Credit to Kaylin Mort

Senior Luke Hollinger poses for a photo during media day.

Luke Hollinger -Boys Volleyball

Q: What is your name and how do you spell it?

A: “Luke Hollinger.”

Q: What position do you play?

A: “Setter.” 

Q: What have you been doing to prepare for the season?

A: “I’ve been going to a lot of open gyms that the volleyball program has been hosting. We try to have two open gyms every week, and I’ve also been going to the gym.”

Q: What goals are you hoping to achieve this season?

A: “This season, my goal is to win districts.” 

Q: What will North need to improve to be successful this season?

A: “I think to be successful this season, we just need to get, like, get accustomed with each other. We graduated a lot of seniors last year, so kind of building like the team chemistry. We’re starting kind of brand new. So I feel like building team chemistry this year is going to be the most important.” 

Q: What are you looking forward to this season?

A: “I’m looking forward to just playing the last year of volleyball. This is probably the last year I will play. Just getting to experience it with my friends.”

Q: What makes this season different from others?

A: “This season’s my senior year, so it makes a lot different. It’s the last season, put everything out on the line.”

Q: What was the season like last year?

A: “Last year was great. We had a lot of experienced players and we all connected really well. We ended up beating some top teams in the state, and it was probably one of the most enjoyable, like, 2 or 3 months of my life.”

Q: Were there any big leaders on the team last year?

A: “It was Alex Williams and Sam Fitzsimmons. Sam went on to play in college and then Alex Williams was our libero, which he passes the ball all the time, and he was really important to our team.” 

Q: Has the team been preparing for the season together?

A: “Yeah, we have at the open gyms. We try and get reps in every week. Most of our team is either playing club or they are playing club this year when they didn’t last year or they’re continuing to play club. So they try and make it to one of the practices a week and I’m not playing club this year, so I’ll be at every single one working with all of them.” 

Q: What’s the team history like against Central?

A: “We play them twice a year. And they’ve gotten the best of us the past, I think, two years, three years. So it’s definitely like a little bad blood. We were really close to getting it last year, but we fell a little short.”

Q: Does anyone on your team have pregame rituals?

A: “Not that I can think of, no.” 

Q: Who was one of your main mentors for volleyball?

A: “So one of my main mentors, he graduated three years ago, but it was Jack Stover. He was kind of the last, like, full on, like, two plus year varsity setter that we’ve had. He, you know, taught me kind of everything I know about, like, kind of leading the team from the high school level, and then he always did his best to make sure that I was improving.” 

Q: What was your favorite part of last season?

A: “Was probably just getting to spend it with a lot of my friends that were graduating and being able to beat the state runner-ups.”

Q: What was your favorite game of last season? 

A: “It probably has to be the SLUH game. We played them in the Lafayette tournament, and SLUH has been a powerhouse for years. Their entire team is club players, and we were able to beat them, 2 sets to one, in convincing fashion in that third set. And I feel like that was probably the best game our team has ever played as a whole.”

Q: What do you expect the team’s record to be this season?

A: “This season, honestly, I’m not sure. I definitely think we’ll be an above average team for sure. How high we can go, it kind of depends on, you know, our practices, how much work we put in, and, you know, how well we connect with each other.”

Q: What game are you most excited for this season? 

A: “Probably Central, I’d say, I’m probably the most excited for Central. I think this year we have a pretty good chance of beating them. They lost some of their key guys, and that is gonna be my last chance, you know, playing.”

Q: What’s your favorite memory of high school volleyball?

A: “Probably winning GAC my freshman year with, like, all the guys that are either on varsity now or gonna be on varsity now or on varsity last year. I feel like that kind of really introduced me to like high school volleyball and it was a really good moment.”

Q: What will need to happen for North to come out on top this year?

A: “Like I said earlier, I think teamwork, being able to work together as a team, volleyball isn’t just like a single player. You have one or two good players, but if they can’t work together with the rest of the team, they’re not gonna be able to come through. So being able to bring up some of the younger players, get them on the same level, and then also connecting with some of the players that I played with before, you know, developing it even better.”

Q: Is there anything you would like to add?

A: “Nope”

Q: Thank you for your time.

A: “Yeah no problem.”