Indoor volleyball is the #1 team participatory sport in high school and college for girls. Over the past five years, boys indoor high school volleyball has been the fastest growing team sport by percentage in the country. Since 2005, boys volleyball has nearly doubled in participation, and increased by 40% since 2017.
The growth is evident in convention centers, volleyball facilities and sports gyms across the country. In just the last six months of 2024, The Brickyard Battle had 630 boys volleyball teams participate from coast to coast, The Chi-Town Boys Challenge had over 450 teams participate (both events co-hosted by JVA and AAU as part of the JVA AAU Boys Volleyball Series), and the 2024 AAU Boys’ National Championships included nearly 1,250 boys volleyball teams, compared to 780 boys volleyball teams in 2023.
The increase in boys’ volleyball participation is not restricted to club. We are quickly approaching 30 states with sanctioned high school boys volleyball, plus several states naming boys volleyball as an “emerging sport,” predicted to eventually become sanctioned as participation continues on the current trajectory of growth. As with most high school sports, there’s every reason to believe this growth is going to fuel the growth of club participation.
This growth of boys’ volleyball does not come without its complications; complications that did not exist 20 years ago:
First, as a result of overlapping seasons, the majority of junior volleyball clubs all over the country have run out of space to train their teams (the girls’ season runs from December through June, boys from November-March and May-June). Many of these clubs already train two teams per court, and the growth of girls volleyball isn’t slowing down. AAU Nationals breaks records every year, JVA and USAV girls events are selling out in minutes, and USAV Nationals continue to grow and add opportunities to qualify. The result: Most Club Directors with girls and boys programs (in particular those that own or lease their own facility) are left to decide which programs to allow to grow and which ones to limit or cut.
Second, event operators and tournament directors are running out of places to host tournaments due to long established girls’ tournaments taking precedence. As a result, we are seeing the growth of boys’ tournaments in November, December, and even October. This leads to a club volleyball season that is 9 months long… professional Hockey seasons aren’t that long!
Third, the club season on the boys’ side is disjointed for the vast majority of the country. Eighty-five percent of the country that sanctions high school boys volleyball sanctions it in the spring, leaving only four states that sanction the sport in the fall: New York, Wisconsin, South Carolina, and Virginia. The boys’ club season begins earlier and earlier, with some clubs competing as early as October. Then it pauses for 8-12 weeks from March through part or all of May, then reconvenes for Nationals at the end of June, early July. Twenty years ago, less than half of these states sanctioned high school boys volleyball, and nearly half of participants were in states that had boys high school volleyball in the fall. With the primary growth being from states that sanction boys high school volleyball in the spring, it is difficult for club directors to structure a season that keeps teams together after such a long break.
Lastly, many clubs face a shortage in coaches on the girls and the boys side. There are lots of junior volleyball coaches that would like to coach both boys and girls, but they can’t because of the season overlap. Moreover, men’s college volleyball coaches are usually unable to commit to coaching a team because the men’s season is during the same time.
One solution to these four complications is to adjust the boys’ club volleyball season to the summer and fall, ending with a winter National Championship.
Tryouts could take place in June after the majority of teams finish their high school seasons. Boys could attend college camps during the month of July, and USAV National Team Development training could shift to the summer instead of over Christmas break. Tournaments could kick off in August and a National Championship could take place in December (or over MLK weekend or President’s Day weekend).
Having had multiple discussions with college coaches, this shift would also provide the following solutions to issues that they face:
- It would give them a season to recruit and a season to coach their team; rather than trying to do both at the same time.
- It would give both head coaches and especially assistants a better means of supplementing their income.
- It would dramatically enhance their travel budgets since those that coach club teams will have travel paid for by the club.
- It would help both growth and quality as they would have a bigger presence in gyms all across the country.
For facility owners and lessees, most of us face a three-four month stretch where there’s not a lot going on in the gym. With girls’ high school and middle school being (almost universally) in the fall, it’s tough to keep the gym even halfway filled. Instead, we cram everything into an 8-9 month stretch and then complain that there is just no space for programs to grow.
Shifting the indoor junior boys’ volleyball season would allow for ALL programs to grow. Boys’ programs could form or expand because there will be space to train. Youth programming for all ages, both for boys and girls, could expand year-round. Clubs would be able to offer more girls’ teams or other programs in the spring. Even adult leagues would benefit (we are consistently pinching our adult leagues despite demand being higher than ever).
Moving the indoor boys volleyball season would grant the opportunity for an explosion of participation in the sport of volleyball. As more high schools sanction the sport of boys volleyball, these boys will be looking for opportunities to continue training at the club level, which will increase the demand for clubs to have a robust boys program. It may be the right time for the leading youth and junior volleyball organizations to work together to find a solution that will meet the needs of the junior volleyball clubs serving their prospective athletes.
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About the Author
John Brannon is the Club Director of Carolina Union, a JVA member club in Charlotte, North Carolina. He is also a member of the JVA Board of Directors. John has several years of experience coaching at the Division I collegiate level, as well as high school and club.
