De La Salle senior Haley Chavez played some amazing volleyball over the weekend at the Chicago Christian Invitational.
Any college scout would have been impressed with the skills the 5-foot-8 outside hitter/setter showed in helping lead the Meteors to the tournament title.
I’ll give you some details on that later.
But anyone who knows what Chavez has been through would have been even more delighted to see the energy level, the celebrations, the smiles.
I loved the excitement in her voice when I asked her how she was feeling.
“I’m back,” Chavez said, beaming. “I’m 100% back.”
I can remember almost a year ago texting back and forth with De La Salle coach Anna Marassa. They were basically condition checks on Chavez, who out of the blue had come down with an illness that Marassa didn’t know how to describe.
She wasn’t hiding anything from me. She simply didn’t know. Nobody did, really.
That season, Chavez had been playing well for the Meteors through their first handful of matches, when one morning didn’t start like it should.
“I just woke up and had a stabbing pain in my stomach,” Chavez said. “It was really bad. I was a little scared.”
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That was only the beginning of a long, rough road. Chavez would battle with pain, a fever and feeling run down throughout the fall.
“I was in and out of the doctor’s (office) a lot, trying to figure out what was wrong,” Chavez said. “I missed a lot of school, but I kept up on my classes. I couldn’t be around volleyball a lot because I could barely stay in for the whole school day.”
Her mom, Karen, could see the frustration.
“It was hard for her because she would come home from school and she was just sick, and nobody knew what was wrong,” Karen said. “The hardest part was going to the practices and just having to sit there and watch.”
Marassa welcomed Haley whenever she could attend and supported her when she couldn’t. Back then, she told me Chavez was determined to get back on the court before the end of the season.
It happened in an Oct. 20 match against DePaul Prep. That night, she had 13 kills and 10 digs.
“She played phenomenal,” Marassa said of Chavez. “She was my player of the match. She could not be stopped. Just incredible. You would have thought she never missed a beat.”
I don’t need to tell you that Chavez was happy to be back.
Teammates and captains Jennifer Falk and Giuliana Graczyk were happy as well. They had their decision-maker back.
“It was very hard to lose another captain,” Graczyk said. “When we weren’t agreeing on something, we needed a tiebreaker. And it was very hard to lose her, not only as a hitter, but as a fantastic setter.”
They were also glad to have the laughter back.
“She’s so funny,” Falk said. “I die laughing at some of the funny things she says. We were so happy when she was able to come back and play with us.”
Chavez said she really didn’t completely shed her condition until January. But she’s making up for lost time now.
Over the weekend, Chavez had 18 kills and 10 aces and played strong defense for De La Salle (6-0).
In the championship match against Bishop Noll, she made several key plays during a rally in the first game from a 15-9 deficit and had a huge five-point serving streak in the second game. The Meteors won 25-19, 25-18.
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“The whole team really put it together to get those big points,” Chavez said. “We brought each other up. We know that if you make a mistake, to shake it off right away.
“We wanted that win, obviously, and we fought for it.”
You had better believe she’s ready for more.