RAPID ASCENSION

As a 5-foot-6-inch sophomore, Oswego boys volleyball standout Jake Wollenberg had no idea he'd wind up his high school career the way he did.

Finally hitting a growth spurt before his junior year that helped him get to his current 6-2, Wollenberg burst on the scene the last two years on the varsity team and parlayed his success into a scholarship at Hannibal-LaGrange College, an NAIA school in Missouri.

"I've always thought about (the late growth spurt) because if I was 6-foot-2 then, I would have been on my club team two years earlier and had the training that I'm having now, (and) that would have helped immensely," the senior said.

Wollenberg, The Beacon News' Boys Volleyball Player of the Year, packed quite a bit into his two varsity seasons for the Panthers. Oswego won regional titles both seasons, and he was the Southwest Prairie Conference Player of the Year both years. He led the Panthers with 290 kills, including 30 in a regional final win over Waubonsie Valley, and 243 digs this season.

"He did a fantastic job of stepping up his game and being more competitive, stronger, intense -- everything you could want in a player," Oswego coach Erica Lorenz said. "He was basically our go-to player all year."

Wollenberg credits his intense training with Sports Performance in the offseason for his rapid progress. He played at the Naperville Volleyball Club the summer before his junior year and saw improvement. But after his growth spurt, he moved over to the perennial power that is Sports Performance and saw his skill level jump dramatically.

In addition, in playing on the elite Sports Performance team, Wollenberg has had the opportunity to travel the country while showing off his skills.

"They work you so hard," Wollenberg said of the club team. "We play the best teams in the country. We've been to California, New York, Milwaukee. I've never really gotten the chance to travel. I've traveled more this year than I have my whole life combined. It's definitely a great experience in my life."

Despite his relative inexperience in the sport, Wollenberg has quickly developed his on-court style. The cerebral, reserved Wollenberg (he finished 17th in his senior class academically) is a totally different guy on the court, flipping the switch and playing "angry," as he describes it. That turned him into the go-to player he is.

"That's how he sees himself, that he should be the one to get the ball," Lorenz said. "He wants the big kill, to finish the game. He's a natural volleyball player."

As a freshman, he had never played volleyball and disliked his first day of tryouts so much that he nearly walked away from the game. And now he's about to play college volleyball and is on a Sports Performance team that is one of the best in the nation, going to Atlanta the first week of July to try to win a national title.

"I never really thought I'd be playing college volleyball when I was 10," Wollenberg said. "I thought I'd be playing college basketball. Never thought volleyball was an option. I didn't think it was the right thing for me. I didn't like it. But I toughed it out and it turned out for the best." Boys Volleyball Player of the Year