It’s all been forgiven now. After all, the former Libertyville High School star Christine Marchinski was a bridesmaid in Katie Hofeldt’s wedding.
But let’s go back to the winter of 2004. That’s when these two athletes met on a volleyball court at Libertyville. Underdog Antioch was the visitor with its special player Hofeldt ready to do some damage.
“I hit the ball to the 10-foot line,’’ Hofeldt said. “You should have seen her face. The ball went right at her. It hit the floor. I could see her face. She was saying, ‘I hate you.’ I was thinking, ‘Oh, my God.’ And I started screaming; I just loved high school volleyball.”
Hofeldt has returned to the area where she became arguably the best volleyball player ever to hit a volleyball at Antioch High School.
She is teaching chemistry and coaching a very good and young Lakes High School volleyball squad. Her players know her as Mrs. Katie Cheek.
However, unless they have done extensive research, they won’t know how powerful a player their coach really was.
Former Stevenson coach Bob Schenk came to coach Antioch in 2002. He watched as Hofeldt made a name for herself.
“Katie worked very hard to develop her talent, and by the time she was a senior, she became one of the most dominating players in Lake County,’’ Schenk said. “We were able to use Katie as an outside hitter, and she was able to hit play sets that most other players could not.”
It’s still a wonder that Hofeldt-Cheek actually became a volleyball player. She was involved in other sports growing up.
“I took basketball more seriously,’’ she said. “And I played softball. I knew nothing about volleyball.”
So one of her friends suggested that she come along to a club volleyball practice one day.
“I was pretty tall,’’ she said. “The coach was worried that I had never played before, but he liked that I was 5-foot-10.”
Maybe it wasn’t love at first sight, but Hofeldt-Cheek was drawn to this fall sport.
“I began to learn the game,’’ she said. “I learned there was a lot more to it.”
And she began to see the country through her travels with Net Force and Sky High.
“We won a championship at Penn State,’’ she said. “We went to a qualifier in Texas. We went to Florida a few times.”
And she joined up with the likes of setter Maggie Lonergan and Tracy Heitman. The Sequoits of Antioch began to chalk up some wins.
And there was some fun along the way. Hofeldt-Cheek felt her team got a boost when the affable Schenk joined up.
“Mr. Schenk was the best,’’ she said. “They called us trash because we were from Antioch. But he made it so much fun. One day, we came in with giant sunglasses. We were so goofy.”
The fun went along with a 30-win season. The so-called underdog Sequoits won a regional championship, toppling Warren.
In the process, the hard-hitting Hofeldt broke her own school record for kills in a season (379) and digs (258). In one match, she nailed 22 kills.
“In her senior season, we rode her back to a regional championship and a school record of 30 wins and seven losses,’’ Schenk said. “Throughout that season, Katie was our go-to hitter. No matter who we played, Katie always dominated the net. Even against traditional powers like Stevenson or Libertyville, you could always count on Katie to put the ball away. “
This so-called new volleyball player now was garnering attention. Southern Illinois University in Edwardsville offered a full-ride volleyball scholarship.
“It was so intense,’’ she said. “I started as a freshman. We were awesome. We went to the Sweet 16 and Elite Eight. I really started to learn the game. I didn’t know I would be good at volleyball.”
Schenk is fully aware of the talent that Hofeldt had when he showed up at Antioch. And he had coached plenty of talented volleyball players during his decade as coach at Stevenson.
“Ranking Katie against the outstanding players that I was fortunate to coach at Stevenson and other schools, Katie definitely ranks among the top hitters and all-around players,’’ Schenk said. “In fact, I would say that she is in the picture for the best outside hitter I have ever coached. Two of my former players became all Americans and others have achieved great success on the collegiate level, but they played in different positions than Katie did.”