Two weeks before Spring Break, a new club was formed at BV. This new club is men’s volleyball.

Although it’s technically a sport, men’s volleyball is a club. The reason men’s volleyball is considered a club and not a sport at BV is because of Title IX of the Education Amendments, which prohibits discrimination on the basis of sex in any federally funded education program or activity.

Men’s volleyball may be a club, but it still functions similarly to a sport. The club meets every Sunday from 8 p.m. to 10 p.m. and has 25 to 30 members. The men’s volleyball team is coached by girls volleyball coach Dave Johnson, who also coaches club volleyball at KC Power, and technology integration specialist Keil Pittman. The two currently play each other recreationally.

“We still play together, like old man ball,” Johnson said. “We have played together for years. He is my idol.”

Pittman and Johnson had heard about the men’s volleyball league starting up in KC and decided to host a meeting and get a group together to be part of it.

If anyone wanted to join they could talk to either Pittman or Johnson about how to be involved.

“I heard about [the club] from my friend [junior Jack] Etheridge,” junior Sean Pleimann said, “I knew he was doing it, so [he] told me to go talk to Mr. Pittman for information about it.”

The team is made up of mostly juniors and seniors, and the majority of the members in the club had never played volleyball before. As they compete and practice they’re working to understand the rules, positions and basics of how to play the game.

Although the group isn’t very well acquainted yet, they’re working on becoming a team and getting to know one another. Despite this, it can be difficult to bond because they’re a club and not a sport.

“We haven’t been around each other as much,” Pleimann said. “We only meet once a week rather than a normal team that would meet every day, but I feel like [we] have grown together.”

The group’s attitude and the overall atmosphere is light and fun, Pleimann said.

“I don’t think anyone is taking it too [seriously],” Pleimann said. “We’re all just having fun with it. A lot of us mess up because we’re new to this, and [we] just playfully make fun of each other.”

Men’s volleyball, being a club rather than a sport, gives students a longer grace period to learn.

“Right now we’re in the process of understanding the rules and positions of everything and how to actually play,” Pleimann said. “We compete against each other while doing so, but we’re learning the basics right now.”

The team members scrimmage each other to help get a feel for the atmosphere of the game and in preparation for their competitions against the other teams in the league.

“For me, it doesn’t make a big difference whether it is or isn’t a sport,” Pleimann said. “I guess the only difference in having it be a sport is having more opportunities to compete against other kids.”

Even with the lack of competition among other schools, the team’s meeting does feel similar to other sports meetings, Pleimann said.

The team has competed against Rockhurst, Raymore-Peculiar High and St. Michaels.

“It’s a good lifetime sport that they can continue to play until they’re in their 50s,” Pittman said.