Boys volleyball is currently not being played in the state of Washington for a couple of reasons, but the main reason is that it needs to be approved by the state to play. According to a poll by Puma Prints, the majority of students think boys volleyball should be a sport.
“The state has a menu of options and they go through and there’s a process that you have to go through at the state association level where the whole state votes for sports that come through. A lot of times, men’s volleyball is not included because a lot of schools use girls volleyball to counter the football for Title IX. Title IX is a requirement where you should have the same number of offerings for men and women,” Director of Athletics Rebecca Moe said.
According to Title IX, “No person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any education program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance.”
A possible solution is a co-ed team, but according to Jonathan Kim, there isn’t space. Also, UPrep has a history of no co-ed teams except cross country and track.
“I think we would need more space for a co-ed team that has a sign up sheet or something like that,” eighth grader and D1 volleyball player Harper Friedman said.
Someone needs to run the program, and if no one can run the program, then it can’t happen.
“The only sport that we play that’s non-WIAA is ultimate, but then we’re governed by Disc Northwest. So you need a governing body,” Moe said.
If there were a program to be established, other schools would need to agree, which is unlikely according to Moe.
“I know that it might work for practices. But I’m not sure if it would work for games quite yet. Just because there’s not many other schools doing it,” Friedman said.
The new court in the ULab will not be used for boys volleyball because it is already going to be used for girls volleyball.
“That is another slot we can put another team, which is already going to be girls volleyball,” Assistant Athletic Director at University Prep Jonathan Kim said.
Having a practice after girls volleyball won’t work because it would push back the high school practices.
“It will move every single team back like an hour and a half in upper school because the middle school needs transportation aid,” Kim said.