McAuley's Boyle-Niego 'Honored' to Be Entering Chicagoland Sports Hall of Fame

Almost 30 years ago, Therese Boyle-Niego didn’t have much of a choice but to leave Chicago.

If she wanted to play with the best volleyball players in the country, she had to go to California. That’s where the best programs were. Schools like Stanford, UCLA and USC were the ones winning national championships.

So, Boyle-Niego chose to attend the University of the Pacific. In her senior season of 1985, she helped the Tigers win the school’s first volleyball national championship.

But after her quick four-year stint at Pacific and a coaching gig at the University of Wisconsin, Boyle-Niego has settled back into her hometown of Chicago. And in June, Boyle-Niego received one of Chicago’s highest athletic honors: nomination into the Chicagoland Sports Hall of Fame.

“I’m honored; it’s a great honor,” Boyle-Niego said. “They were probably trying to find some ‘oldy but moldy’s’ like myself, who are in their late-40s, and they might have needed some more females as well.”

Boyle-Niego will be joined by 19 others who were chosen for their contributions in sports. Among those inducted into the Class of 2011 are NFL running back Barry Sanders and Chicago Blackhawks legend Bobby Hull. The induction ceremony will be Sept. 7 at Hawthorne Race Course in Cicero.

Boyle-Niego said she never expected the phone call from the Chicagoland Sports Hall of Fame because volleyball doesn’t often get a lot of recognition in the sports community. She knew about Chicago’s Hall of Fame because her friend Katie Schumacher-Cawley, also a former McAuley volleyball player, was inducted in 2008.

“You don’t hear as much about volleyball as you do with the football greats and the basketball greats,” Boyle-Niego said. “It was surprising, I don’t think there are too many people in the Hall of Fame who play volleyball.”

Twenty five years ago, Boyle-Niego started Elite Volleyball Program, Inc., helping young volleyball players develop their skills. Summer is her busiest time, running multiple camps for kids in grammar school and high school.

But Boyle-Niego will tell you that her full-time job is being a mother to her six children.

“I really enjoy it,” Boyle-Niego said. “I enjoy it because I can spend most of my time with my kids and then I can still have my volleyball on the side.”

And to do it all in Chicago with her husband, where everything started, is exactly how Boyle-Niego has envisioned it all along.

“I grew up in a Catholic community with a big family and now we have one ourselves,” Boyle-Niego said. “We still have a lot of friends that we had back in grammar school.

“I love it, except for the winters as I’m getting older, I love it.”