By Colin Stevens
Mitch Stahl had been anxiously waiting for this news.
After traveling to Chicago to try out for the U.S. Men’s Volleyball Junior National training team in mid-February, it took more than a month to finally hear if he made the team.
Mitch Stahl
And during study hall on Thursday, the results were finally posted.
Nervously, he clicked the link and held his breath. Much to his pleasure, his number appeared.
He’d made it.
“I was so excited,” said Stahl, a junior who first played the sport his freshman year and is already receiving scholarship offers from Stanford, Penn State, Ohio State, Pepperdine, Loyola University Chicago and UCLA, among others. “They said the results would be out between the 26th and 29th and I was checking every day. I finally saw the link was blue, I clicked it and held my breath. I saw my code and texted my mom right away … it was pretty awesome. Words can’t describe how I’m feeling.”
Stahl, a 6-foot-7 middle blocker who had 228 kills in the 2011 regular season and another 123 in the postseason, is one of 19 players to make the team.
He will attend a two-week training camp in August, when the team will be cut to 12. After the training camp, the team will compete in the NORCECA tournament in Colorado Springs, the home of the U.S. Olympic Training Center.
No other Chambersburg boys volleyball player has reached this level of play.
“I think it will help the program and the sport in general in this area,” Stahl said. “Hopefully people will recognize that volleyball is becoming a bigger sport, not only in the area but around the country. Hopefully it will get kids interested.”