MORGANTOWN — Guess which is one of the fastest growing sports in the country.
Here’s a hint: It’s played all over the world, in the Olympics…and in West Virginia…sort of.
If you guessed boys high school volleyball, you’ve probably had a conversation with Preston girls volleyball coach and volleyball fanatic Zebulon Lewis.
“It’s just as big as girls volleyball in many areas of the country,” he said, “and more and more high schools and colleges are adding the sport, and there’s no reason why we shouldn’t have boys playing the sport in West Virginia. There are 75,000 boys playing high school volleyball right now, and that will increase to 100,000 plus in six years. I think West Virginia should be a part of that wave.”
For the last few years, Lewis has been doing his part to get the ball rolling, and he had some initial steps in place until COVID-19 hit, but he remains confident that things can quickly get back on track post-pandemic.
‘It’s all about introducing the sport and generating interest,” he said. “It’s a spring sport, so it won’t interfere with girls’ volleyball or football, and it’s a great complimentary sport, especially for the body mechanics of basketball. It’s a fast-twitch muscle sport, so it increases explosiveness and quickness.
“There should be little overlap with gym usage, and the cost to the school districts to develop the sport is essentially zero. So it’s just a matter of finding the coaches — and I have coaches interested at MHS, UHS, Buckhannon-Upshur, Grafton, the Fairmont schools, Bridgeport and Clarksburg — and generating student interest. I’m convinced that once they learn the basics, they’re gonna fall in love with the sport like I did.”
For Morgantown volleyball coach Erica Manor, the topic of boys’ volleyball has been simmering for years, and she’s 100% behind the effort.
“Of course we will need to build it up as a club sport first,” Manor said, “just like boys’ and girls’ lacrosse did a few years back. It can start at the grass roots level at several schools, and then it spreads from there. If you can also start and keep kids interested at the middle school level, as well, that can really speed up the process. We have the population base to support the sport, so it will be interesting moving forward.
For his part, Lewis has invested plenty of time and energy finding appropriate gyms throughout the area, as well as investigating the process for obtaining school-board approval for their use.
“It’s mainly about removing reasons why they wouldn’t say ‘yes’, and that hasn’t been too tough, really,” he said. “If we can show we have the interest, then we can start the process to establish official high school club sport status, and from there, we’ll be on our way.”
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