Schools
Volleyball Giant Impresses Top Ranked Colleges
Each week Patch will highlight a youth or youth group whose accomplishments have wowed us. Meet Jim Letten, this week's pick.
Towering over his peers at 6’10”, many would assume Jim Letten to be the star center on basketball team.
“As a kid I dabbled in the usual roundabout of sports as well as soccer, tee ball, baseball, and football,” the senior said, “but never took any of those to a higher level.”
Until he took up volleyball in 7th grade at Shepard Middle School. Since then Letten’s enjoyed unparalleled success on both school and club teams.
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Having just finished the winter portion of his club season with Vernon Hill’s Adversity Elite 18U team, Letten will travel to Minnesota this summer to participate in the Junior Olympics. “This is my second year with Adversity in the Elite program and I have been playing with many of the kids on my team for both of those years,” he said. “I talk regularly with many of the kids on my team and see them outside of volleyball, so our chemistry and the playing atmosphere is always jovial.”
Of course, Letten’s height gives him a huge advantage when attacking, setting, and blocking on the court. Even so, he’s spent an incredible amount of time and energy improving what his coaches call his “volleyball IQ.”
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“On any given week, I’ll be practicing volleyball for three hours on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Sundays, with twelve-hour tournaments on almost every Saturday,” Letten said. “When I’m not leading workouts or on the court, I’m working out to improve my speed and vertical jump.”
To further enhance his understanding of the game, Letten watches more then two hours of film a day to analyze his own performances and to glean strategies from other players.
For Letten volleyball is more of a lifestyle than simply a sport and others have taken notice. The DHS senior currently has offers from Pepperdine University’s five-time NCAA Division I championship team, the University of California San Diego’s Division I team, and MIT’s volleyball team.
While he has yet to make a decision Letten said he’s leaning strongly towards Pepperdine due to its “invariably prestigious program, beautiful campus, and esteemed academic record.”
As for the future? “I am looking to play four years in college and I would like to play professionally in Greece, Italy, or Poland,” Letten said.
These countries represent the most competitive professional leagues in the world and Letten is enticed by the higher popularity that volleyball enjoys in European countries.
