An eighth-grader at Saints Francis & Clare Middle School had planned on chasing high school basketball stardom at Roncalli during the next four years.
Recently, though, Brendan Louthain has found that he probably has a much higher ceiling in another sport.
Louthain was recently chosen to be a part of USA Volleyball’s High Performance program, a pipeline that helps funnel elite talent to the national teams. He will be playing for the Continental team in the 14U age group at a tournament in Tulsa, Oklahoma, July 19-29.
Making the team came as a surprise to Louthain, who had reluctantly taken part in a tryout at the urging of Austin Hillman, his coach at the middle school and with the Indy Elite club program.
“I wasn’t thinking that I was going to make that high of a team, because the tryout, to me, did not go as well as I thought,” Louthain said. “I was just negative when it was over.”
No longer. Landing a spot on the Continental team has changed how the 5-foot-9 outside hitter views what he had long considered his “other” sport. Louthain can’t help but ponder a future in volleyball after his rapid ascent on over the last few months.
“Growing up, his first love was always basketball,” Hillman said. “This year, he’s had a lot of success with volleyball, and it’s kind of interesting seeing his interest kind of shift from basketball to volleyball, in my opinion.”
“I kind of had to step back and look at both sports differently,” Louthain added. “After I heard that I was on a really good team for High Performance, I had to think a lot about the next five years, where I could see myself the next five years, because I know eventually I’m going to have to give up one or the other.”
For now, he’s still planning to play both basketball and volleyball at Roncalli, which is currently ranked No. 1 in the state in the latter.Â
Volleyball, though, will dominate Louthain’s summer. Before he goes to Oklahoma in late July, he’ll be competing at the USAV Boys Junior Nationals in Phoenix July 2-6 with Indy Elite, which is ranked among the top 10 club teams in the country.
Sometimes life comes at you fast — but Louthain seems to be okay with how quickly his perspective has shifted.
“(Basketball) was just kind of my main sport,” he said, “and then volleyball came along, and I just realized how fun it was. I had never seen myself going this far, being this good or being this successful in volleyball.”
And yet he seems to just be getting started.
