ON THE RADAR
A look at the rising stars in the USA Volleyball High Performance pipeline
Orie Agbaji Kanasas City, Mo.
Jackson Bantle Pacifi c Palisades, Calif.
Jackson Bantle captured the silver medal at the 2015 USA Volleyball Beach High Per- formance Championships in the Under 21/ Under 23 Division. He earned a ninth-place fi nish at the 2014 FIVB Beach Volleyball U21 World Championships playing alongside Branden Clemens. Bantle will begin his junior season as a libero for the UCLA men’s vol- leyball team this coming spring. He started 21 matches last spring for the Bruins with at least fi ve digs in 19 matches after starting 12 matches as a freshman.
Orie Agbaji, a 6-3 high school senior middle blocker who plays for Club North in the Heart of America Re- gion, helped the U.S. Women’s Junior National Team (Under 20) win the 2015 European Global Challenge Under 22 Brijuni Division in July with a victory over the Italian Junior National Team. She was selected the most valuable
player of the Under 22 Brijuni Division – the top division of the tournament. Agbaji, who has committed verbally to University of Texas, had a .500 hitting effi ciency for the tour- nament with 37 kills.
George Huhmann High Ridge, Mo.
George
Abril Bustamante Redondo Beach, Calif.
Abril Bustamante won the 2015 USA Volleyball Beach High Performance Championships U23/U21 Division and the Hermosa Open with partner Sarah Sponcil.
She won the West Coast AAU Junior Olympic Games and the BVCA National Championship with partner Skylar Caputo. She was selected the 2014 AAU Player of the Year. Bustamante, who was named to the 2015 AVCA High School Beach All-American Team, will be a freshman this season playing for the University of Southern California beach volleyball team.
Huhmann, a 6-10 middle blocker, was part of the U.S. Boys’ Youth Na- tional Team that fi nished seventh at the 2015 FIVB Volleyball
Boys’ U19 World Championship. He tallied 16 kills, 12 blocks and three aces during the World Cham- pionship. Huhmann helped High Performance-St. Louis 17 Royal qualify for the 2015 USA Volleyball Boys’ Junior National Champion- ships in the 17 Open Division after winning the Dennis Lafata Gateway Boys’ Festival in February. He started playing volleyball in 2012 and will graduate from high school in 2016.
Griffi n Schmit Clarence Center, N.Y.
Stephanie Samedy Clermont, Fla.
Stephanie Samedy, 6-2 middle blocker who plays for Top Select Volleyball Acad- emy in the Florida Region, helped the U.S. Girls’ Youth National Team win the silver medal at the 2015 FIVB Volleyball Girls’ U18 World Championship. She played a key role in Top Select 16 Elite winning the 16 Open Division in the 2015 Mideast Qualifi er to qualify for the 2015 USA Vol- leyball Girls’ Junior National Champion- ships. Samedy was honored as the 2015 Bright House Sports Network Breakfast of Champions Athlete of the Year.
76 | VOLLEYBALLUSA • Digital Issue at
usavolleyball.org/mag
Griffi n Schmit, a 6-5 opposite, played for the USA Boys’ Select A1 Red Team for the second consecutive season. He took part in the 2015 USA Volleyball High Performance Championships, competing up in the Boys’ International Youth Division with Select A1 Red, which had placed eighth in the division in 2014. Schmit competes for Eden Volleyball Club, which placed 15th in the 17 Open Division of the 2015 USA Vol- leyball Boys’ Junior National Championships. He is a junior at Canisius High School after earning First-Team All-West- ern New York as a sophomore.
PHOTOS CLOCKWISE FROM UPPER LEFT: UCLA, USAV, HUHMANN FAMILY, SCHMIT FAMILY, USAV, BUSTAMANTE FAMILY
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