Northville — This isn’t the first year Northville has had a boys volleyball team and the squad actually made the state semifinals last year, but this spring there has been an added level of excitement and purpose around the program.
Northville and other boys volleyball teams around the state have existed as strictly club programs, but this year for the first time boys volleyball is a sanctioned sport by the Michigan High School Athletic Association.
Being sanctioned has made it a whole new ballgame for boys volleyball teams, from getting the word out around school halls in the fall, through offseason training in the winter and to tryouts in March.
“There’s definitely been more advertising for it,” said Northville senior captain Jude Butler, a member of Northville’s team last year that made the state semifinals of a tournament sanctioned by the coaches association in recent years. “As opposed to any other year I tried out, there were more kids for sure. Probably another 10 to 15 kids.”
The inaugural MHSAA-sanctioned boys volleyball season concludes this week with state quarterfinal games on Tuesday, the semifinals on Friday and the state championship games on Saturday in Battle Creek.
The Division 1 quarterfinals on Tuesday will feature Macomb Dakota vs. Dearborn Fordson, Farmington vs. Lake Orion, Grand Haven vs. Hudsonville and Hartland vs. Northville.
In Division 2, the quarterfinal matchups are St. Joseph vs. Grand Rapids South Christian, Dearborn Divine Child vs. Walled Lake Central, Grand Rapids Christian vs. Lowell and Auburn Hills Oakland Christian vs. Auburn Hills Avondale.
The MHSAA brought on boys volleyball to pair it with the other newly sanctioned sport this school year that was played in the fall, girls field hockey. The biggest difference is that boys volleyball already has a larger base that figures to only get bigger in future years.
While there were 37 field hockey teams in the fall and a state championship contested in one overall Division, there are 118 boys volleyball teams and state championships contested in two Divisions.
Whether it’s been schools that have already had established and successful club programs such as Northville, Canton, Novi Detroit Catholic Central or Saline — all were paired in the same regional last week at Northville — or schools getting a program started for the first time now that the sport is sanctioned, seeds are being planted rapidly for boys volleyball even in a competitive sports environment.
“I think a lot more athletes are coming from basketball,” said first-year Northville head coach Nyia Setla, who has coached boys and girls volleyball on the club and high school levels. “We are pulling more from soccer. They’re more interested in volleyball. It’s still demanding, but it’s a different demand on the body than other contact sports. It’s nice to see those kids come out and try a different sport.”
At Catholic Central, which has long been an athletic powerhouse, the sight of volleyball practices and matches at the all-boys school has already added another dimension to its storied tradition in athletics.
“I think there’s more excitement and more respect from their classmates,” Catholic Central head coach Bridgitte Laffey said. “The boys, they’ve thought it’s a girls sport. Now, there’s a lot more respect. We’re just like any other sport. It’s kind of neat trying to bring volleyball to a boys school.”
Different type of game, coaching
Beverly Lardin is the coach of the Canton girls volleyball program who this spring has also been the head coach of the boys team.
Lardin admits since a lot of boys are new to the sport, there has been a little more teaching of the fundamentals compared to what she does with the girls in the fall.
“The boys are stronger at blocking,” Lardin said. “But their passing is not as strong. So I focus a lot on the passing and their platforms, where the girls are much stronger with that passing and at setter.”
Setla said the motivational tactics can also be different between boys and girls.
“I think the play of the game is similar, but how I can interact with the guys is different than how I can the girls,” she said. “I know I’ve had times where I’m yelling at the guys telling them to pull their heads out of their butts. The girls, I have to be a little bit softer about that. I know the guys can take it and they know I’m coming from a good place. They know it’s tough love.”
Lardin said if there is one advantage boys’ games have, it’s the enhanced power that is brought to the flow of games.
“(The boys game) can be exciting with blocks and other things,” she said.
Further getting the word out
For those coaches who lead boys and girls programs, their work has now doubled, but in a good way. Instead of conducting camps, open gyms and installing feeder programs within the community for just girls, now they will do the same for boys now that the MHSAA is sanctioning the sport.
“I hope we get more involved in the middle schools,” Setla said. “That’s what we’re pulling from, right? Eighth-grade kids coming in and trying to make a statement. Northville does a great job at running an activity night. We’ll bring all the middle-school kids in and we’ll have posters and we showcase all of our trophies. We’ll say, ‘hey, we have done this and this is what we’re doing.’”
In recent years even when the sport wasn’t sanctioned by the MHSAA, the gold standard for the state has been programs on the west side such as Hudsonville and Grand Haven, mainly because they’ve long established relationships in their communities with kids and introduced boys volleyball at a younger age.
“You see the success Grand Haven and Hudsonville has had for their middle school programs, so it’s crucial,” Laffey said. “A lot of schools from the area will be running camps over the summer. So continuing to promote that and pushing it down to middle schools is going to be really important.”
All that figures to happen quickly for athletic programs around the area, and once it does, expect a sport with an already great foundation in its first year this spring to skyrocket in growth.
“Guys that have athletic experience, they’re now bringing energy to a good new sport,” Laffey said.
Schedule
Division 1
Quarterfinals
Tuesday
Grand Haven at Hudsonville, 6
Macomb Dakota vs. Dearborn Fordson at Lincoln Park, 7
Hartland vs. Northville at Novi, 6
Farmington vs. Lake Orion at Rochester Stoney Creek, 6
Semifinals
Friday
Battle Creek
4:30 and 6:30
Finals: 2:30 Saturday
Division 2
Quarterfinals
Tuesday
St. Joesph at GR South Christian, 6
Dearborn Divine Child vs. Walled Lake Central at Ypsilanti Lincoln, 6
Lowell at Grand Rapids Christian, 6
Auburn Hills Avondale vs. Auburn Hills Oakland Christian at North Branch, 6
Semifinals
Friday
Battle Creek
Noon and 2
Finals: Noon Saturday
Keith Dunlap is a freelance writer.
This article originally appeared on The Detroit News: Boys high school volleyball builds momentum in first state-sanctioned season
Reporting by Keith Dunlap, Special to The Detroit News / The Detroit News
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