Honors Roll In For Tigers' Shealyn Kolosky

The accolades keep pouring in for Wheaton Warrenville South senior middle hitter Shealyn Kolosky.

No matter what type of prep volleyball-related lists newspapers and websites compile—top area players, top state players or top college recruits—chances are very good Kolosky will be on the list.

For example, Kolosky has been: listed on the American Volleyball Coaches Association (AVCA) Under Armour Girls High School all-America Watch List, named one of the top 50 players in the Chicago area by a the Chicago Sun Times, named PrepVolleyball.com's list of top players in Illinois, and listed among the top 12 volleyball players in DuPage County by The Daily Herald.

So what does Kolosky think of all this recognition?

"It's amazing," she said before a recent match. "I can't believe some of the stuff I see on websites that I don't even know about. It's pretty fun to see it, but I really appreciate all the coaches and the practices and all the time people have spent teaching me what I know."

Volleyball is a year-round passion for Kolosky. At the conclusion of her high school season, she plays club volleyball for Sports Performance, based out of the Great Lakes Center in Aurora. She's currently on the Sports Performance 17-Mizuno squad.

Kolosky starts practicing with her Sports Performance team in December, and concludes play the following June.

"I play with a couple of girls from my school now (Amy Drabant and Jacky Rodriguez), so it's been a fun experience," Kolosky said. "There's only one 17 (year-old) team; they take a lot of the juniors and mix them in with the seniors on the 18 (year-old) teams."

This past June, Kolosky and the Sports Performance team placed ninth at the AAU Girls' Junior National Volleyball Championship in Orlando, Fla.

"It was really awesome," Kolosky said. "I had a great time being down there with my team, playing in the different facilities and playing against different teams from all over. It was fun."

These days, Kolosky is concentrating on helping Wheaton South return to the top of the DuPage Valley Conference—and make an extended postseason run. In 2009, The Tigers (19-17 overall, 9-5 for third place in the DVC) were ousted by Batavia in the Class 4A regional semifinal.

"Our goal this year is to push as hard as we can," Kolosky said. "I would love to go downstate. It would be an amazing experience and I think our team would definitely be able to do that. It's really fun to see the difference from last year's team to this year's team."

"We've had a hard time getting past that (regionals) in the last couple of years," added WWS head coach Bill Schreier. "We've wanted to really start advancing ourselves again."

Mollie Kolosky, Shealyn's older sister, also starred for the Tigers when they advanced to the sectional final in 2007. Mollie is a junior at Boston College, playing middle hitter for the Eagles.

"Her sister played for me for three years," Schreier said. "She (Shealyn) has grown up a part of this program. Both sisters have had a vested interest in making sure the program is as good, if not better, after they leave than it is when they were playing. I think that's one of the nicest things about it."

In 2011, Shealyn will join Mollie in the college ranks, but at a different university. Shealyn committed to the University of Tennessee, where she'll team up with former Wheaton St. Francis star Kelsey Robinson and Bartlett product Carly Sahagian—both of whom are freshmen with the Lady Vols this year.

Although Tennessee is better known for its football and women's basketball teams, the Lady Vols also are nationally ranked in volleyball. Last season, Tennessee was ranked 24th and advanced to the second round of the NCAA tournament.

"I really like how the boys and girls programs are separate—the Vols and the Lady Vols—and I thought that was really important," Shealyn said, who also looked at Ohio State, Ohio University and Notre Dame, and had a scholarship offer from the University of Maryland. "I also liked how different it was from my high school atmosphere. It was really different. It's a tight group, and I loved meeting the team so it was really fun when I went there."