Volleyball defensive specialist Alex Krzyz, a man of many consonants, wants to fly. Yet in his favorite sport, he stays grounded, guarding the rear row and backing up the high-leaping hitter-blockers that populate the front.
\nKrzyz \u2013 whose surname is pronounced “Chriz” (“like \u2018Chris\u2019 with a \u2018z\u2019,” the La Jolla High School senior says) \u2013 wants to be a commercial airline pilot. But right now, he\u2019s doing quite well, thank you, with his feet firmly planted in the sand of Mission Beach as the Vikings sand volleyball team continues competitive play undefeated after the first month \u2013 this despite a health problem that threatened to sideline him for half a calendar year. Krzyz and new teammate Luke Lentin, a freshman who likewise is shorter by volleyball standards, play mostly as the Vikings\u2019 third pair in coach Dave Jones\u2019 varsity lineup. “Indoors, Alex is one of our best jump servers and passers,” says Jones, who coaches Krzyz in fall sand volleyball (not yet a California Interscholastic Federation sport) and in spring indoor volleyball.
\nMeanwhile, Krzyz explained, the airplane and the idea of flying captured his imagination while on a family vacation to Cancun, Mexico (the first time he’d ever flown). Since then, piloting has grown to become his career goal.
\n“I’ve wanted to be a pilot since I was 4,” the 17-year-old said.
\nBut on the volleyball rectangle, things are quite different. In the six-man rotation of La Jolla\u2019s indoor squad, he stays on the back line and is more likely to dive to the floor to intercept an opponent\u2019s bullet serve than to jump for the ball. The one skill that involves him leaping is his jump serve, with which he registered 25 aces last spring, with an 81.8 percent success rate. He played a key role in La Jolla\u2019s ascendancy to the CIF semifinals.
\nBut there was a time last spring when all this was taken away, when Alex couldn\u2019t play the one sport he excels at. He was diagnosed with myocarditis, an inflammation of the heart, and doctors told him he would have to sit out for six months. He remained with the team and traveled to tournaments, but he couldn\u2019t step on the court and do what he has enjoyed ever since his older brother Sebi told him he ought to go out for indoor volleyball as a freshman three years ago. He played tennis for eight years as a child, but eventually it lost enjoyment for him. He tried high school football concurrently with his initial taste of volleyball, but after two years playing cornerback and safety, he stopped. “I wasn’t planning on playing (volleyball),” he remembers of his start in the sport. “I had never played before.” But instead of a half-year, Alex had to sit out only a month and a half during the Vikings\u2019 indoor season. After treatment and rest, he was OK’d by doctors for a return to the court.
\n“It wasn\u2019t fun sitting out,” he recalls. “I was excited to be able to practice again and to be able to play again.”
\nThe Vikings, having graduated much of their core from the 2013 CIF championship team, weren\u2019t expected to go far in 2014. But behind juniors Joe Palatella, a middle hitter-blocker, and Jack Chapman, an outside hitter, and the likes of Krzyz and others who stepped up, Jones\u2019 squad marched to the semifinals before falling. In his comeback, Krzyz averaged 4.6 digs per match from his position as a defensive specialist. He totaled playing in 61 sets, remarkable after the doctors originally said he would be out for the season.
\nHe\u2019s philosophical about his forced time on the sidelines. “I knew there was nothing I could have done about it,” he remarked, seemingly offhandedly. Meanwhile, the Vikings sailed through their first three matches this fall. Krzyz enjoys studying science and U.S. history. He would like to stay in California for college as he begins his preparation to be an airline pilot. He says he wouldn\u2019t mind staying really close by attending San Diego State University.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Volleyball defensive specialist Alex Krzyz, a man of many consonants, wants to fly. Yet in his favorite sport, he stays grounded, guarding the rear row and backing up the high-leaping hitter-blockers that populate the front. Krzyz \u2013 whose surname is pronounced “Chriz” (“like \u2018Chris\u2019 with a \u2018z\u2019,” the La Jolla High School senior says) \u2013 […]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":726,"featured_media":269622,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"11560","_seopress_titles_title":"Vikings' Alex Krzyz: You can't keep a good man down","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[11560,11553],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-269621","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-la-jolla-village-news","category-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/269621","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/726"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=269621"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/269621\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/269622"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=269621"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=269621"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=269621"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}