Meet Billy King: Founder of grassroots group 'King Beach Volleyball' in the Jackson area

BRANDON — On any given day, Brandon resident Billy King can be found in the backyard of his home setting up teammates on one of his four sand volleyball courts. King has provided a grassroots hub for local volleyball players of all ages to continue playing the game they love.

King Beach Volleyball is a nonprofit recreational beach volleyball group which has been located in Brandon for the last 14 years. King, a former club player at Ole Miss, hosts the group in the backyard of his five-acre home where he's built four beach volleyball courts that each hold 100,000 pounds of sand.

King once struggled to get enough players for a 3-on-3 game when the group first began playing in the spring of 2009. More than a decade later, the group now hosts prize tournaments and youth clinics weekly thanks to his vision.

"When I was younger, we played a lot of volleyball, but it wasn't as wasn't very organized," King said. "When I came up with this idea, I wanted to create somewhere people would not only have a place to play, but to develop and get better. It's a sport that you can play for forever."

As the group grew in size year after year, so did the space for the players to play. King continued to spread word on social media via the King Beach Volleyball Facebook group of the sand court at his house, which lead him to building three additional courts over the years so players didn't have to sit through multiple games just to play.

King's commitment to the growth of beach volleyball comes at a pivotal time for the sport after it became a sanctioned NCAA championship event in 2015. Beach volleyball had previously been part of the NCAA Emerging Sports for Women and has since expanded in size since being sanctioned. Currently 93 Division I, Division II and Division III schools have sponsored women's beach volleyball. Southern Miss is among the teams that feature beach volleyball as a varsity sport.

King recruited local volleyball coaches and players to hosts youth clinics at the courts year-round and has made it clear that anyone can participate in the clinics or the tournaments if they join the group on Facebook.

"My daughter has truly excelled since we started attending the King Beach clinics," says Brook Stuart, a parent who's daughter plays volleyball for Brandon High School. "The growth I've seen in her from her first month here to now is night and day and a huge thanks for that goes to Billy. That man doesn't care about money — he wants to see these girls excel and that's what they do. He's one of the nicest guys I've ever met."

King Beach Volleyball has ingrained itself within the community and has also served as a cultural melting pot for people of different ages, ethnicities and genders come together and play safely in the Jackson area.

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"There are no other places around here which have four courts and are maintained well — and Billy opened his home and provided that for us," says Kartikeya Singh Jodha, organizer of the King Beach Volleyball tournaments. "I started playing volleyball back in India and once I came out here for school, I stopped playing since there was nowhere to play at. Billy accepted me since the first day I came here and has helped me get better. I consider him family."

King said he just wants the game to keep growing.

"I want more people to play the game in general and for more people to know how great the game of volleyball is," he said. "I know when a lot of people think of volleyball, they think of it being a backyard sport at churches or family reunions. My mission is to help show it can be so much more than that."

This article originally appeared on Mississippi Clarion Ledger: Beach volleyball is a growing sport in the Jackson MS area. See where