DALLAS – If Jeremy Jacobs hadn't been so interested in
learning French, he might not be co-captain of the undefeated
Greenhill volleyball team.
Jacobs wanted to be a baseball player. In sixth grade, he
dreamed of hitting a game-winning home run in the World
Series. Spiking a ball in the Olympics wasn't on Jacobs' list
of future goals.
That was until he and his sixth-grade classmates took an
overnight camping trip with French teacher Keith Nannie, who
also coaches Greenhill's volleyball team.
"I saw him playing volleyball and asked if he'd be
interested in playing on a club team," Nannie said. "He
thought it was fine as long as it didn't interfere with
baseball."
But a year later, Jacobs thought the Fall Classic was a
volleyball tournament.
"My priorities changed," said Jacobs, who led Greenhill
(42-0) into the Southwest Preparatory Conference championships
Thursday and Friday. "I just loved playing and decided that I
wanted to concentrate on volleyball."
Jacobs, an 18-year-old senior, concentrated so much that he
played last summer in a beach volleyball league in San Diego
and was on the High Performance team for his age group a few
years ago. That means Jacobs has trained at the Olympic
training centers in Colorado Springs, Colo., and Lake Placid,
New York.
Jacobs, 6-3, spends several hours every day practicing or
lifting weights. When he was a freshman, he played outside
hitter but was moved to setter the next year. At that
position, Jacobs blossomed into an impact player.
"He runs things from his position," Nannie said. "He's a
leader, and he wants to win. His desire for the game is
unbelievable. But he's like that with other things, too."
Besides playing volleyball, Jacobs sings in the school
choir, maintains a 3.7 grade point average and is a member of
the National Honor Society and the French Honor Society.
Stanford is currently recruiting Jacobs, and he hopes to
study sports or clinical psychology. But Jacobs doesn't think
that setting on the U.S. Olympic team is a possibility.
"When the U.S. won gold in 1984, the setter was 6-1, but in
1988, he was 6-5, and now he's 6-8," Jacobs said. "I'm just
too short. But I think I'd have a shot in beach volleyball."
Because of the all-around requirements of setting, hitting,
digging and teamwork, Jacobs feels he has a good shot to make
it. And that is his goal as he begins to think about college
volleyball.
Right now, Jacobs wants to make sure that Greenhill's
record remains unblemished and the Hornets can add another SPC
title to the long list of awards over the last few years. In
fact, the team hasn't lost in SPC play since the championship
match in 1998. That was also the school's last defeat in the
United States. The team lost a tournament in Canada last year.
Boys volleyball rules differ from the girls. They play to
25 in a best three-out-of-five game match, and points are
scored without sideouts. In other words, you don't have to
serve to score.
"It means you have to be able to play defense," said
Jacobs, who has 67 kills, 61 blocks, 119 aces and 850 assists
to lead his team. "And we've done that. We just want to keep
winning and having fun."
If they do both, they'll bring home another SPC
championship trophy.
