A new sport could be coming to schools across Oregon.
At the beginning of this school year, the Oregon School Activities Association voted to make boys volleyball an emerging sport, meaning that it has the potential to become an official sport through OSAA. But how does boys’ volleyball differ from the girl’s version of the sport? And how much interest has the game had in schools?
To answer these questions and more, we’re joined by Emily Kernen, the head volleyball coach for the boys’ team and the freshman girls’ team at Bend High School. We’ll also hear from two players she coaches, senior Justin Seung and junior Will Albert.
Note: This transcript was computer generated and edited by a volunteer
Dave Miller: This is Think Out Loud on OPB. I’m Dave Miller. Boys volleyball is poised to become the next sanctioned sport in schools across Oregon. At the beginning of this school year, the Oregon School Activities Association voted to make boys volleyball what’s known as an emerging sport. Sixty-eight teams signed up for the spring season. That could be enough to have it go from club status to official scholastic sport. Emily Kernen is the head volleyball coach for both the boys’ team and the freshman girls’ team at Bend High School. She joins us now, along with two of her players. Justin Seung is a senior. Will Albert is a junior. Welcome to all three of you.
Emily Kernen: Thank you.
Justin Seung: Thank you.
Will Albert: Thank you.
Miller: Emily Kernen. first. Volleyball – I’ve read in your bio – has been a huge part of your life. You played at the high school club and college levels before you became a coach at a variety of levels. But was all of that either playing with or coaching girls?
Kernen: Mostly girls. I wasn’t introduced to playing with males until I was an adult. And my only encounter with that was just through observation and watching some club boys’ volleyball as a coach, but I never myself got to coach boys until last year.
Miller: Why did you want to coach boys as well?
Kernen: I really wanted to give boys just another opportunity in the spring to have another jumping team sport that they could be involved in. I know that there are a lot of more individualized sports for us here in Oregon for boys in the spring. And I just wanted to give another option for them to play another team sport.
Miller: For folks who didn’t want to, say, run track?
Kernen: Exactly or play tennis or baseball. Usually those sports have been done over pretty long periods of time. And it’s something that I felt there was a need for in Oregon so I wanted to get that started.
Miller: Will, my understanding is this is your second year playing boys volleyball. What attracted you from the beginning?
Albert: Well, originally it was a lot of my friends were going out and so I had just decided against playing baseball. I figured a lot of my friends were going out so it could be something fun to try something new. And so I went out for the team and, yeah, that was kind of how I got into it originally.
Miller: You’d played baseball before but you decided you were done with it?
Albert: Yeah, I’ve played baseball since I was like six and played all the way up through freshman year, and just kind of wasn’t feeling it anymore. So I decided to step away. Originally, I was going to play golf in the spring and then I decided volleyball seemed more fun. So I opted for that.
Miller: Were you right? Was it fun? Has it been fun?
Albert: It has been super fun and don’t get me wrong, I love golf too, but volleyball has been super fun. I definitely made the right decision.
Miller: Justin, what about you? What attracted you to trying volleyball?
Seung: So my friend told me one day, there’s a volleyball tryout and we should all go tryout for the team. And at first I wasn’t going to go, but then they convinced me and I went and then I made the team. Then it just kind of attracted my attention and I just kind of loved the sport.
Miller: This all seems like a good reminder of the power of friends to get you to do stuff.
Seung: Yeah, definitely.
Miller: Justin, my understanding is that you played soccer as a really real focused sport for something like 10 years. Did any of your soccer skills transfer to volleyball?
Seung: Oh, definitely. I have quick feet so I can move around the court pretty easily. We do a lot more running for soccer so I don’t really get tired as much.
Miller: Will, what about you? You mentioned baseball. Am I right that you played basketball as well?
Albert: I do play basketball. I’ve played basketball for seven or eight years now and I think it’s definitely a sport that has a lot of athletic similarities to volleyball, a lot of jumping involved and kind of quick lateral movement. So I think those kinds of skills of being able to try to read a ball in the air to get a rebound or play it off the net, skills like that transferred very well over.
Miller: Coach Kernen, on the girls’ side, there has been an established pipeline for decades that starts in middle school. That’s not the case for boys. I mean, as we just heard, basically, just friends saying, “hey, let’s go try this out and see if we can have some fun.” How did you go about recruiting players?
Kernen: Well, fortunately I work at the school. I’m also a teacher here at Bend High. So, I already kind of had a foot in the door there and was just talking to some boys during class. In fact, all of our team last year was all sophomores, because the age that I teach is sophomores.
Miller: Just coincidentally, that’s how it worked out.
Kernen: That’s exactly how it worked out. This year, word kind of got out that we were going to have another team. I put announcements at school and told them when tryouts were and I had quite a few more. In fact, we doubled our numbers from last year and had enough to create two teams this year, which was great.
Miller: You called them tryouts. But am I right that you had a no-cuts policy? Anybody who showed up could be on a team?
Kernen: That is correct. Yeah, we originally were just going to keep one team because I didn’t know if we would have anybody else to play against, but all of our other teams in the region had such a good turnout, they all could field two teams. So we just decided to keep everybody and keep the sport growing so we wouldn’t have to cut anybody.
Miller: Going back to that pipeline question, can you give us a sense for the skill level of an average freshman girl on that freshman team – because as I mentioned, you’re the head coach for the freshman girl – compared to the average player on your boys’ team?
Kernen: I would say that they are pretty comparable. We have pretty good boy athletes that pick up things very quickly. In fact, I would have some of the girls players come in and kind of play with the boys just so they could see the level of play and it was very helpful to have them see, just because there’s such a difference in technique and skill level. But I feel like reaction time is a lot better with the boys than it is with the girls, which makes it a whole different type of game.
Miller: I mentioned that this year, boys’ volleyball in Oregon is called an “emerging sport.” What does that actually mean?
Kernen: It means we still have to follow the rules as far as OSAA rules, as far as grades and needing to jump through a bunch of hoops that they would need to do if it is a sanctioned sport. However, we don’t get the funding that we would if it was a sanctioned sport. So, it’s like a hybrid model almost between a club and OSAA. So we do still charge them as far as playing goes, but not as much as a club team would charge.
Miller: It does make me think … and correct me if I’m wrong, but what goes through my mind is that despite Title IX, many of us have heard a lot of stories over the years about how often fewer resources can go to girls’ or women’s sports than boys’ or men’s sports. I’m thinking about the viral videos a couple of years ago of the paltry women’s weight rooms compared to the palatial men’s ones doing a NCAA basketball tournament. But it seems like for this particular sport right now, for boys volleyball, it’s the opposite. So, sort of an example of the opposite?
Kernen: Yeah, I would agree with that. It’s just interesting how it hasn’t caught on in our region because other parts of the country have had boys’ volleyball for years. And it’s just interesting how our state just hasn’t caught on yet as far as boys’ volleyball would go.
Miller: Do you have any sense as to why that is?
Kernen: I don’t. I have no idea why. [Laughter] That’s a great question.
Miller: Justin, when you started playing boys’ volleyball, did you hear from classmates or people around, “no, that it’s a girl’s sport”?
Seung: Yes. At least in high school, volleyball is known for mostly just girls.
Miller: How did you respond to that?
Seung: I feel like more boys should come out next year and try out for the team ‘cause I could see volleyball become like one of the top sports in high school in a couple of years. For sure.
Miller: Why is that?
Seung: It’s a great sport. It’s fun to watch. It’s also fun to play. So, I think people should definitely come out.
Miller: Will, what about you? What kind of potential do you see for the growth of boys volleyball in Oregon in the coming years?
Albert: Well, I think as more and more teams get made and more and more schools get teams, it has the potential to become a sport just like basketball or girls’ volleyball. It’s just kind of there and normal. Like it’s just a normal sport that people go out for and right now, it’s definitely not at that point. I tell people, I played volleyball and it’s definitely a questioned look. But I think once it becomes just commonplace in the majority of the state, I definitely think its potential will be just as great as any other sports we have right now.
Miller: Emily Kernen, what are your hopes for next season?
Kernen: I just hope that we get more teams within our region that are involved just so there’s more competition, because the more competition that you get, the better the sport grows, and the more we can get the word out that volleyball’s coming and it is going to be one of the most upcoming sports here in Oregon.
Miller: Emily Kernen, Will Albert and Justin Seung, thanks very much.
Seung: Yeah, thank you so much.
Albert: For sure. Thank you.
Miller: Will Albert is a junior at Bend High School. Justin Seung is a senior. They are both volleyball players on the boys’ volleyball team at Bend High School. Their coach is Emily Kernen who is also the head coach of the freshman girls’ team.
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