In recent years, there has been a surge in popularity surrounding boys volleyball. A sport primarily dominated by girls is seeing more interest, especially at the high school level.
However a boys volleyball club sprouted at Blue Valley last year. Sponsored by teacher Sam Coronado and paraprofessional Sarah Troia, the boys volleyball club has been working to further its reach, in hopes of becoming officially recognized as a sanctioned KSHSAA sport.
Senior Ben Kim — a former player of the volleyball team — offers his opinion on the rise of volleyball.
“Recently, there’s kind of been a revival in the school with volleyball,” Kim said. “There are a ton of people who play volleyball, especially boys, so it’s a good idea to have that team for just the boys who are interested in volleyball. There are a lot of us who like to play volleyball and pursue our passion.”
While women’s volleyball is a formally recognized sport according to the Kansas State High School Activities Association, boys volleyball lacks the same support and foundation.
For this reason, it is considered a club rather than a sport. There are a couple of key differences between the two, such as court scheduling and playing other teams. Finding a sponsor rather than a coach is a problem the BV boys team had to work around.
“We [did] have two sponsors last year — Coronado and Troia — but this year, Isaac Johnson’s dad is going to be the head coach,” Kim said. “Finding sponsors is not really a problem because there are a ton of people who are interested.”
Senior Isaac Johnson has years of experience playing volleyball and is familiar with how boys volleyball typically works. Johnson also plays on a club team outside of the school, which faces similar struggles.
“The players mainly bring the viewership, [and] recently there was a huge spike,” Johnson said. “The popularity changes every year, and it usually gets more popular. Hopefully, we can get it sanctioned soon.”
To sanction a sport, a school must go through the legal process with KSHSAA. This can not only be time-consuming but also legally complicated. It involves a school contacting the district’s Director of Activities.
This, coupled with the need to find a sponsor, offers many challenging obstacles to face along the way.
“The sponsor is a very hard thing to do at many schools, not really for this school, because there’s a couple of people that I could suggest sponsoring it,” Johnson said.
As the two navigate the challenges of sanctioning a sport, they continue to play on a team together called the “BVH Timewasters.”
“[We] played every single day, just grinding out the sport,” Kim said. “That pure passion for the sport, that passion for the love of the game, that passion for volleyball just spread.”
