York outside hitter Jack Bute stood at attention and took in the atmosphere.
The state championship match was about to begin, and the 6-foot-4 senior was amazed by the packed gym at Hoffman Estates.
“I didn’t really see a spot where someone wasn’t sitting,” Bute said. “It just felt so cool to look up and see all these people looking down watching us. I love playing in front of people. I know a lot of the team does.”
Bute and the Dukes, who were playing in the state final for the first time, particularly appreciated their fans, who showed up in force and were in full throat.
“Our crowd did a great job,” Bute said. “I think ours was really loud the whole time, even when we were down.
“It’s just a fantastic feeling to be able to have people watch you play. We think it makes us play better.”
That atmosphere is lacking in club sports.
“At clubs, it kind of feels like you’re playing for yourself sometimes,” Bute said. “With high school sports, you’re playing for the school, you’re playing for your friends, you’re playing for that logo on your back. I love that.”
York’s logo was never more prominent on the volleyball court than it was this season, which ended with the team’s 25-21, 28-26 loss to Marist in the final on June 1. The second-place showing was the highest for the Dukes (37-5), who set a program record for victories and advanced to state for the first time since 1999.
“I bulked up the schedule this year to play some of the best teams in Indianapolis,” York coach Ken Dowdy said. “We beat the team (Roncalli) that won the Indiana state championship.
“To finish 37-5, if you would have told me that at the beginning of the season, I would probably have been a little bit surprised due to the caliber of teams we played. But they killed it, no pun intended.”
Indeed, after losing to Marist on April 20, the Dukes won 22 consecutive matches, including a 25-16, 25-14 rout of Loyola in the state semifinals.
“To know this is our last match, that we’re going to be one of two teams playing in the last match of the season, was pretty special,” Dowdy said.
The feat was especially sweet considering York’s recent history. The Dukes were led by six seniors who were three-year varsity starters and had experienced the agony of losing their playoff openers in each of the past two seasons.
What was different about this team?
“I think for a lot of us, especially the seniors, watching the last seniors lose, that’s all they had,” Bute said. “It really motivated us. We don’t want that type of ending. We want to go out on our terms, to be able to go all the way to the last day and play until we clearly can’t any more. That kept pushing us forward, to play just one more day at practice, just one more game.”
What a match the last one was. Bute had eight kills, the last two of which saved match points, and sophomore outside hitter Ben Brown had seven kills as the Dukes went toe-to-toe with the favored RedHawks (39-2), who had swept two-time defending champion Glenbard West in the semifinals earlier in the day.
“The boys battled really, really hard against a Marist team that is ranked No. 2 in the nation,” Dowdy said. “After those two very disappointing regional semifinal losses the previous two seasons, I think this group of seniors was very unselfish. We were a very diverse offensive team.”
The unselfishness began with Bute, who led the team with 276 kills but was one of many cogs in a high-powered offense. Brown had 256 kills, 6-2 senior middle hitter Logan Rice had 210 kills, 6-7 sophomore middle hitter Hunter Stepanich had 192 kills and 6-7 senior opposite Luke Shorter had 148.
Seniors Jack Zitek and Zach Brown, who is Ben Brown’s brother, shared the setting duties running a 6-2 offense. But each still finished with more than 1,000 career assists, with Zitek tallying a program-record 1,315.
“A player like Jack (Bute) on any other team could have 400-plus kills,” Dowdy said. “But because we were so balanced, we were able to have six players that were the cog in our offense and two fantastic setters who put them in position to be successful.”
For Bute, who also led the team with 203 digs, familiarity bred success.
“We were all just such great friends on and off the court,” Bute said. “Logan Rice really stepped up and became a captain, which brought the whole team up. The setters did a great job of keeping their cool. Our sophomores, as well, did a fantastic job of filling huge roles and being great players.”
Indeed, Ben Brown and Stepanich, a three-sport varsity athlete, infused the team with additional skill and youthful energy.
“Hunter, this is his first year playing (varsity), and he made first-team all-state,” Bute said. “He doesn’t even play club.
“Ben Brown always brought so much energy, especially when we played Marist the first time. There was a point he got a kill and he ran around the entire court just jumping on the wall.”
Then there was Bute, who was an avid baseball and football player when he was younger. He discovered volleyball in seventh grade, and it soon became his forte.
“I just love volleyball,” he said. “I felt like it was the only sport that I could really shine in. I was all right at the other ones. Then I grew a ton. That helped. I was 5-9 going into freshman year.”
At which point Bute wasn’t on Dowdy’s radar as a future varsity player.
“He started out as a freshman B (team) setter,” Dowdy said. “He had a growth spurt. We brought him up during his sophomore season, and he primarily played defensive specialist because of his passing ability.”
Dowdy moved Bute to outside hitter last season, and the rest is history. So, too, are the careers of Bute and the other seniors, none of whom will play college volleyball, preferring to attend big schools, where some plan to play club volleyball.
Dowdy will miss all of them, with Bute in particular being hard to replace.
“He’s like an assistant coach,” Dowdy said. “He’ll go home, and he’ll stat the match after a match every night, and not for his own stats, but just to break down the match.
“He’s one of those kids that is quiet and just goes to work on the court and has such a good work ethic. Jack is going to be an athlete I’ll talk about for the rest of my career.”
Bute plans to attend Colorado and study engineering. He is drawn to architectural engineering and likes looking at the buildings in Boulder silhouetted against the Rocky Mountains.
Athletically, though, nothing can surpass the unprecedented heights the Dukes reached under Bute’s leadership.
“It was a once-in-a-career season for me,” he said. “It was fantastic.”
Matt Le Cren is a freelance reporter.
