Find the story of star libero Pawel Jedrzejewski
What he remembers most is the noise. A beautifully deafening combination of screaming voices, air horns, vuvuzelas, thunder sticks and anything else fans had thought to bring to the gym.
When McMaster won the first set of the national volleyball championship in Hamilton two years ago, he couldn’t believe the din engulfing all the guys on the court. Even though they eventually lost the match, he loved the atmosphere.
“It got to the point the noise almost cancelled itself out,” Pawel Jedrzejewski says. “You felt the sound inside of you. You were vibrating.”
Things are a little different today.
If things get too loud when this year’s version of the Canadians plays out at Burridge Gym this weekend, he’ll push his earplugs in a little tighter to block out the sound. If that doesn’t work, he’ll get up off the bench and step outside into the quiet hall where he’ll close his eyes for a while.
It was back on Nov. 3 that the Marauders were playing Waterloo in the second game of their regular season. Midway through the second set a ball ricocheted off a set of hands and went flying toward the back wall. The fifthyear libero — one of the best in the country — took off in pursuit of it.
“I ran to save it and I ended up sliding headfirst into one of the door frames,” he says.
His description underplays things a bit. Jedrzejewski (pronounced Yen-jay-evski) didn’t sort of gently slide into it. He slammed into the unforgiving metal frame hard enough that the players on the bench all saw the collision, heard the bang and grabbed their own heads. Even he was surprised he got up.
At this point, he stops his description of the moment for an essential piece of clarification. “I did save it,” he says. That’s all you need to know about the man. Volleyball is his passion and his love. His idea of a perfect afternoon is two or three hours of bumping and setting. It’s been that way since he started playing the game as a fouryear-old. So the fact that he kept the ball aloft and Mac eventually won the point — even though they went on to easily beat the Warriors in straight sets and this one point wasn’t crucial to the outcome — really matters.
But back to the story. When the rally finally ended he felt something running down his head. When he put his hand to the spot that had clobbered the frame it was covered in blood. As was the floor everywhere he’d been.
The cut was one thing. Stitches fixed that. The concussion was another. Not great news to be sure, but he’d take a few weeks of recovery time and be back in plenty of time for the nationals. Put a bow on his career with the biggest moment of his volleyball life on his home court in the midst of that immersion of noise.
Yet more than three months later, he’s not back. Not close. Today he wears earplugs to keep things quiet because too much volume makes him feel sick. If he cheers to vigorously his heart rate goes up and his head hurts. But that’s almost irrelevant because his head hurts every day,
anyway.
“It’s not, do I have (a headache) or not,” he says. “It’s, what degree will it be?”
Several times as he’s been telling his story, he’s played everything down. Yeah, it’s a little disappointing that he won’t get to compete in the nationals, but whatcha gonna do, he says. It’s life. Seven years ago he lacerated a kidney in a high school game when he landed on a teammate’s foot. Stuff happens.
But as he continues to list even more symptoms and mentions a teammate who regularly places a hand on his head and genuinely prays for him, he goes quiet. Then as he starts talking again, you catch the unmistakable sound of a man crying.
“I try not to think about it too much,” he eventually says.
He says he tries to put on a
brave face for his teammates. They should be focused on volleyball, not him. If a senior player shows selflessness, it sends the right message to the younger guys.
When they won provincials last weekend, he celebrated as if he’d been on the floor contributing. A team game is never about one person, even when it’s yourself.
It’s hard, though. More than a
few times this year it’s nearly killed him not to run out onto the court and take his spot. Not being able to be out there for the nationals? At home? That’s going to be rough.
“It’s definitely not the fifthyear finish I was imagining.”
But he’ll be there cheering them on. Quietly.