The spring sports season brings lots of excitement for students and athletes at the school. There’s track, baseball, softball and lacrosse. But in recent years, boys volleyball has had a “spike” in popularity.
For the past few years, boys volleyball at the high school level was not recognized as an official sport. But starting next season, that is going to change.
Starting in the 2022-23 season, the OHSAA officially voted to recognized boys volleyball as an official high school sport, along with girls wrestling, according to indeonline.com.
And while boys volleyball was not an official member of the OHSAA, it was still played throughout the state in high schools – there has even been a tournament run throughout the state for these programs, according to indeonline.com.
Along with this growth at the state level, the boys volleyball program at the high school has also grown in popularity. From the 2021 season, coming into 2022, the team saw an increase of students joining the team.
“This year, our program grew from 22 athletes to 41, so at least with athletes wanting to play we are becoming more well-known and popular,” Head Boys Volleyball Coach Karlie Foy said. Foy also coaches the girls volleyball team in the fall.
Along with those changes, the team faced challenges with players leaving as well. This year, extra work was needed to make sure that the team could get back to places it was in the past.
“This year is unique in that it is a rebuilding year. Last year, we graduated nearly all of our starters, and so this year we have many players as their first year to varsity or even their first year to volleyball,” Foy said. “We are starting from the ground floor and building the foundation again this year.”
And to lead the team through the challenge this year, two captains were named. Seniors Evan Shultz and Connor Goudie were the players named this year.
“This year I am a captain of our varsity team so I try to stand up for my teammates and make everybody feel involved, as well as trying to make sure everyone can have as much fun as possible, because that’s really the most important thing in sports in my eyes,” Shultz said.
While boys volleyball at the high school has grown, the sport in general has also grown across many other schools. With this growth, there are going to be some tough opponents for the team to face this year.
Shultz said that one of the team’s toughest opponents is be Olentangy Liberty. In both games that the team played, they lost to Liberty, playing Liberty once in the beginning of the season, and again later on.
While these losses may bring down hope for the team, there is still hope for the games that still need to be played.
“Each game clicks something for someone or the team; those are my favorite moments,” Foy said. “We are going to be a totally different and stronger team in May (post season) than we started in March.”
Some of Foy’s favorite moments of the season so far have been the times her players really connected to the sport itself, and seeing the growth they make individually.
“In our game against Upper Arlington at home our Middle Hitter Mason made a perfect connection with the ball on an attack and got a beautiful kill. That was his first really impressive and coordinated on-purpose kill and it was like a magic switch went off, and in that moment he became a volleyball player,” Foy said.
Starting at the end of May, the team will enter into the post-season, and take their shot at winning the tournament.
Foy expects the team to do well in this tournament, and try to earn another district title for the team this season. And with the energy, determination and skill that each player on the team has, a chance at that title might not be too far out of reach.
