Lyons Township Alumni Take National Club Volleyball Title: Q&A

Volleyball has played a part of Jason Dolinski and Sam Thimmig’s lives ever since their childhood in La Grange Park—Dolinski started playing in fifth grade and Thimmig in seventh.

That passion carried through their varsity careers at Lyons Township High School and now to the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where the men took home the national championship in club volleyball at the beginning of April.

Dolinski, a freshman majoring in electrical engineering, and Thimmig, a senior majoring in finance, shared with Patch the secrets to their athletic success.

What lessons from your high school volleyball team do you take with you when you play now?

Dolinski: That a team works as a unit. Sometimes you can be the most important part of a play and not even touch the ball. The game is so fast that forcing any sort of breakdown on the other side of the net will usually result in winning the point.

Thimmig: High school was quite a while ago for me. So I would say that I more so pull from lessons that I've learned throughout my college playing experience. However, in high school teams have a coach, where as in collegiate club volleyball, that's generally not the case, so the team dynamic is much different because one of the players on the team is also responsible for running the team, delegating playing time, planning practice, etc. So often times it was important to remember that the team is more important than any one individual and his respective desires/beliefs/etc.

How does it feel to be on a national champion team?

Dolinski: It feels like something I would hate to not have. I'm only a freshman, so I've never had a season-ending loss in a national tournament. I'll work my hardest to avoid that at all costs.

Thimmig: When I was a freshman, my team had the chance to win the national championship but lost in the championship match to our greatest rival. It was a deflating experience that I used for personal motivation throughout my time on the team. When we made it to the final this year, I told myself that I wasn't going to let the same thing happen again; that I was going to do everything I could on my part to ensure that we won. And luckily enough, we did. It took three years to get back to the final, so it was a great experience, one that I will cherish forever. I remember shouting at the top of my lungs the moment I knew we had won. It was such an emotional high, one that our team had been working hard to achieve for nine months. It's kind of hard to believe that I can call myself a national champion in something but pretty cool, too.

What were the final games like?

Dolinski: Stressful. It's hard to not look at every lost point in hindsight and just move on to the next one.

Thimmig: The final games were very tense. The scores of the three games in the final were 26-24 us, 24-26 them, and 15-12 us. So every point was important and the added pressure definitely made the game more fun and exciting at the same time, too. I had confidence in our team and believed our advantage at the middle, right side and setter positions would carry us to the title.

Do you plan to continue playing volleyball?

Dolinski: Yes, I'll play every year I'm at U of I.

Thimmig: I plan to continue both playing and coaching volleyball in the future. I'll probably only play in recreational men’s leagues or something like that, but I'd definitely still like to continue playing. I'm sure it's something I'll enjoy being involved in for the rest of my life.

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