High school boys volleyball makes its debut in Haywood County
Mar. 29—There's a new sport being played at Pisgah High School — boys volleyball.
This spring is the first season for the new team.
"It's really cool," Pisgah volleyball coach Katie O'Connor said. "They're just having fun with this. It's a release for them. It's not a sanctioned sport right now, so they're just having fun and learning this game. We're all taking it day by day."
On Tuesday, the team played just its second game ever, losing in straight sets to Enka.
But the result is not the most important part of the game. The team is laying the foundation for the program moving forward.
"I think it's fun, just playing with my friends," said junior Aaron Clark. "Obviously, we want to win, but we're having a good time all in all. We're still competitive. I like it."
The team got its start due to many of the current players making their pleas to have a boys volleyball team.
"A bunch of the guys just begged us to start the team," O'Connor said. "There are some other local clubs teams that have started, so they just begged us until we finally agreed to it."
The team applied for and received a grant to help cover costs, such as referee fees.
For many of the players, the spring sport gives them a chance to stay in shape for their fall and winter sports. Many of the players play football and/or basketball.
"Just getting out there and doing something and staying active is always good," Clark said.
On top of that, they are all competitive athletes and jump at the chance to compete for their school.
"They're go-getters," O'Connor said. "They really want to learn and get better at this. We're slowly trying to learn the basics. We're trying to slow everything down. They want to do the big exciting things, but they're starting to learn there's a lot more to volleyball than all that. There's the small things that lead up to the big exciting moments."
With this being the first year of the team, it's a new experience for all of the players.
But on top of that, it's a new experience for the coaches.
"We're just excited," O'Connor said. "We're having just as much fun as they are doing this. This is a new role for us because we've never coached guys before. From both sides, players and coaches, it's a learning process, so we're just trying to have fun with it."
While the coaches adjust to coaching the boys, the players are learning the game from the ground up.
"They're really driven to try and learn and play catch-up," O'Connor said.
In Tuesday's game against Enka, the team got called for net violations a handful of times. A lot of that was chalked up to inexperience and excitement.
But it does present potential problems.
"It's a big safety thing. A lot of these guys are multi-sport athletes, so we try and stress the safety part of it. There's technique with that. We're slowly trying to teach that," O'Connor said. "Today, we had an ankle roll and that's the last thing we want with this."
All in all, though, the boys are excited to go out and play a spring sport with their friends.
They are also excited to potentially make history as the group that laid the foundation for the school's newest team.
"People will look back and we can say we're the first ones to start the volleyball team, so I think it's really cool," Clark said.
