Seton Hall recruit Gwen Adler is the common denominator for two Barrington teams. Their success is no coincidence.

Notice: Trying to get property 'post_title' of non-object in /home/ofzfvenynm4q/public_html/wp-content/plugins/wp-rss-feed-to-post/includes/wprss-ftp-display.php on line 109

The athleticism of Barrington’s Gwen Adler is plain to see, but you sometimes won’t believe your eyes.

Just watch her play volleyball. Or basketball.

Adler, a 5-foot-10 junior, is one of the top players in the state in both sports, and the Fillies have been one of the best teams in both for two years.

Adler is the starting setter on the girls volleyball team that has finished third at each of the past two Class 4A state finals, and she’s a guard for the girls basketball team, which placed second in 4A last season in its first appearance at the state finals.

“It’s definitely incredible being in that state environment,” Adler said. “I’ve been lucky enough to do it every time that we’ve had playoffs so far. My freshman year was the COVID year, so there was no playoffs.”

The vast majority of high school athletes never get the opportunity to play at Illinois State’s Redbird Arena, the site of the state finals in both girls volleyball and girls basketball. Adler has gone three times already.

“It’s an honor just to be down there in that environment,” she said. “It’s unreal. I haven’t got a first place. That is a big goal on my bucket list. I really want that, but it is hard to do.”

Adler, an honors student who recently committed to play volleyball at Seton Hall, is constantly on the go, especially during the winter, when she juggles school, Fillies basketball and club volleyball, somehow without missing a beat.

On a typical weekday, Adler goes to school from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m., has basketball practice from 3:30 p.m. to 6 p.m., has club volleyball practice from 7 p.m. to 9:30 p.m., and returns home to take care of homework. That doesn’t include the basketball games and occasional club volleyball tournaments.

During the basketball playoffs last season, Adler played a basketball game on a Thursday; played in a club volleyball tournament in Omaha, Nebraska, on Friday, Saturday and Sunday; and flew home to attend a Sunday night basketball practice.

“I’ve never had somebody like Gwen make it work between travel volleyball and basketball,” Barrington girls volleyball coach Michelle Jakubowski said. “It’s pretty incredible what she does, and she does it at a high level. She’s an amazing kid.”

Adler’s schedule is jam-packed, but she appreciates how Jakubowski and girls basketball coach Babbi Barreiro coordinate to support her.

“The winter is definitely the worst part of it, through basketball season,” Adler said. “But I’m much better at managing it this year than I was last year.

“I actually stay in coach J’s room a lot and do homework so I don’t have to do it after school, which helps a lot. Barreiro is being super helpful with everything, helping me whenever I need it and working around my schedule.”

Adler first made a name for herself during her sophomore volleyball season, when she helped the Fillies go 33-8 and reach the state semifinals for the first time since 2006.

She was even better this past season, as Barrington went 40-2 and returned to the state semifinals despite two of their biggest stars — South Carolina-bound senior outside Campbell Paris and fourth-leading hitter Megan Bergquist — being sidelined with injuries. Barrington was the only public school team to defeat Class 4A state champion Mother McAuley.

Senior outside hitter Jessica Horwath, who will play beach volleyball at Arizona, stepped up as the team’s leading attacker and had great chemistry with Adler.

“She just makes the most crazy plays work,” Horwath said. “She’s such a hustler out there, and sometimes not everybody is always watching what the setter is doing. But her movement is fantastic, and she is everywhere whenever we need her. Her serving is so great, and her defense is great, always ready to block.”

Adler, who was named all-state honorable mention by the Illinois Volleyball Coaches Association and Illinois Prep Volleyball, finished with 496 assists, 148 digs, 44 kills, 44 aces and 40 blocks. But numbers can’t quantify all of Adler’s talent.

“She’s just so smart out there, which you can really, really tell,” Horwath said. “She knows exactly where to go, and she’s just a great athlete. When you have that athleticism and that talent, to know what to do, is a crazy combination. You cannot stop it.”

Or believe it, at times.

“I don’t know how she does it,” Horwath said. “The hustle is crazy. You can tell she’s a basketball player because she’s so fast.”

Adler was a revelation during the 2021-22 basketball season. Despite playing shooting guard, she led the Fillies with 310 rebounds, at least 100 more than any teammate had.

Adler also topped the team in assists and was third in scoring at 8.5 points. All this on a team that went 30-6 and was led by Purdue-bound guard Sophie Swanson, who won the Illinois Ms. Basketball award.

In her first basketball game at state, Adler scored 20 points and had a team-high 11 rebounds in a 64-55 semifinal win against Bolingbrook. She came back the next day and had six points and five rebounds as Barrington lost to Stevenson 55-43 in the championship game.

It was a performance — and a result — Adler will never forget.

“The group we had last year was unreal,” she said. “I feel like everybody contributed their role to make that team so successful. The people on the court gave 110% every single game.

“As the year went on, we just got better and better in every aspect of it. That day was like the highest moment of our lives, and then it was just awful.”

The loss to Stevenson drives the Fillies and in particular Adler, whose desire to win a championship burns brightly. Swanson may be the engine that drives the team, but Adler provides much of the fuel.

“I really feel like she’s the glue to our team,” Swanson said. “She’s a hustle player. We can always rely on her to pick us up if we’re down. If one player is down, she’s there to help all of us up.

“She always goes 110%, which really helps when a couple of us are having an off day. We’re really lucky to have her on our team.”

One demonstration of that came during the Chicagoland Invitational Showcase on Dec. 3, when Adler had 17 points and 16 rebounds in a 61-57 victory against Geneva. Her last rebound came on a missed free throw, when she dove on the floor to secure the ball and called for a timeout with 4.1 seconds left in the fourth quarter and the Fillies clinging to a 59-57 lead.

“In terms of rebounding, I don’t tend to box out a lot, but it’s OK,” Adler said. “My coach says it’s OK because I kind of just read the ball off the rim and I’ll just crash. That’s kind of how I tend to do it.

“I think it’s the mentality for me. It’s never been a forced thing. It’s natural.”

Barreiro is playing Adler more on the inside this season because of that strength on the glass. But that isn’t Adler’s only forte.

“I don’t think it is any accident that the teams she is on are excelling,” Barreiro said. “She’s one of those kids that just makes everybody better. Obviously, it takes an entire team, but the leadership that she provides in practice and games is extraordinary.

“She just has a level of maturity for her age when it comes to demanding hard work from herself and her teammates, and she brings it every day to every practice and every game.”

Adler had two big decisions to make regarding her athletic and academic future.

She had her pick of Division I colleges, but first she had to choose which sport she wanted to play at the next level.

The choice is volleyball, and the school is Seton Hall, to which Adler verbally committed in November.

“I got recruited for basketball,” she said. “But I told them pretty quickly, just out of respect for them, that I was going to pursue volleyball in college, so they could find someone else.”

Why volleyball?

“I think what led me to pick volleyball for college was my position is setter and I just really love that role on the court, just kind of being the quarterback and the one to make decisions,” she said. “That’s a super fun part of it, and I haven’t played basketball for as long a time. I love it a lot too.

“It’s kind of hard to explain where your heart is, where you see your future, and I think that’s where I saw myself at the collegiate level.”

Adler had several other offers and interest from a growing number of schools. She chose Seton Hall because the Pirates play in the Big East.

“The location is right outside of New York City, and I’m a big fan of New York City,” she said. “The coaches are incredible. It’s an all-girls staff, and I definitely love them, and when I went on my visit, the girls were nothing but amazing. I just fell in love with it the moment I stepped on campus.”

Adler also loves Illinois State’s campus, or at least the part of it where Redbird Arena sits. She’s determined to make a fourth trip to the state finals in March and will do everything she can to get the Fillies (14-6) there.

“I just do what I can do to help my team succeed, and if that’s rebounding, I’m going to rebound,” she said. “If that’s guarding one of their best players, I’m going to do that. If it’s putting up points one game, I’ll do that. I want to do what my team needs.”

Barrington’s girls volleyball and girls basketball rosters are filled with talented athletes, but Adler is the common denominator who brings an uncommon talent.

“I think she’s every bit the player in basketball that she is in volleyball,” Barreiro said. “That’s special athleticism, in this day and age, to be able to accomplish that. I have so many coaches talking about how fun she must be to coach, and she is. She’s a dream to coach.”

Student-athletes like Adler don’t come around often, but talent isn’t the only reason for her success. Just ask Swanson.

“I think it’s definitely her athleticism but also definitely her work ethic,” Swanson said. “She works hard in everything she does, whether it’s school, volleyball or basketball.

“She’s always putting forth her best effort.”

Matt Le Cren is a freelance reporter for Pioneer Press.