The boys’ volleyball program is setting up a freshman team for this spring season, making it the first year the program will offer three levels.
When the program first started, there was a freshman team and a junior varsity team, but every year after, there has been only a junior varsity and varsity team, Lesly Ravenscraft, varsity boys’ volleyball coach, said.
“Since I have taken over the varsity team five years ago, my goal has been to add a freshman team to the program,” Ravenscraft said. “Each year we try to build interest among the freshmen boys, but it has been difficult because many of the boys who play volleyball in middle school, which is a winter sport at middle school, end up playing baseball or running track in the spring [at the high school], which are in the same season as high school boys’ volleyball.”
Senior players echo Ravencraft’s statements that volleyball sometimes struggles to recruit players without a freshman team.
“I think it’s a sport you have to discover,” Patrick Bush, senior setter, said. “It’s not like baseball and football. Volleyball’s more about word of mouth, so [building the freshman team] might take a couple years.”
Until this time, any freshmen have had to try out for and play on junior varsity or varsity. The problem, according to David Doherty, senior libero, is that “JV can be kind of scary. There can be seniors on the JV teams.”
Bush agrees, saying the freshman team will provide “competition at their own level. It’ll give them confidence.”
Ravenscraft is not only interested in building player’s confidence, but also building a strong program that aligns to others in the area.
“Boys’ volleyball is growing in popularity in Illinois, and the competition gets better each year,” Ravenscraft said. “Adding the [freshman volleyball] team will help us to strengthen our base, and in turn, create a stronger team capable of competing with the teams in Illinois.”
Ravenscraft had already seen promising signs of growth in the program over the past couple of years. She hopes this year will bring more players to the program.
“Because of the attendance at summer camp, as well as at an informational meeting earlier this fall, we were able to have a good idea how many freshmen will be trying out. This made it easy to present to the administration the need for a freshman team,” Ravenscraft said.
Since the approval of the teams, the program already has hired a coach for the new team.
Jim Wizniak has extensive experience with volleyball, having started playing in high school and college and moving on to coach teams of various levels and ages, according to Ravenscraft.
With the new season in sight, Ravenscraft is looking forward to seeing how this year’s freshmen develop over the next four years and hopes the freshman level helps improve the volleyball program as a whole.