The Plaisted brothers from Wauwatosa East will be taking their volleyball skills to the national level this summer.
Ben Plaisted, the state's player of the year, made the 2014 USA Men's Junior National Training Team (MJNTT), which will be led by Men's Junior National Team head coach Bill Ferguson of the University of Southern California. Ferguson will be joined on the coaching staff by Dan Friend of Lewis University and Jay Hosack of Penn State University.
The Men's Junior National Team will be competing in NORCECA Continental Championships from July 27 to Aug. 4 in El Salvador.
Team USA is the two-time defending Gold Medal champion for the Men's Junior Age Group. The MJNTT has high hopes to not only turn that into a three-peat, but also to see this team standing on the medal podium at the 2015 Men's Junior World Championships.
The team will be training for about two weeks at the Olympic Training Center in Lake Placid, N.Y., before departing for El Salvador. The MJNTT is the first step to a spot on the Men's USA National Team and Olympic Team.
Aaron Plaisted, a freshman at Tosa East, was selected to train and compete for the USA Select A1 Team in Tulsa, Okla., for 10 days at the end of July.
Aaron was chosen as one of the highest-ranked select age group volleyball players in the country.