BRIGHTON — The movie Top Gun inspired Grant Pawlak, a Hartland senior who is in the Michigan Air National Guard, to pursue a future as a fighter pilot.
The volleyball scene in the 1986 blockbuster also inspired him to start a volleyball club at Hartland two years ago.
“I watched Top Gun when I was young,” Pawlak said. “I’ve always been a big aviation fan. I was like, ‘You know what? A boys volleyball team would be very, very fun.’”
That was the impetus for the beginning of club boys volleyball at Hartland two years ago, a program that has now reached varsity status in time for the first Michigan High School Athletic Association tournament this spring.
Unlike other varsity teams at Hartland, athletes on the boys volleyball team are beginning from scratch. Aside from playing at family picnics, none of the Eagles played the sport before joining the school team.
The same is true over at Brighton, which is in its third season as a club team. The Bulldogs aren’t eligible to play in the MHSAA tournament because they aren’t a varsity sport.
A lot of teaching must be done in a short amount of time to put a competitive product on the floor.
“I always laugh that it’s like teaching 12-year-old girls skill wise, but they’re 6-foot-4 with muscles,” Brighton coach Erin Dawe said. “Trying to mesh together strength with technique and finesse is a long process. It takes a lot of reps. We’re new and we’re young.”
Hartland is ranked eighth in Division 1, despite a lack of experience. The Eagles have beaten Brighton twice this season, including a 25-21, 25-16 decision on Wednesday, May 6.
“None played before high school,” said co-coach Dallas Wimbrow, who coaches Hartland’s girls team. “I have one kid who played club this past year, Jacob Dibert. That makes a huge difference getting those touches. With girls, we do clinics for second-graders. We start them out so young. Hopefully, it’s going to take off, because it’s a really fun sport to watch.”
On both teams, volleyball brings together a collection of athletes who may not cross paths except in the school hallways during the fall and winter seasons.
“It’s kind of like a motley crew,” said Pawlak, a running back on the football team. “There’s people who do football, people who do basketball, people who do robotics, people who do band. We’re all together. It’s kind of fun seeing how much these kids grow as athletes.”
Brighton sophomore Weston Dawe, the son of the head coach, competes in tennis and swimming the rest of the year. He didn’t start playing volleyball until high school, though he was exposed to the sport from a young age.
“Growing up, my sister had tournaments all her life, so I got to go there,” he said. “At one of the tournaments, I saw these ginormous dudes and they were pounding it from the 10-foot line to the roof. It was crazy. That’s what got me into the sport.”
Hartland senior Kane Meyer was a key defensive player for a basketball team that won KLAA West and district championships over the winter. Most of the players on that team competed together since elementary school. Nobody playing for Hartland has been playing more than three seasons.
“I had no experience coming into that sophomore year at all,” Meyer said. “I had a couple buddies say, ‘You want to join the team?’ I said, ‘Why not? My spring is wide open. So I just did it. It’s cool I get to play in the spring and it’s not over in the winter.”
The MHSAA regionals will begin May 26, with state quarterfinals being played June 2. The semifinals and finals will be June 5 and 6 at Kellogg Arena in Battle Creek. Hartland will be the only state-ranked team in a regional at Grand Blanc.
Contact Bill Khan at wkhan@livingstondaily.com. Follow him on X @BillKhan
This article originally appeared on Livingston Daily: Brighton, Hartland boys volleyball players quickly learning new sport
Reporting by Bill Khan, Livingston Daily / Livingston Daily
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
