As schools all around the country continue to diversify their athletic programs, I believe that Wadsworth should do the same and start a boys’ volleyball team.
As of January 13, 2022, OHSAA made their public announcement sharing their decision to add boys volleyball as a sport. They stated, “In a historic move Thursday [January 13, 2022], the Ohio High School Athletic Association Board of Directors voted unanimously to add girls wrestling and boys volleyball as emerging sports beginning with the 2022-23 school year,”
Boys volleyball has been a club sport for a long time now, but as of this year, it is now an OHSAA-sanctioned sport. This means that boys’ volleyball will be recognized as an official sport in which schools can create their own teams to participate.
“There are schools in Northeast Ohio, some of them are in the suburban league, some of them have them as club sports I think,” said Brad Musgrave, the Wadsworth Athletic Director. “I don’t remember how many in our league do but it’s probably more North of us than here and south but there are some schools that have them.”
Although boys’ volleyball is a popular sport in bigger cities like Columbus and Cincinnati, communities around Wadsworth have not shown much interest in creating this sport.
“Schools that already had it, it was like a club thing, some of them may have brought it in since then, but it’s not like it’s exploding,” Musgrave said. “In order to create a sport here not only do we have to have significant interest, cause you’re talking about a team which for varsity would need 12-15 participants.”
Within the next few years, it may be possible that with enough interest from students, Wadsworth can create a boys’ volleyball team.
“I think that it would be fun for Wadsworth to have a boys’ volleyball team and I think that there would be a lot of guys that would be interested,” said Brooke Manfull, a varsity volleyball player. “I do have a friend that played for the Hudson men’s volleyball team this past year and I know he really enjoyed it.”
At Wadsworth, the sport is very demanding of its players. They often have practice every day after school and put a lot of time into the sport. Because of this, adding a boys’ team could cause potential problems with sharing the gym.
“I think that right now it would be difficult to make room for a boys’ team just because of practice space and sharing gym time, but I think it could definitely be possible in the future,” Manfull said.
Within the next few years at Wadsworth, boys should not be shy about their interest in volleyball. If enough show interest then Wadsworth should create a boys’ volleyball team for them to compete in the sport.