An ‘emerging activity’ now, but a varsity sport next year

All 10 South Suburban Conference schools have boys volleyball teams

High school boys volleyball is racing at full speed in its transition from “emerging activity” to full-fledged varsity sport.

The movement, which started in 2018 with 22 schools, now has more than 80 schools on board, many of them from the metro area. More schools will likely sign on by the 2024-25 school year, when boys volleyball becomes a fully sanctioned Minnesota State High School League varsity activity.

An emerging activity classification means the Minnesota State High School League is working with the Minnesota High School Boys Volleyball Association – which operated boys volleyball as a high school club sport – to prepare it for its first varsity season. The final season as a club activity ends with the state tournament June 12-13 at Shakopee High School. The first state tournament under full MSHSL supervision is scheduled for June 2025.

One sign boys volleyball could be ready to take off is the number of experienced coaches who have been willing to step in and help build teams. When Eastview and Shakopee met last week in a match between undefeated South Conference teams, coaching Eastview was Ryan Dehnel, who has coached girls high school teams at Burnsville, St. Michael-Albertville and Eastview as well as the women’s team at Southwest Minnesota State University. Shakopee head coach Krista Flemming is a longtime local coach and official and helped launch the boys volleyball association as vice president.

Also on Eastview’s bench was Jackie Richter, who has coached Lakeville North girls teams to four state tournaments and the 2017 Class 3A championship. She’s a first-year assistant coach for the Lightning boys.

It doesn’t hurt that Richter has a son in the Eastview program (as does Dehnel), but she said the boys volleyball momentum is unmistakable.

“I envisioned it like a train. It takes some time for a train to get the wheels moving,” Richter said. “But I was so confident in the core group that took charge that I really felt it was going to take off.”

Walt Weaver, who coached girls teams at Apple Valley and Lakeville North to state championships and is in the MSHSL Hall of Fame, became a director of the boys volleyball association, in part because it was hoped someone with his background would lend credibility to the effort. Anybody who had not heard of Weaver probably has heard of Hugh McCutcheon, the former U.S. Olympic and University of Minnesota coach who also supported the group.

Dehnel and Lakeville South girls volleyball coach Steve Willingham serve on the boys association’s steering committee. A few years ago Dehnel, a physical education teacher at Eastview High School, gave up his duties coaching girls volleyball but jumped into the boys volleyball grassroots effort with both feet.

“I graduated from Apple Valley when Walt was there. I grew up watching them play and I was a manager in that program for a year,” Dehnel said. “I played club in the one and only boys JO (Junior Olympic) program in the metro area at the time.

“When this started to surface, I wanted to do what I could at the state level and also in our program to give these guys to play a game I really love.”

The South Conference in the boys volleyball association has teams from the 10 South Suburban Conference high schools. All have varsity and junior varsity teams and some have more than two teams.

South Conference regular-season play runs through the end of May, with playoffs in the first week of June. Six teams from the South Conference will advance to the playoffs; as of this week the top six teams in the standings were Shakopee, Eagan, Burnsville, Eastview, Lakeville North and Prior Lake. Two teams from the conference playoffs will reach the state tournament.

Shakopee (12-0) was the only undefeated team in the South Conference going into this week’s matches. Eastview (16-2) had an 11-match winning streak ended by a four-set loss to Shakopee last week. The Lightning won their invitational tournament in April and went 4-1 in a tournament at St. Paul Johnson on May 11.

Dehnel said all of Eastview’s varsity players have at least two seasons of competitive experience. The same is true of most of the other local teams.

“We have a lot more guys that have played enough that they have a great feel for the skills,” Dehnel said. “They can make some plays outside of their space where a few years ago, they just couldn’t. They were great athletes but they hadn’t played enough.

“Some of the stuff the girls have been doing in the state for years, such as changing speed and location, the boys are now starting to do because they’re getting more experience. It’s making the level of play a lot more fluid and you see a lot more fun stuff going on.”

Richter has been involved in boys volleyball for several years as her son learned the sport, but this is her first year coaching in a boys program.

“The IQ is there, the volleyball language is there, and so is the willingness to train,” she said. “That’s a strength in this program.”

Dehnel said Eastview High School administration has done as much as possible to make home matches feel like varsity-level contests even though the MSHSL official sanctioning doesn’t arrive until next year.

“I thought it was important for our players to get to play in this environment instead of at a club tournament where it’s your parents and grandparents who come to watch you play,” he said. “It’s getting to play in front of your peers and the announcements, and just that high school sports experience. It was something I was excited to have these guys get to experience.”