Boys volleyball gaining ground

On Jan. 22, a battle of epic proportion raged at the AT&T Sports Center on the Palmer-Wasilla Highway. An “official” high school-age boys’ volleyball game, the first of its kind, was played between the Glacier View Wolverines boys’ team and the Northern Lights Volleyball Club team. As the coin was tossed, sides were chosen and the teams took to the court a new era of Valley volleyball began.

During the past 20 years, volleyball has established a spectacular presence in the Matanuska-Susitna Borough from high school athletes continuing on to play NCAA Division I and II ball, to the formation of club teams, to community play time at several of the borough’s school gyms and the AT&T Sports Center, and even a 4-year-old boys’ volleyball program at Palmer Junior Middle School. To give readers some idea of the scope, the Alaska Volleyball Association was established in 1990 and offers club play out of Palmer, Wasilla and Colony high schools, as well as several Anchorage and Eagle River schools.

Similarly, the Northern Lights Volleyball Club, which exclusively serves the greater Mat-Su Valley, is directed by PJMS teacher Diane Clawson and supports teams for athletes as young as 10 years old to adult volleyball players. During the summer months, various volleyball camps are held in the Valley to introduce newcomers to the sport or to help seasoned athletes perfect their skills on the court. For a relatively small community, opportunities to play high-quality volleyball or to be introduced to the sport abound in the Mat-Su. It has even been rumored that athletes from Eagle River venture the long road to the Palmer/Wasilla area to find hidden pockets of “good ball.”

The profusion of competitive opportunity is well and good if you are a middle or high school girl in the Mat-Su, but what about the boys?

Recently there have been murmurings in the halls and in the gym during girls’ volleyball matches, “Hey, what about us? We wanna play too.”

Hearing the cry, and always willing to appease (and to selfishly be able to partake more of this extraordinary sport), several coaches in the Valley, including Diane Clawson and Ed Clawson of Northern Lights Volleyball and LouAnna Boyer and myself of Glacier View School, independently began building their fledgling boys’ volleyball programs. Other elusive boys’ teams exist in the Anchorage area and on the Kenai Peninsula. Eventually, a schedule was set and the two Valley-based boys’ volleyball teams met on the floor of AT&T Sports Center’s Court 3.

Bundles of anticipatory nerves, the boys took the floor, unaware of what to expect out of their first truly competitive volleyball experience. After settling in, the two teams played an exciting set of three games throughout, in which both teams demonstrated great potential.

The games were all very close and congenial exchanges of encouragement and congratulations were frequently shared across the net during play.

After the game the teams shared a pizza dinner provided by the Northern Lights Club. Plans were made for the Northern Lights Club to travel to Glacier View for a match, and there are reports of a possible tournament toward the end of the season to which the Valley teams as well as Anchorage and Kenai Peninsula teams will hopefully be invited.

As boys’ volleyball forges new ground in the Valley, we are hopeful that momentum and interest will continue to grow and achieve the same popularity that girls’ volleyball has.

I look forward to seeing Mat-Su boys fire away on the NCAA nets. Keep your eyes open, there was a particular setter at the inaugural match who shows a lot of potential.

C.M. Berkley teaches at Glacier View School.