For the first time ever, Olathe West will have its own boy’s volleyball team. Since it’s not yet recognized by the Kansas State High School Activities Association (KSHSAA), Olathe West had to sign up with a club volleyball association, Heart of America (HOA). HOA is one of forty regions of USA volleyball and covers the state of Kansas and the western part of Missouri.
This new team has Amy Hoffsommer-Griffin as head coach and Kelly Wynn as assistant coach, also covering all the signups. This wasn’t an easy thing to get started; it took both coaches about a year and a half to start up.
Their first challenge was actually knowing how to sign up, what club organization would allow them to sign up and would let them play other high schools, not just club teams. HOA was the best option for them.
Facility time, especially during winter, was a huge challenge for them because so many sports use the gyms during the winter season. They tried to schedule practices later in the evening to resolve that issue.
The last challenge for them was if people would actually show up. They had their tryouts on Jan. 29 and 24 people showed up. It was a shock for both coaches; they didn’t think they would get that amount of boys to try out.
A player, senior Logan Karsten, was very excited to participate in this new initiative, always loving to play volleyball even in the past but wasn’t able to play for a club team or for the school. This opportunity made his dreams to play for a school team possible. He is also looking forward to learning how to play better.
“I’m ready to get a lot better [at volleyball] and dominate in the summer against my friends,” Karsten said.
After tryouts and discussion between both coaches, they created two teams of approximately nine players each, a varsity and a JV team. Subsequently both teams had a few practices in February, learning new skills, rotations and the game of volleyball itself. Junior Carter Wynn–a club volleyball player and varsity outside–has helped out his fellow team players on how to improve.
“We want everyone to have a fun time. We don’t want anybody to think, oh, this volleyball stuff is gonna be insanely hard” Wynn said.
The final goal for Coach Hoffsommer-Griffin would be to have this sport as a sanctioned sport here in Kansas.
“This is a great way to represent our school, which is always a positive thing,” Coach Hoffsommer-Griffin said.
Their official season will start on March 25 competing against Blue Valley West and Olathe South at Blue Valley West at 6 p.m.
