Because Bloomington South doesn’t have unlimited money to sponsor any and every sport, there are some sports at South that are forced to be clubs. Lacrosse is probably the most well known club sport at South, but now it will have some competition: boys volleyball.
According to sophomore Jake Davidson, “there is interest, but it’s very hard to get people to get out of their own sport to come play volleyball…there’s a wide diversity of people that come and play.”
“It was something wanted by a lot of people and was kind of started by my family because it’s something I’ve been doing outside of school before it started here. I asked around and my family was able to get other people to get on the train for boys volleyball at South.”
As of now, the club has just been having open gyms on weeknights, but will start actually competing for varsity and junior varsity against Indy teams in about a month and a half. Along with what Davidson said, the boys volleyball season is in an inconvenient time slot where it has to compete with baseball, track and field, and basketball for athletes. This may lead to somewhat of a shortage in athleticism, but Davidson still expects the team to be prepared.
“It’s more serious, but just like any sport, you want to come out and have fun too. It’s not just full on competitiveness.”
Davidson, his sister, Haley, and his mother Julie Owens have been the key components in pulling everything together, but star volleyball player Kenadee Coyle has been helping out at the open gyms as well. At these open gyms, there is mostly just scrimmaging but “it’s mostly just getting to see how people play and trying to get everyone better for the regular season,” said Davidson.
Moreover, since it’s just a club, there are no cuts so everyone who wants to play will be put on either JV or varsity. Davidson also indicated that there may be a fee for jerseys, but they will attempt to have fundraisers to cover that.
Being able to jump right into competitive play against other schools and have success may be a little bit difficult, but just like anything, it will take time and experience for the team to get better. With such a raw team, too, it is likely that they will be able to make great strides from match to match and even set to set. Davidson is expected to be the star, and it seems like it will actually be quite serious, but just the idea of playing on South’s first boys volleyball team should be fun.
