Prep Confidential

Jackson's 5 Part VIII

Posted by: Marcus Jackson

Wednesday, June 25, 2008 12:55 PM

Each week staff writer Marcus Jackson poses five questions to an area prep athlete. This week's guest is St. Thomas More volleyball player and track athlete Erin Wachtel, who will travel to Texas this week with the Prime Time Rush volleyball club for a national tournament/

MJ: Your brother Bryan made our All-Area baseball team and listed you as his favorite athlete. Were you surprised to see that?
EW: We were sitting at the dinner table and he had a pitcher from the Cubs as his favorite athlete and my mom goes, 'Oh put your sister down, it'll be so nice, it'll be so sweet.' When it did come in print it was really a thrill. In some way we knew he might do it, but we weren't sure he really would.

MJ: Are you pretty busy in the summer with the club team?
EW: Yes. So far in this month, we've had practices and played twice a week. We had the Asics tournament two weeks ago, which was in Chicago. (Today) we leave for Nationals in Dallas. Besides club I've been doing open gyms and tournaments and camps and lessons. My life is pretty centered around volleyball.

MJ: Do you ever wish you could just take it easy and relax and be like a regular kid?
EW: I think I balance it pretty well. I have a job working quite a few hours a week. I have time with my friends and I love to hang out. But to be honest I love rushing around. I've always been the type to go from basketball practice to volleyball practice and then go to track practice. I'm always just running around.

MJ: So being a couch potato just isn't your thing is it?
EW: No. Not at all.

MJ: What it like to be a part of such a good volleyball team like Prime Time representing Champaign-Urbana?
EW: It's really exciting. It's kind of hard to grasp the idea that we're going this far, but we're all just so excited. We're all just such good friends that it's just awesome. We're just really excited, I get jitters just thinking about it.

MJ: Your brother went to Centennial and you're at St. Thomas More. Any particular reason why you decided to go a different route?
EW: My parents kind of made the decision and I had a lot of friends going to St. Thomas More. We saw a lot of benefits and great people going there. We saw great academic benefits going there; smaller school to have more attention. It felt more homey to me and I like that feel.

MJ: Do you ever find yourself wondering what it would be like to have one high school in Champaign and how good the sports would be there?
EW: Wow, yeah. I think it would be insane. Sometimes I wonder what it would have been like if I did go to Centennial, how it would have affected my relationships with my coach, my teammates. It would have definitely been competitive because volleyball around here is amazing.

MJ: How do you feel about the growth of St. Thomas More and how much it has improved athletically and academically recently?
EW: I always thought that my class was pretty gifted academically and athletically and I'm not really surprised. I love the competition and it's a pretty nice feel.

MJ: When you guys are on the road and not playing or practicing, what are some things you and your teammates like to do?
EW: We do random things. We went to Houston in April and out head coach Cliff Hastings came up with this idea to have a huge scavenger hunt where he made a list of things we had to get around the city. I was like a potato from a restaurant, or a hat, a police badge, a license plate. It was all random and so much fun and we had two hours to do it. At Asics two weeks ago, we were almost going to go out and go dancing or karaoke and that was really fun. Going to dinner together is always a great time, too.

MJ: What's your favorite place you've traveled to and played?
EW: I love Indianapolis. I always love Chicago. Chicago and Indianapolis, I go there a lot so I'm used to it and I'm familiar with the area. I love the big city feel. I guess I could say that for Houston, but I haven't been there a lot.

MJ: Going on the road and traveling the country playing these big tournaments, are you ever in awe of some of the players you see?
EW: At first I was amazed about the talent. But as the season progressed and we kept going to more tournaments we went to, I started to just get used to it and realized this is good competition. I used to be like, 'Oh these girls are so good.' Now it's like, 'We can take them.' We never thought we couldn't take them. I don't think of them as anything special. They're normal just like us.

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Previous Entries

• 8/13/2008
  Jackson's 5 Part XIII
• 8/6/2008
  Jackson's 5 Part XII
• 7/23/2008
  Jackson's 5 Part XI
• More…