A group of students have begun to work to make a boys’ volleyball league supported by Park. According to junior Cayden Kuss, these students have already joined teams outside of the school.

“The past couple years, it has gotten really populous — there have been a lot of kids joining a volleyball team outside the school, but none of those are actually sanctioned by a high school league,” Kuss said. “A ton of kids would like to join this sport and the need for it to be supported by the school has become more prevalent. As of last week it got sanctioned by the high school leagues to officially start allowing boys’ volleyball to occur, and it gives Park the option to start playing boys volleyball sponsored by the school next year.”

Athletic coordinator Andrew Ewald said the creation of the boys’ volleyball high school league is exciting news.

“Any opportunity for students to do something that is enriching is something we should be doing,” Ewald said. “We should be working towards those as much as we can and making more available for people to do.” 

According to junior Dylan Austin, boys’ volleyball is an expansive sport that almost everyone can find enjoyment in and fits to their skill set. 

“The positions that it has can equate to what you enjoy doing,” Austin said. “If you like jumping, you can be put up front and jump around. If you like blocking, you can be put in the back to block things. I, as a setter, can have more control than most players. It is a versatile sport that is open for anyone.”

According to Ewald, boys’ volleyball is not in the cards due to a stretched out budget and even with all the passionate students there, there isn’t enough to justify the creation of the team.

“If they got a passion for it, now they got an outlet for it if that is something they would like to do,” Ewald said. “However, chances are we will not be adding it to our system even though I support it universally. We don’t have the budget capacity to add anything. Our office hasn’t been approached for the creation of this by enough students. For this to happen we would need the budget and enough students. There are many other things in line that just make this not very feasible right now.”

According to Kuss there are solutions to the problem that might happen to tide over their disappointment.

“Chances are we would be playing with the Hopkins team, so we can actually team as they might not reach the minimum for a full team,” Kuss said.