Creativity, humility put Declan Ringler on path to be lone freshman on Chesterton varsity volleyball team at plays at Liberty today vs. Hebron

Tom Keegan
Onwardtrojans.com

Microwave ovens can’t be found on the options for athletes looking to put themselves on the fast track to improvement and a spot on a varsity roster sooner than their classmates.
Setter Declan Ringler is the lone freshman competing for Chesterton’s varsity boys volleyball team that puts its 3-0 record on the line vs. Hebron at Chesterton at 5 p.m. Hebron does not have a JV squad, so the varsity match starts at 5.
Ringler’s path to improvement required the creativity and courage to contact the varsity coach as a seventh grader, the humility to do menial tasks that are among a team manager’s, the ability to hold his own in practice against players as much as five years older, plus some long walks to practice.
It was all more than worth it for him.
Ringler reached out to Coach Kevin Labaj in the spring of 2023, when Chesterton resumed its club volleyball program as an IHSAA emerging sport, served as the team’s manager for two seasons, and spent a lot of time on the floor practicing against JV and varsity players.
Ringler, the team’s second setter to sophomore Nate Mihut, already has experienced the sort of thrill that some don’t for an entire career. He entered the fifth set at the start of Chesterton’s dramatic comeback victory over favored Boone Grove. The Trojans rallied from an 11-2 deficit to win the decisive set, 15-13, and Ringler’s contributions were among the first mentioned by Labaj.
“I think my freshman setter did a really good job today,” Labaj said. “I didn’t have to talk to him too much. He came and asked me a couple of things, here and there, but when he was asked to do something, he executed it very well. … He’s a really good passer.”
Ringler said of volunteering in seventh grade to become the team manager: “I just decided to do it for fun and connect a little more with the coach before I started playing here. I found his contact info the second the season started and asked if I could be a manager. … Sometimes I had to walk from the old middle school to the high school, which took me like a half an hour.”
The walk’s destination enabled him to expand his knowledge of the game and become accustomed to playing against bigger players at a faster speed than he could have found anywhere else. It prepared him well for being on the court for the deciding stretch of the Chesterton boys volleyball team’s first home match as an IHSAA-sanctioned sport.
“I was a little bit nervous,” Ringler said. “I was worried I was going to mess up.”
His teammates didn’t appear share that sentiment.
“He’s been practicing with us for a few years,” senior Robert Williams said of the freshman. “Being a manager helped him to get the swing of things.”
Ringler didn’t mess up, and Labaj won’t hesitate to use him in big spots again tonight.