Over the past couple of weeks, I have been highlighting a lot of the members of the Saint Xavier University Women’s Basketball team.
Well I decided to take a break on basketball talk and move on to other sports around Cougar Nation. One sport that is fairly new in the Athletic department is Men’s Volleyball.
The team has been around for nine seasons now and the one leading the pack is Head Coach Bob Heersema.
Coach Heersema is also the Women’s volleyball coach at Saint Xavier. In fact, this past Women’s volleyball season was Coach Heersema’s 30th season.
Heersema took on the Men’s team from the start of the program in 2009. Although the team has not had the best records, they always give 100% in each match. However, in their short 2018 season, the men are doing pretty well. They even defeated CCAC rivals, the Saint Ambrose Fighting Bees. This was the first win against the Bees in the Cougar Men’s Volleyball program.
Someone who was a part of that historic event was Ben Gabor.
Gabor is a Sophomore middle blocker from Shorewood, Illinois. Prior to coming to Saint Xavier, Gabor competed in Men’s Volleyball for four years at Joliet Catholic Academy.
So far, Ben’s best game was a few weeks against Judson University. He recorded 11 kills on the night.
When I sat down with Gabor, we talked about how he came to play volleyball at Saint Xavier. I also asked him about the win against Saint Ambrose and how they are preparing for when the Bees come to town in a few weeks.
Take a look to see what this Cougar had to say!
When did you start playing volleyball and why?
I started playing volleyball in 7th grade just for fun. All my friends were going to join the team and they talked me into it. I only played for my school and not club yet. I started taking it serious freshman year of high school, which led me into playing club.
Growing up, who was your role model?
Growing up I would say Derrick Rose was my role model. He was someone who came from Chicago and made a big name for himself. He was also great to watch because of his explosiveness and ability to jump through the roof.
Did you play any other sport besides volleyball?
I played basketball growing up until freshman year of high school, then switched to soccer. I then played soccer all four years in high school.
What attracted you to play volleyball for the Cougars?
I was attracted to play for SXU for a couple of reasons. It was close to home, which meant that my family could come and watch. The school is also known to be very well rounded. The biggest selling point was the Shannon Center. The gym is very nice compared to most of the other NAIA schools.
How is this team so different from the past teams you’ve been a part of?
This is my second year playing here so I haven’t been on a lot of teams. But this team is different from last year because we have a good mix between veterans and underclassmen. Everyone listens to each other and nobody looks down on another player. We’re one unit that does everything together, we don’t point fingers at others.
Your team is the first men’s volleyball team at Saint Xavier to defeat the Saint Ambrose Fighting Bees. What was that night like?
Going into the match against Saint Ambrose, we were all excited and ready to play. We never had the amount of energy that we had at that game. Nobody was thinking about mistakes we were just playing. When we finally won, it felt like we accomplished something huge. There was celebrating the whole ride home.
Saint Ambrose is coming to town on Tuesday the 27th, is your team ready for another battle with the Bees?
Our team knows that when Saint Ambrose comes here on the 27th, they will be hungry for revenge. That only makes us want to win more. I know the team is ready and it will be a great match.
Do you have any hidden talents?
I like to play ratchet ball!
Thanks Ben! It’s always fun talking to you. Find out who my next Cougar athlete will be in the next edition of Athlete Profile!
Christine Manika
Sports Columnist