Boys’ volleyball future in Kentucky? ‘It’s going to look absolutely awesome.’

The enthusiasm and athleticism displayed Wednesday night at Henry Clay High School was fitting for a KHSAA state championship event. Someday soon, it might get to be one.

St. Xavier emerged victorious from a final foursome that gathered inside Al Prewitt Gymnasium to compete for the Kentucky Volleyball Coaches Association boys’ state title. The Tigers defeated archrival Trinity in straight sets — 28-26, 25-19, 25-22 — to take the championship following a three-day tournament sprint that involved 16 teams and five sites.

That it was those two in the finals was somewhat predestined: St. X and Trinity have a head start of about 30 or so years on the rest of the state in the sport, which in the last decade has seen an uptick in national interest among girls and boys. More than 30 schools in Kentucky fielded club teams this spring, more than doubling last year’s participants.

Last week, the KHSAA agreed to sanction a boys’ volleyball state championship beginning in the 2024-25 school year, as long as the number of participating schools reaches 42 (15% of its total membership). If growth is to continue, schools from outside the so-called “Golden Triangle” — Louisville, Lexington and Cincinnati — will need to commit to building programs from the ground up. Part of the KVCA’s job is to encourage and support them in doing so.

“If we can have pockets of it, it’s gonna help grow it,” said Luke Grupe, the head coach at Henry Clay.

Getting into volleyball

Sports like lacrosse — which has advocated for KHSAA sanctioning much longer than boys’ volleyball — face unique challenges in their adoption due to the cost of additional equipment and relative unfamiliarity with the game. The KHSAA has sponsored girls’ volleyball since 1979, and 270 schools in Kentucky fielded programs in the 2021-22 school year, the most recent season for which data is available.

Boys like PJ Marshall, a senior at Franklin County, have had non-school-sponsored club options available to them for a couple decades, but interest in the sport — like many — often is sparked within the halls of one’s school. He got turned onto it when he started passing the ball around with some girls’ players at his middle school, and he attended a summer camp with Louisville Fury, the longest-running club program in the state. He planned to officially join it, but Bluegrass Lightning started operating locally that same year, 2020.

Part of what attracts him to the sport?

“The hidden complications of the game,” Marshall said. “My team was inches away from some teams, and what fascinates me is that the things that held us back were just based on a couple years of experience. Because there are so many little intricacies in volleyball — experienced players are gonna find every corner.”

He won’t get to see the spoils of potential KHSAA sanctioning as a player, but he plans to help coach the Flyers while in college (he’s going to the University of Kentucky) and is excited to see how volleyball grows locally.

“I think it’s going to look absolutely awesome,” Marshall said. “Lafayette, (Paul Laurence) Dunbar, West Jessamine, Henry Clay. We’ve already got some really competitive teams who are learning and growing the game super well.”

Jonathan Pineda, a sophomore at Henry Clay, got exposed to the sport through the anime “Haikyu!!” and started playing in a local recreational league, Liga Hispana de Volleyball. He started taking it more seriously this season; he and Marshall both were named to the KVCA’s All-State teams.

Henry Clay’s girls’ team — coached by Luke’s dad, Dale — is one of the few public schools in the state to have competed in the KHSAA girls’ state championship game.

“Watching them be a good team, and good individual players, each and every one of them, motivates me to be better,” Pineda said. “I want to be as good as them. Or better.”

Grant Evans — a Frederick Douglass freshman selected to the All-State squad — started practicing on his own at home by bouncing a ball against his walls. His school wasn’t originally among those expected to field a team this spring. Blake Parker, an assistant soccer coach and teacher at the school stepped up as the club sponsor — a role required for all programs and that is, in most cases, unpaid by schools.

Parker has the fundamentals of coaching and setting a good example down, but he had zero experience with volleyball prior to this spring. Four players from the Broncos’ girls’ team consistently showed up to act as de facto coaches while Parker made sure the big-picture principles — sportsmanship, accountability, respecting the game, etc. — were held up.

“I’ve been telling people, ‘A smart man knows when he knows nothing,’” Parker said. “So I made sure those young ladies were empowered enough to understand that this was their thing. ‘I’ll be in the background helping out, but you guys can take over.’ I was definitely learning the rules of the game as we played. It was a great opportunity.”

‘You’ve got to learn how not to lose’

Lafayette was Lexington’s only challenger in the semifinals. The Generals bowed out to St. Xavier while Trinity got to the title bout after dispatching West Jessamine.

Sanan Ahmad, a Lafayette sophomore, hopes to grow a couple inches over the summer and wants to get a summer job to help pay for a spot on a club team. His Generals took a while to get into a groove against the Tigers — the first set was lopsided, 25-9 — but kept things tighter through the second set than the final score (25-16) might indicate.

“We did pretty good for how much experience we have,” Ahmad said. “I’m not too upset about it. I’m glad we got to play them. You’ve got to learn how not to lose, so it was good.”

Grupe said his team in its infancy — 2018 — would have been fortunate to score a single point against the Louisville stalwarts. The progress local teams have made against that measuring stick has been significant, and he anticipates the gap will get shorter as interest continues to rise and coaching improves.

“St. X and Trinity, they’re more used to the men’s game,” Grupe said. “A lot of us are kind of learning from the women’s game, so it’s evolving into more of a men’s game, which is more about power and height and aggression on the court. That’s the evolution we have to see on our side, but it’s going there. The more guys we get, the better the play has been.”

The lure of a college scholarship is a major driver of interest in most sports. In the 2022-23 school year, 57 NCAA schools sponsored men’s volleyball — few enough that Division I and Division II teams compete for the same national championship. This year, 63 NAIA schools fielded men’s volleyball teams, including four from Kentucky: Campbellsville, Georgetown, Midway and Thomas More. Brescia will join the ranks next season.

A lot of successful college programs fill out their rosters with players from other countries — volleyball is more widely played across the globe than in the U.S. Thomas More, which will transition to NCAA Division II next season, has made an effort to grow its program from a more local recruiting base. Most of the players on its roster hail from Ohio and Indiana, the sanctioning bodies of which have sponsored boys’ volleyball for years. Darien McDowell, an assistant coach who was on site to watch an incoming recruit, is eager for Kentucky talent to be more in its mix as well.

McDowell, a Cincinnati native, picked up the sport after watching his older sister star in it. He played college football at Morehead State, but volleyball was his biggest passion. It’s too exciting, he said, for it not to catch on in a big way among boys — in Kentucky and beyond.

“I think it’s just about getting kids in the gym,” McDowell said. “That’s been the biggest issue. Everybody plays football, basketball, baseball or soccer. Introducing volleyball makes it odd.

“But if you look at the small pool of guys who are playing, you’ve got one committed to Penn State (West Jessamine’s Zach Stowe), one committed to Ohio State (Trinity’s Aaron Grimm) and one to Thomas More (Trinity’s Jake Schurfranz). We’ve got a lot of talent already tapped in. I can only imagine what it’s gonna be like in five years.”

Fast-growing boys’ high school volleyball club sport on cusp of sanctioning

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