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Oak Park-River Forest senior Peter Zurawski is not a hard person to find.
If school is not in session, then chances are Zurawski is playing volleyball somewhere.
It could be in the school gym, on an indoor court at his club or even on a patch of grass or sand at a local park. If there’s action to be had, Zurawski is all-in.
“One thing that makes Peter special is he loves the game of volleyball,” OPRF coach Justin Cousin said. “A lot like myself, he finds every opportunity to play.
“It doesn’t matter what position he’s playing or what level he’s playing, but as long as he’s got volleyball, he’s good. He really has a love for the game, more so than a lot of players I’ve ever coached.”
Cousin isn’t exaggerating. He has coached — and even played with — Zurawski for the past six years.
Cousin, a former OPRF player, regularly finds pickup games with Zurawski’s father, Richard. Where dad goes, son is sure to follow.
“His dad plays pretty competitively and regularly,” Cousin said. “Since I’ve known his dad, we’ve always made arrangements to play together, and Peter always comes with and hops in the games with us.
“We play grass. So we’ll just set up a net at the park and open it up to whoever wants to play, and Peter is usually first in line to play with us.”
The 6-foot-6 Zurawski, who has led the Huskies to the state quarterfinals as a setter in each of the past two seasons, started playing volleyball in fifth grade.
“My dad started playing later in life,” he said. “High school volleyball wasn’t offered.
“He taught me the game. He got me into it through sand volleyball, so I started there, and I’ve been playing indoor ever since. Ever since I joined club with my friends, it’s been a passion. Creating bonds through sports is really my thing, and I’m just having fun every time I’m on the court.”
Illinois is turning into a hotbed of boys volleyball, and OPRF has had a successful program since the Illinois High School Association first sanctioned the sport in the 1991-92 school year. The Huskies have qualified for the state quarterfinals 18 times, winning six state trophies.
So it’s not surprising that OPRF has produced a lot of star players. But Zurawski, a Ball State recruit, might be a unicorn.
“At this point, he is the best player at every position on our team,” Cousin said.
Few players at any school can say such a thing. Most players excel at two or three facets, and few perfect every position since there is no need to do so.
So how did Zurawski become so well-rounded?
“My love for the game,” he said. “I’ll play a lot of sand volleyball and grass volleyball, too, where you’re forced to learn every position. It’s fun because once you learn other positions, you get to know plenty more about the game.
“We’ll go to the park and play. We’ll kind of get everyone going.”
Cousin’s assertion of Zurawski’s prowess is not disputed by the other Huskies, who all gravitate to their leader.
“I agree with my coach,” junior Quinn Bozarth said. “He’s the best player at every position here. So whatever we need him to do, he’ll be able to do it.”
Zurawski’s all-around skills will be tested as never before this season because Cousin has moved several players around. Zurawski will play outside hitter, and Bozarth, who played right side last season, will take over at setter.
The impetus for the move was Zurawski.
“Initially I wanted him to set, but per usual, I always ask my best varsity player/captain what they think would be best for their senior season,” Cousin said. “I went to OPRF, and my coach, Don August, had a similar thing where he would check in with the captains and ask how are you feeling about the team and what are some things that you’ve noticed about your teammates that I may not have noticed.
“One of the things that Peter said is that for his senior year, he wants to feel like he can do more than just give the ball to somebody else and leave the season in their hands. He really wanted to take advantage of his skill set and own being the leader of the team, so he wanted to be put in a position where he could more affect the trajectory of the game as far as passing and attacking goes.”
Cousin sensed Zurawski was on to something.
“Peter played a lot of grass volleyball last summer, which helps with making your game more well-rounded, and he played in some really big tournaments, so I think that gave him a little bit more experience with his ball control with passing,” Cousin said.
“So when I did tryouts and I was looking at all the numbers, Peter outperformed everybody at the outside position. I figured I’d put him at that spot.”
Despite being one of the top setters in the country, Zurawski jumped at the chance to change positions, in part because he knew Bozarth was ready.
“To make the offense as dynamic as possible, we kind of got to make some changes to get people in the right spots,” Zurawski said. “We think we can have a great setter in Quinn, so we can use our strengths from other players and fill the gaps.”
Last season, Zurawski led the Huskies with 591 assists and 41 aces and was second on the team in blocks with 43, third in digs with 110 and fifth in kills with 82. But he expects the team will be more powerful with Bozarth running the show.
“This year we have a lot of seniors, and I feel like our ability to put anyone at any position when we really need it will make a big difference,” Zurawski said. “We’ll be one of the most confusing teams to defend against with all of our options. You can’t stop all of us at once.”
Opponents no doubt will focus much of their attention on stopping Zurawski. That wasn’t easy when he was setting and figures to be even harder when he’s hitting.
“On the court, he’s kind of the guy I’ll go to if we’re in a rut,” Bozarth said. “If we need a guy to get a kill, he’s the guy, or if we need to go on a serving run to get back points, he’ll just go back and rip them.
“It’s really nice having him on the team. It lets me set a lot more dynamically because he’ll create options. Once the ball goes to him, it creates opportunities for the other hitters.”
Cousin said the position switches will help both Bozarth and Zurawski and thus the Huskies.
“Quinn sets really well,” Cousin said. “Last year he was a sophomore and just not quite ready to run the offense with much more experienced guys like Peter and AJ (Robateau). Quinn was the youngest guy on the floor, so I thought it would be good for him to have a smaller role, where he would just hit and block while getting used to the speed of the game at the varsity level.
“Now he’ll be setting Peter, who jumps the highest, hits with the highest percentage and overall has the best ball control. That’s something crazy.”
Cousin saw Zurawski’s ascent coming long ago.
“I’ve been coaching Peter since he was in seventh grade,” Cousin said. “He was playing at Chicago Elite on the 14s, and I was coaching both the 18s and 14s.
“I was like, ‘Hey, Peter, my setter is leaving. You should play with my 18s,’ and he was able to go out there and play right away. Even while he was in middle school, he was playing with seniors in high school.”
And doing it well.
“He comes up to me after the game and was like, ‘Coach, that was really easy,’” Cousin recalled. “I’m like, ‘Peter, I think you don’t know that you’re really good.’ So he’s had it for a long time.”
Zurawski began his career as a setter, and after this one-season detour, he’ll continue it there at Ball State.
Zurawski was one of six alternates for the USA Volleyball U19 team that won the Pan American Cup in Guatemala in March. Eighteen players made the roster.
“The setter he’d have to beat out was the MVP of the tournament last year,” Cousin noted. “He already had the cards stacked against him going into it. But just to be invited to it even though the team knows they were probably going to go with the same setter was just a nod to how good he actually is.”
Zurawski has literally grown a lot from the time he began setting.
“I started setting in the sixth grade, just because my coach put me up to it,” he said. “I was one of the shorter kids.
“It kind of helped me because I’m a good size to play setter at the Division I level. If I was to take up another position like middle or outside, then I would be undersized, so this is really setting me up for the future.”
Zurawski grew nearly 10 inches in two years beginning in the summer before his sophomore year.
“It was definitely hard for me because I was doing new stuff,” he said. “I was playing differently on the court, and I felt like I lost some of my body control. But I feel like over the years I’ve made that back, and I keep progressively getting better.”
But there is one vestige remaining from Zurawski’s smaller stature.
“Peter couldn’t even reach his hand over the net his sophomore year, and by the start of his junior year his pants were up to the middle of his shins,” Cousin said. “What’s crazy is he still wears his little sweatpants from when he was a sophomore, and they look like three-quarter soccer pants.”
No matter what he’s wearing or where he’s playing, Zurawski makes an impact on his teammates.
“He’s taught me a lot of what I know just from playing on sand or grass or even snow volleyball in the winter,” Bozarth said. “We’ll pack down the snow, set up a net and start playing. Playing with him a lot has gotten me to where I am now.”
That’s true for all of the Huskies, who are benefiting from Zurawski’s zeal for winning. He’s a taskmaster, perhaps even more so than Cousin, but one who always has his teammates’ backs.
“I’ll come down hard on some of his teammates and be like, ‘Why are you doing this?’” Cousin said. “Peter’s like, ‘Come on, coach, he’s trying his best.’
“He’s always right there to defend his teammates and pick them up when they’re down and hold them accountable as well. He’s like, ‘You have to do better than that. We’re trying to win.’”
Zurawski is willing to work as hard as it takes to win.
“He’s the one pushing me,” Cousin said. “He’s like, ‘Coach, let’s have longer practices.’
“I’m like, ‘Peter, your team can’t handle a longer practice. I know you love the game, but these other guys get squirrely after a while.’”
The Huskies actually are squirrely to do something they’ve never done and win a state championship.
“This is our chance to win it,” Zurawski said. “We’ve got the same group of boys, we’ve been playing together for years now and we’re focused on one thing — working for state every single day.”
“(Winning state) is our ultimate goal. It would mean the world to us.”
Matt Le Cren is a freelance reporter for Pioneer Press.
