It’s a Thursday afternoon after the bell has rung and most students have climbed onto the buses and headed home. The halls of Shawnee Mission Northwest are nearly silent.
Yet Room M bursts with conversation, and life. The room is full, nearly every seat filled by high school boys. It’s the first meeting of the boys’ volleyball club.
Senior Bryan McKee stands at the front of the room, the founder of the boys’ volleyball club.
“I didn’t expect there to be this many people,” McKee said with a laugh.
McKee has wanted to play volleyball since he was in middle school at St. Joseph. But St. Joseph and Northwest both didn’t allow boys to play, and joining a club volleyball team came with too big of a price tag. So McKee decided to take matters into his own hands and started the push for boys’ volleyball at Northwest.
Currently, the Kansas State High School Activities Association, KSHSAA, does not recognize boys’ volleyball as a sport. Northwest falls under KSHSAA. Because of this, boys’ volleyball must be classified as a club, not a sport.
McKee had to go through the Kansas City High School Boys Volleyball League to make the volleyball club. Shawnee Mission East, St. James Academy, Blue Valley, Blue Valley North, Blue Valley West, Blue Valley Northwest, St. Thomas Aquinas, Bishop Miege and more all have registered boys’ volleyball teams.
“My vision for the club is just to have fun,” McKee said. “But the purpose of the club in general is to get volleyball recognised as a KSHSAA sport.”
Northwest students began the push for boys volleyball last year, but were unable to successfully begin it as a sport.
Starting this spring, the Missouri State High School Activities Association, MSHSAA, is sanctioning boys’ volleyball as a sport. The Kansas City High School Boys Volleyball League hopes Kansas will follow suit in the next few years.
“We are encouraging more Kansas schools to form boys’ volleyball teams as a club activity within their school,” said Chris Brandt, the boys’ program director for the Kansas City High School Boys Volleyball League, in an email response. “When there are a larger number of schools who offer boys’ volleyball as a club program, KSHSAA will then hopefully start considering sanctioning boys’ volleyball.”
KSHSAA did not respond to requests for comment.
According to McKee, the reaction to the boys’ volleyball club has been overwhelmingly positive.
“People’s faces light up and they’re like ‘Oh my god, that’s so fun,’” McKee said.
“Everyone was so surprised that boys’ volleyball was actually going to be a thing in school,” sophomore Sam Condori said. Condori has played club volleyball for three years and wants to become a member of the boys’ volleyball club at Northwest.
Enough people showed up to the first meeting that McKee thinks they’ll need to make two teams, one competitive and one recreational. Because it’s a club, there are no cuts and everyone who wants to play will get to play.
“I love this sport,” junior Eli Taylor said. Taylor, who also plans to join, has played club volleyball for three years. “I think it’d be great if other people could begin to love it. I think it is the best way to get into because it’s not as expensive as playing club.”
“Join boys’ volleyball,” Condori said. “Come to the games. It’s gonna be so fun. I’m so excited.”
