman.’
“I don’t know if she’s ever been a freshman. I think she’s a four-year senior.”
Now that Horwath really is a senior, her value to the team has never been higher, and her play has never been better.
The Fillies had a huge setback when 6-5 senior outside hitter Campbell Paris, a South Carolina commit, suffered a season-ending back injury in the second match in August. They had already lost 5-9 junior Megan Bergquist, their fourth-leading hitter in 2021, to a torn ACL during club season.
Yet Barrington somehow hasn’t missed a beat. The Fillies (34-1) have won all four of their tournaments, including Glenbard East’s prestigious Autumnfest, where they upset then-No. 1 Mother McAuley 25-20, 10-25, 25-20 in the semifinals before sweeping Oak Park-River Forest 26-24, 25-21 in the final.
That championship vaulted Barrington to the top spot in the rankings. Horwath was named tournament MVP.
How have the Fillies done it without Paris?
“You always want to step in and play that part, but we’ve had so many supporting pieces,” Horwath said. “The amount of weapons we have is awesome. Hope has really stepped up as an outside hitter. Berkeley (Ploder), Jenna (Meitzler) and Sydney (Louis) have been crazy, and Gwen is so crafty that she can just make anything work.
“That’s super helpful because then that opens everything up. I definitely want to take on big roles, but having other people take those steps just makes everything easier.”
Horwath leads the Fillies with 318 kills on a .323 hitting percentage and also has a team-high 217 digs. She’s second in aces with 39 and third in service points with 165 on a 94.0 service percentage.
“Jess is probably hitting the hardest she ever has,” Jakubowski said. “She’s always had nice shots and been very consistent. Jess plays error-free volleyball. It’s rare to see Jess put a ball in the net. She gets a lot of balls and a lot of out-of-system balls and does an absolutely amazing job of hitting anywhere and anything.”
Now Horwath pounds balls with pace as well as accuracy.
“This year she’s added power to her game, and that’s because she’s matured,” Jakubowski said. “She works so incredibly hard in the offseason lifting and running and getting stronger.
“I really think this year has showed that immensely. Some of the power she has on her balls this year is not something she’s always been able to have that consistently.”
Hitting, of course, is what draws the eyes of spectators. Horwath can do it from anywhere on the court.
“I think where she has really had to step up is back row,” Jakubowski said. “We definitely set her more out of the back row this year than we probably ever have.
“The other people around her have done a really nice job of stepping up too. You can’t give every ball to Jess, so I think my setters do a really nice job of mixing it up.”
Future heights
Barrington has a rich volleyball tradition, having won seven state trophies, including four for second place. But the Fillies are looking for their first state championship, and Horwath thinks they are capable of getting it.
“It would mean everything,” Horwath said. “We know we can do it. It would just be a result of all the hard work and really the trust. We know that sometimes things don’t go our way, but everybody has that trust. We believe in each other, and that’s huge because not everybody has that.”
No other team has Horwath, and that is a huge advantage for Barrington. Adler said Horwath is the ultimate steadying influence.
“Say if a total stranger walks into the room, you wouldn’t know if Jess made a mistake or she got the kill,” Adler said. “It’s the same reaction. It’s just the passion she plays with. It’s incredible to be a part of.”
Where does Horwath get that passion?
“Just from playing with everybody,” she said. “It’s so much fun to just be out there. The joy that I get from the game comes from being with everybody and always continuing to work hard, to improve those little aspects. There’s so many things you can work on.”
With her indoor career drawing to a close, Horwath is relishing those moments with her teammates.
“Oh, my gosh, it’s crazy,” she said. “The season has really flown by. It’s really hard to think about because it just feels like it will always keep going. I’ve really taken on that appreciation for every practice because I’m not going to play with them for much longer, which is really tough.
“I love the energy that is in indoor, in that atmosphere with six people on the court and you’ve got the whole bench. I’ve really taken that in, and I just want to go out with everything because that’s all we have left.”
Horwath has plenty of matches left in her beach career. She spent this past summer playing in adult AVP Tour events with Kristin Heldt, 29, who played indoor at High Point.
“She is such a good, positive person,” Horwath said. “That was a great experience because you’re getting these really experienced players who have been there and done that.”
Horwath is planning to major in psychology at Arizona. She is considering becoming a sports psychologist. Jakubowski said that would be a perfect job for Horwath, given her personality.
Horwath laughs when she is asked half-seriously if she could play in the Olympics one day, but Adler is excited by the possibility.
“I would be like, ‘Oh, my god, I know somebody in the Olympics,'” Adler said.
Jakubowski said she wouldn’t put anything past someone whose performance Adler describes as out of this world. Is the sky the limit for Horwath?
“I don’t even know if there’s a sky,” Jakubowski said. “She can do anything she wants to do.”
Matt Le Cren is a freelance reporter for Pioneer Press.
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