Sports
Marist’s Christian Teresi tops list of local volleyball All-Americans
When he was in grade school, Christian Teresi would take car rides with his father, Marty, to and from volleyball practices and matches. The soundtrack to those trips often was a particular tune: “Humble and Kind” by Tim McGraw. “He would always play that song and that’s how he raised me,” Teresi said of his father. […]
When he was in grade school, Christian Teresi would take car rides with his father, Marty, to and from volleyball practices and matches.
The soundtrack to those trips often was a particular tune: “Humble and Kind” by Tim McGraw.
“He would always play that song and that’s how he raised me,” Teresi said of his father. “It was all about being humble.”
Even when the awards keep coming.
On June 25, both the Junior Volleyball Association and the American Volleyball Coaches Association announced their All-America teams. The Marist setter/opposite hitter from Mount Greenwood was named on the first team for both organizations.
Both Teresi and RedHawks teammate Nathen Toth made it to the JVA All-National first team for the Class of 2025.
Marist’s Briggs Corona made the JVA’s All-National team for the Class of 2027.
Teresi was also named to the first team by the AVCA, while Sandburg’s Jermiah Aro made the second team along with Toth.
Marist’s Jordan Vidovic was named the High School Coach of the Year by AVCA after leading the RedHawks to their second straight IHSA state championship and finishing second in the nation in the AVCA poll.
Even with collecting the All-America awards, Teresi emphasized staying humble.
“A lot of people don’t even win one, so I am grateful,” Teresi said. “Both my dad and coach Vidovic have told me to be thankful for the awards but put them to the side because there is always room for improvement.
“I’m extremely happy about getting the awards, don’t get me wrong. But I feel like there is way more improvement to be done.”
The Ohio State commit finished off his Marist career with a senior season that featured 638 assists, 359 kills, 212 digs, 86 blocks and 28 aces.
His career assist total of 3,258 is third on the IHSA all-time list. Second is Vidovic, who had 3,704 for Brother Rice from 2002-2005.
“It’s been a fun road,” Vidovic said of coaching Teresi. “His first couple of years were eerily similar to my experience as a player. We both started playing volleyball at such a young age. We had similar freshman seasons and we had similar sophomore seasons.
“To get to challenge him to further that, I remember my own experience and I told him, ‘You gotta avoid this and you gotta avoid that buckle down on this.’ To get to work together was fun the last two years to get over the hump in some ways because I was in similar situations.”
Vidovic is also glad for Toth and Corona.
“To have multiple capable players like that kind of explains the season,” he said. “It’s pretty cool for them to enjoy that together. To see them get recognized across the board basically is just another great cap on the season. It’s well-deserved.”
Teresi, Toth, Marist’s Delvin Biggs, Sandburg’s Will Ashim and Oak Lawn’s Oisin Walsh have their eyes on a national championship.
They were scheduled to open play for the Adversity South club this week in the AAU Boys National Volleyball Championships in the 18 Open division. That’s the top division in the tournament.