Coed volleyball offers sport for boys
February 13, 2017
With the general goal of furthering student interest in volleyball, Diamond Bar High School’s newly established Coed Volleyball Club is serving up the opportunity for a boys volleyball team in the future.
While there is currently no official boys volleyball team on campus, CVC has plans to prepare an unofficial team this spring in hopes of establishing a team to compete in league next year.
“Realistically, it could happen within either next year or the year after. I’m hoping for the next school year,” girls volleyball head coach and advisor Katie Swetnam said. “The league that the school is in right now doesn’t have a lot of boys volleyball teams, but if we re-league the year after that to the Hacienda League, they have a lot of boys volleyball teams so that could work better for us.”
The club’s president, junior Josh Lingao, who transferred from Gabrielino High School at the start of this year, hopes to promote a boys volleyball program similar to what his previous school offered.
“I started playing volleyball my freshman year. I basically fell in love with it. Moving to Diamond Bar, where they didn’t have a boys volleyball team was pretty hard for me,” Lingao said.
In addition to allowing boys to learn about the sport, the club will also train girls for tryouts next fall. Swetnam will be preparing members in the coming months.
The first practice will be held Feb. 22 in the DBHS gym during lunch, while more formal practices after are tentatively scheduled for Fridays after school. The club hopes to share the gym with basketball and badminton to develop members’ skills.
For the unofficial boys team this spring, CVC plans to hold tryouts and begin to make cuts in mid-March in order to begin scrimmaging against other schools.
“Volleyball is a great sport but doesn’t have the same fanbase or general interest in the United States as other sports do,” Swetnam said. “Teaching people about volleyball, teaching people about how fun it is, getting people to try it, play and try something new, I think is the overall goal.”
