Although the LFHS hallways are full of talented teachers, few have a talent as unique as AP Statistics teacher, Megan Dorneker, who is a national handball champion.
Dorneker has won nine Outdoor National Championship titles. She was the first ever handball player– of either gender– to win the United States Handball Association Collegiate National Championships, in both Open Singles and Open Doubles, all four years. At one time, she was ranked number one in the world for handball.
It all began as a way for her dad to stay active. As he took up the sport, he got the whole family involved so that he had people to play against. In the beginning, Dorneker would only go to watch, as the sport was very male dominated. It wasn’t until she was 14 before a court of girls approached her and asked her to play with them.
The start of her handball career was slow. Due to the difficulty of the sport, it took Dorneker nearly a year to win a game, and even longer to win a match– since matches are won by best out of three games.
“It’s not something you can just pick up and do because you have to be coordinated on your right and left side. It takes years to develop into a good player, and a lot of discipline and practice,” said Dorneker.
But Dorneker did not back down from the challenge. Instead, she rose to it, and the difficulty became her favorite part of the sport.
In 2000, Dorneker began her collegiate career at Lake Forest College, being the second of her three siblings to attend the school for handball. Instantly, she found success, being named her team’s Most Valuable Player every season and leading her team to four team National Championships. She was even featured in Sports Illustrated’s “Faces in the Crowd” her senior year in March, 2004.
Out of all her accomplishments, her favorite was in 2011 at the US Open when she beat Aisling Reilly, the number one ranked woman in the world at the time, in an upset tiebreaker.
But, in an ironic twist, out of all her competitors her biggest ‘rival’ happened to be the girl that had initially invited her to play all those years earlier, Lynn Alesi. Alesi attended Texas A&M and faced Dorneker in many matches throughout their collegiate careers.
“Lynn was so good in comparison to me, and she was the one that I always looked up to and wanted to be as good as,” said Dorneker. “I beat her in the 19-and-under Junior Nationals but it was always super close.”
It was in the finals of the Women’s Open Singles that Dorneker had her big win against Alesi, beating her 21-8 and 21-20.
Currently, Dorneker is working on juggling being a teacher, mother, and handball player, often causing handball to take a back seat in her life. But, that does not at all mean the end of her handball career.
With strong support from her family, husband, and Lake Forest College Coach Mike Dau– who is in his 57th year coaching the Foresters– Dorneker is ready to take on more national championships.
“If I could win nationals again, that would be my biggest win. I had won the Outdoor Nationals nine times, and then I won the Indoor Nationals once, and now I’m on an over ten year hiatus from winning, but I just keep trying,” said Dorneker. “In the future, if that happens, it would be an amazing thing, but even the process of trying to get there has been really rewarding.”
