Scott Kaniewski
With 10 minutes remaining before kickoff, Littleton High School senior Andrew Korff walked to the center of the field, captain band around his right arm.
He joined fellow captains James Dottavio and Kevin Fennelly for the coin toss before the Lions soccer team took on Regis Jesuit. After the flip, Korff left the field while his teammates prepared for the opening whistle. Korff nodded to his coach and turned and jogged toward the locker room. He ran up the stairs at Littleton Public Schools Stadium, through the locker room and into the parking lot where a minivan waited for him. Korff jumped in the van and was driven to the other side of the school, where he ran in, picked up a violin and performed with the Littleton High School orchestra.
While nearly everyone else in the orchestra was dressed to the nines, Korff played his violin in his soccer uniform. (A couple volleyball players were dressed in their uniforms too.) When the song ended, he rushed back to the stadium and was on the field with less than 10 minutes elapsed in the game. He never left the field again, as Littleton earned a 1-0 victory over the defending state runners-up.
“It’s a lot of running, just like switching mind-sets,” said Korff, a three-year varsity player. “It’s a big leap from playing the violin to playing soccer. It’s completely different.”
While Korff has been playing violin since the fourth grade, it was the first time he’d had to play both on the same night. His reason for picking up the instrument?
“It was the only instrument I could make noise on,” he said.
First-year Lions coach Predrag Vajzovic, who worked as the Lions junior varsity coach the last several years and knows Korff well, had no idea his captain played violin.
“He’s very interesting young man,” Vajzovic said. “His mother sent me e-mail. I had no clue. I was really surprised. Then I kind of laughed and said what’s going on? He laughed too.”
Korff didn’t tell Vajzovic that he needed to miss the first few minutes of the match against Regis. He was a little nervous about bringing it up.
“I didn’t really have the guts to tell him,” Korff said, and then laughed. “I didn’t know how he was going to react, if he was going to kick me off the team. I let my mom take care of that one.”
Vajzovic, who would never kick a player off the team for such a valuable reason, described Korff as shy, something that might have worked against Korff as a captain. But Vajzovic said Korff has done well as a leader both on and off the field.
“He’s learning to do that,” Vajzovic said. “He’s very temperamental guy. He wants everyone to push and work hard. He’s learning how to be a captain, how to motivate everybody. He’s still going through that process as captain on the team. He’s doing excellent job.”
On the field, the Lions want to work the ball through Korff in the middle and let him distribute.
“He’s kind of our engine,” Vojzavic said. “He plays defense, plays offense, never stops going hard. He’s got a good soccer brain.”
Violin isn’t the only extra curricular activity for Korff. The Lions center midfielder and National Honor Society member will become an Eagle Scout within the month. His board of review to earn Eagle Scout classification was the day after his soccer/violin double. In order to receive the honor, Korff put together a project to promote starvation awareness. He organized about 30 junior high students to fast with him for 30 hours. They agreed to only drink water over the course of that time. To occupy the 30 hours, Korff organized activities for the kids, including service projects for the elderly and at Mission Hills Church. They also raised food to donate.
“It was really eye-opening,” Korff said, “to know that kids go through that every day, just starving and not knowing where their next meal is going to come from. It was a really big growing experience for me and the junior-highers that I worked with. I learned a lot from it.”
The senior is looking at several options for college. Among his considerations are Colorado School of Mines, Colorado Christian and Western Washington, “because of their environmental program.” He is carrying a weighted 4.0 grade-point average.
Wherever Korff ends up, he’s shown he’ll be able to juggle it.
And is he a better soccer player or violinist?
“I’d say soccer player,” Korff said. “I put a lot more effort in it. I consider violin more of my fun hobby, soccer more of my passion.”