Volleyball is an emotional sport where almost every play causes members of the team that scores a point to wildly celebrate.
Lyons senior outside hitter Brody Lee-Caracci, however, tries to stay cool.
“He brings a calming presence to the floor,” Lions coach Brad Skendzel said. “He’s not too high. He’s not too low. He exemplifies that every single day.
“It’s nice for our players to see that. When they look at him, he’s not just a floor captain. He’s one of the top players in the state and when they see him playing that way, I think that reassures players that everything is going to be OK.”
The Lewis-bound Lee-Caracci and the Lions opened the season at 0-2 with losses to Brother Rice and Wheaton-Warrenville South. But on April 4-5, they righted the ship with five straight wins to claim the 12-team Argo Invitational title.
The road to the championship match was not easy. It included three-set wins over Oak Lawn and Argo before the Lions finished up strong with a 25-22, 25-14 win over Lockport.
Lee-Caracci, a senior outside hitter, and libero Brady Schlichter were named to the all-tournament team.
Skendzel said that when cooler heads prevail, the Lions can thrive.
“Our first couple of matches this year, we were playing on emotion,” he said. “That didn’t work out in our favor. Now we’re trying to learn to play with the right amount of emotion.”
Lee-Caracci tries to provide that.
“I’m trying to be cool, calm and collected on the court,” he said. “I don’t want to show too much emotion and have my teammates ride on that because that could cause us trouble in the end.”
Lee-Caracci comes from a family of athletes.
His sister, Jordan, played club soccer at Butler. Another sister, Kamryn, plays Division I volleyball for Georgetown.
Brody credits his sisters for some of his success.
His connection with Lewis came with a little persistence.
“I was really looking forward to staying close by home,” Lee-Carracci said. “I did a lot of research and Lewis was one of my top choices at the beginning.
“I just kept reaching out to (Flyers coach Dan Friend) and reaching out to him and eventually I got annoying and he probably decided to take me.”
Lee-Caracci said he is interested in majoring in data science at the Division II Romeoville school.
Shepard beat Argo 25-20, 25-14 for third place. The Astros were close to making it to the title game, but fell 24-26, 25-20, 18-16 to Lockport in the semifinals.
Oak Lawn knocked off Hinsdale South 20-25, 25-21, 15-12 for fifth place while Stagg beat St. Laurence, 25-16, 25-19.
In the consolation round-robin bracket, Reavis went 3-0, Mount Carmel finished 2-1 and Hancock was 0-3.