Meet the five high schools who received Badger Region grants for adding boys volleyball
Thursday, August 11th, 2022
Wisconsin is welcoming FIVE new boys volleyball teams to its high school ranks for the fall of 2022 – the most new programs to join in one year in recent memory.
The types of programs being added are just as varied as the schools’ locations. Some are considering going varsity immediately this season, some are trying a JV-only schedule, and others are being looked at as a club sport within in the school for their first year.
All five schools received one of the Badger Region’s high school grants for starting a boys high school program.
Let’s meet the schools:
Sheboygan North
• Conference: Fox River Classic
• Athletic Director: Dan Stengel
• Enrollment: 1,580
• Why is now a good time to add boys volleyball: Our co-curricular budgets have been frozen for quite some time. We did a survey and the number one response was students wanted to start boys volleyball. We decided to push forward with no additional funds for it. We are fund raising, tightening our purse strings in other areas and many are chipping in and volunteering to make this happen.
Deforest
• Conference: Badger Conference
• Athletic Director: Rick Henert
• Enrollment: 1,051
• Why is now a good time to add boys volleyball: We are just starting out and have interest from around 15 kids to start. The school is supporting us in running as a fall club and if we can sustain interest for a year or two we can go to get approval for a WIAA team. The school is providing free facilities, but we need to come up with funding for balls, tournament fees, uniforms, coaches salary, and other incidentals.
Port Washington
• Conference: North Shore Conference
• Athletic Director: Nate Hinze
• Enrollment: 796
• Why is now a good time to add boys volleyball: We have held open gym volleyball for boys since January and participation / interest in the sport has been quite strong week in and week out. We have a solid group of boys who really want to learn, and as part of the group of coaches / parents trying to get this off of the ground, it is a great feeling to provide an opportunity for each to play a sport that they may have never otherwise tried.
Oconomowoc
• Conference: Classic Eight
• Athletic Director: Kevin Flegner
• Enrollment: 1,700
• Why is now a good time to add boys volleyball: We have had a growing interest from students to play volleyball if it were added as a program at the school. We had enough players to run it as a club at the school last year, with students indicating they would play if it were to be added as a school-affiliated sport.
Waterford
• Conference: Southern Lakes Conference
• Athletic Director: Jill Stobber
• Enrollment: 961
• Why is now a good time to add boys volleyball: Waterford has always wanted to consider a boys volleyball program. I have had a few conversations with Brian Sharkey and in the fall of 2019, we hosted the WIAA Sectional Final matches for boys and girls to try and spark interest. Waterford’s limitations have always been the season and the ability to maintain numbers in the program with the fact we have a strong football program, a building boys soccer program, and large numbers in our cross country program. In an interest survey this past fall (2021), our students have given us a reason to look a little deeper.
Want more details on starting a boys program at your high school or details about the Badger Region boys high school grant? Email brian@badgerarchive4.0ed61ed.netsolhost.com.
