Club teammates Randy Deutscher and Keith Ward showcase strong chemistry in opening day volleyball wins for Chesterton over Merrillville and Crown Point

Tom Keegan
Onwardtrojans.com

A year ago, the first season of boys volleyball as a fully sanctioned IHSAA sport, Randy Deutscher and Keith Ward looked like athletes learning how to play volleyball. Now they look like volleyball players striving to become better at their sport of choice.
Big difference.
The improvement of both seniors popped off the page in the DAC O’Rama Saturday at Lake Central, where the Trojans went 2-0 in their best-of-three matches, defeating Merrillville 2-0 and Crown Point 2-1.
“Randy’s improved a lot since last year,” Ward said between matches Saturday. “Last year he was still a little rough fundamentally, but he’s cleaned that all up. As we just saw, he’s bouncing balls and nobody stood a chance. It was great.”
Senior outside hitter/middle blocker Carson Chaffee weighed in on Deutscher’s strides, saying, “Randy has had the biggest improvement. Last year he was a little uncoordinated. This year, he’s so coordinated. Every ball that’s up to him, he can flip down so hard. It’s insane.”
Deutscher, who at 6-foot-9 with a 7-2 wingspan is easily the team’s biggest player, shared his thoughts on where he thinks he has improved the most.
“I would say coordination-wise and timing are a couple of big things, but also the small stuff, like spending time in the weight room so I can swing harder,” he said. “Also, spending a lot of time playing with Keith over the past season has helped our chemistry and we can run plays without saying what we’re doing.”
Deutscher, who spent his first two seasons playing basketball, and Ward, a soccer player through sophomore year, both play only volleyball now.
“I never have an offseason, so I never forget and get rusty,” Ward said. “It’s been a year-and-a-half, I think, that it’s been year-round. I never stop playing. It’s almost every week that I’m touching the ball, and I play with my friends and I play competitively. It’s been awesome. I’m not nervous like I used to be because I know we’re good enough.”
Deutscher’s confidence leap is noticeable as well.
“I feel a lot less nervous than when I first started,” he said.
They were club volleyball teammates in the offseason.
“It’s definitely helped my connection with Randy as a player, for sure,” Ward said. “And I think it’s going to help our program out a lot, just opening up that middle attack, especially since we were so strong in it last year. Making sure we’re strong in the middle opens up everything for everybody.”
Late in the Merrillville match, Ward made a play that demonstrated exactly what he meant. When everyone tuning in on one of the two matches being played simultaneously in the gym thought Ward was about to set Deutscher yet again, he threw a changeup and back set Elliot Mehling on the right side. Mehling finished the play with a resounding kill.
“Spending a lot of time playing with Keith over the past season has helped our chemistry and we can run plays without saying what we’re doing,” Deutscher said.
Ward and Declan Ringler will be the setters in Chesterton’s 6-2 alignment, but on the first day of the season, Ringler was needed to fill in for sick Adam LeNeave at libero and the Trojans used a 5-1 with Ward as the lone setter. Ward had 13 assists vs. the Pirates and 23 against Crown Point. Deutscher had eight kills and three blocks vs. Merrillville and eight kills and one block against the Bulldogs.