New heights for Sitze, Hawks

SVN portrait by Paul Colletti Christy Sitze led the Hawks to the Sweet 16 this season.

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BY TY REYNOLDS

SVN SPORTS REPORTER

treynolds@svnmail.com

Christy Sitze stood alone in a mass of humanity, an island amidst a sea of people. The stunned look on her face said it all, her quietude a sign that she had no idea how to comfort her crying players.

"I don't know if I did or said something wrong," Sitze murmured, looking around the Blackhawk Center but failing to see anything. "I feel like this is my fault."

As parents filed past, shaking her hand and offering the occasional hug, Sitze was unsure if the 25-13, 25-13 supersectional loss to Harvard on the Hawks' home court was real or just a bad dream. Her players milled around in a daze, devastated that their state aspirations had been dashed with such finality.

"It's hard because you want to tell them, 'Look at what you've done,' and make them feel better," Sitze said. "It is a positive sign as a coach when you see that your team really isn't satisfied with something and there really is no consoling that you can do."

Later that night, after the gym cleared out and she was sitting at home, Sitze started seeing the 2006 volleyball season for what it was: The third straight 30-win season at Oregon. Scenes from throughout the season flashed by, from early season growing pains to the impressive runs through the Big Northern Conference, the AFC Regional and the Byron Sectional.

As impressive as the Hawks' 36-4 season was, it wasn't unexpected by Sitze and her players.

"It was probably a lot of moments that were strung together that made me start thinking that we had the chance to go far," said Sitze, SVN's 2006 coach of the year. "They had their moments of brilliance early in the season, but it was up and down.

"Then, there was a point in the season when they were up all the time," she continued, referring to a tournament during which star hitter Dani Steffa was sitting out. "The team finally realized that they really were that good. After that, there was no stopping them."

Since taking over the Oregon volleyball program in 2002, Sitze has taken the Hawks to new heights. Oregon has won four consecutive regional titles, added a sectional crown this season and has steadily improved in her five years at the helm. During the four straight runs to regional championships, the Hawks have a 124-29-2 record, including 16 losses the past three seasons combined.

It's a far cry from the four-win squad that Sitze inherited for her first high school coaching job.

"I remember coming in that year and watching them and thinking, 'There are some really great athletes here,' " Sitze said. "I've always thought that if you can get some good athletes in the gym and if you can get them believing in systems and what you're doing that good things can happen."

Sitze is the first to give credit to those athletes. After coaching club for a few years when she came to the DeKalb area from Glen Ellyn in the late 1990s, she knows she has been blessed with one of the most talented teams around.

Realizing this, she started early in getting the players involved. She coached Steffa in club starting in seventh grade, and has made sure that athletes like Steffa, Faith Watson, Carissa Oelke, Allison Kereven, Alycia Snow and the Tremble sisters, Farrell and Katie, have stuck around the volleyball program.

"I think that I definitely got lucky with them wanting to come on board even though they kind of just had to trust what I was saying was going to happen," Sitze said. "I give them a lot of credit for wanting to do it. It's been great to have the athletes that we have. It's amazing."

Her style and demeanor has been the biggest part in getting players to buy into her system.

"I love her coaching style and philosophy and everything," said Steffa, the 2006 Player of the Year. "When she first came here our program wasn't the greatest, so we were all willing to listen to anyone who had a good idea about how to change it. She's kind of behind the scenes most of the time, but she's put in the time and effort and done a lot for us."

It's the same effort Sitze has given volleyball since her days at Glenbard West. She received a scholarship to Charleston Southern out of high school, but stayed only a few months before returning home - "I didn't like anything about it; The team was bad, the coaching was bad and the classes were bad," she said - and coaching the sport at the club level.