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Football dominates sports pages this time of year (and I’m quite happy with this fact), so let's spend a few minutes talking about another sport that has quietly become one of the biggest success stories in high school athletics: girls' volleyball.
I couldn’t get volleyball off my mind this week. I am the IU South Bend (IUSB) women’s volleyball PA announcer, and I’ve subbed for (one each) a boys’ and a girls’ volleyball match.
With this said, my first PA gig for IUSB volleyball was this past Tuesday, and I cannot get volleyball off the brain this week. It led me to ask myself if I liked calling volleyball action better than calling girls basketball action.
Sounds blasphemous in the Hoosier State when I ask this rhetorical question aloud to others, but it’s not about volleyball beating basketball, My thoughts are more about what and why when I compare participation in each sport.
Girls’ volleyball quietly unseated girls’ basketball in nationwide participation among recent years.
Participation, not gate revenue, of course.
For decades, girls' basketball was the undisputed queen of team sports. In towns across Indiana and the rest of the country, winter gymnasiums were packed with fans watching girls compete on the hardwood. Basketball remains popular, but something interesting has happened over the last 20 years.
Researching the American Volleyball Coaches Association (AVCA) and the National Federation of State High School (NFHS) Associations was helpful to verify perceptions and misnomers from what my eyes are seeing these days.
Girls’ volleyball has caught up with and passed girls’ basketball, and the sport continues to grow.
According to the NFHS, girls' volleyball now has more participants nationwide than any other girls' team sport. The NFHS reported nearly 480,000 girls played high school volleyball compared to about 367,000 who played basketball in the 2023-2024 school year.
Volleyball, furthermore, has been in this position as the nation's largest girls' team sport for roughly a decade.
Let’s look back to understand this remarkable growth.
Since the 2004-05 school year, volleyball participation has increased by more than 93,000 athletes, a gain of about 24 percent. During the same period, girls' basketball participation declined slightly, down roughly 16,000 players nationally.
Has volleyball's rise come at basketball's expense?
I know, I know… blasphemy in the Hoosier State.
The answer to this morning's question is yes, at least to some extent, but probably not as much as people assume.
Many high school athletes today specialize in a single sport much earlier than previous generations. Years ago, it was common to see a girl play volleyball in the fall, basketball in the winter and softball or track in the spring. Today, club sports often demand year-round commitments. Some athletes who would have played both volleyball and basketball have more recently been superseded by those who now choose one sport or the other.
Volleyball has benefited from this trend.
But specialization alone does not explain why volleyball keeps attracting new players.
A major factor is the explosive growth of club volleyball. I’m not ensconced in the club scene, but I’ve been wondering if club volleyball has become a more affordable experience for the athlete as well as the folks who schlep their athlete to and from gyms and fieldhouses around the states with young athletes now playing year-round to boot.
Volleyball athletes are benefitting greatly from advanced coaching and more scholastic and club volleyball sides are beefing up their non-conference foes as well as competing in high-level tournaments (that have expanded dramatically). That pipeline now produces skilled players who arrive in high school already committed to the sport.
I saw this on a NAIA college volleyball court, too. What used to look like extraordinary saves and runs toward a wayward volleyball looking like it would never be returned over the net, now looks like great hustle – still - but the skill required to make lemons out of lemonade looks more like masterful memory motion during each new season.
Visibility has helped as well. College volleyball receives far more television and streaming coverage than it did 20 years ago. College matches are salted for broadcast during pro football games on other stations almost every Sunday these days. NCAA tournament matches draw national audiences, and Olympic volleyball remains one of the most popular events during the Summer Games. Young players can now watch elite athletes regularly and imagine themselves following a similar path.
Parents also see advantages in volleyball. It is a team sport with less physical contact than basketball. Can you identify a season where at least one of your favorite girls’ basketball teams had at least one young lady waiting for ACL surgery, or sporting a boot for a few weeks?
Schools can field competitive teams without large rosters, and the sport can be offered in communities of many different sizes.
Small schools in Northern Indiana like Southern Wells, and Bellmont love slaying Class 4A dragons throughout their regular seasons as they strengthen their squads for the rigors of postseason play,
Folks, I’m not telling you to stop brightly shining your girls’ basketball light because none of this means basketball is in trouble. More than 367,000 girls still play the sport nationwide, making it one of the most popular activities in American high schools. The atmosphere inside a packed gym at a girls’ basketball game remains special, especially if the team is particularly good.
What volleyball's growth really shows is that female athletes have more opportunities than ever before.
This is good news for schools, communities and, most importantly, the students themselves.
While football will understandably claim most of the headlines this fall, don't overlook what is happening on volleyball courts across the country. The sport has gone from a popular alternative to the most-played girls' team sport in America.
It’s not a passing trend. It’s an attention-worthy sports story.
