Pennsbury, Pennridge and Dock Mennonite soaring again in Bucks County boys' volleyball

The bottom line is that these teams win.

Consistently.

With similar methods:

Coaching stability. Tradition. And a little bit of luck.

"Over the years, I've seen that there's many different ways to be successful," Pennsbury boys' volleyball head coach Justin Fee said.

"Experience definitely helps and having continuity always helps your kids."

Pennsbury, Pennridge, Dock Mennonite have programs, not teams

Oh, and teams isn't really the right word, either.

Boys' volleyball programs like Pennsbury's, Pennridge's and Dock Mennonite's deserve better. None are flash in the pans — good one year, shaky the next.

They win seemingly every year, make long playoff runs, and a bad season for any of them constitutes a good season for most other teams.

For example:

The Rams have played in 10 of the last 14 PIAA District One Class 3A title games, winning six of them and also reaching the PIAA finals in 2012 under current Pennridge head coach Dave Childs.

The Falcons have reached the PIAA title game four times, making them the only District One team do so multiple times in the last 40-plus years.

The Pioneers have won four of the last six PIAA District One/Two/11 Class 2A titles and were ranked No. 1 in the state for most of last season.

More success this season for Pennsbury, Pennridge and Dock Mennonite

This season, Dock Mennonite is ranked No. 8 in the state in Class 2A while Pennsbury is ranked No. 4 in Class 3A. And 10-1 Pennridge, which had been ranked in the state Class 3A top 10 most of the season, has only lost to defending PIAA Class 3A champion Parkland.

"You try and build a culture that kids want to be a part of," Childs said.

"I've been coaching here 20 years, 19 as the head coach, and that's what we've tried to do. Make it fun and show that you care about your players."

Fee, a 1994 Pennsbury graduate, played at the school and has been the head coach since 2004.

And Kirby King at Dock Mennonite started the school's program in 1995 and was the head coach until 2006 before returning in 2016 as an assistant and then taking over the reins again in 2018.

"Our coach has been here a long time, and he really knows what he's doing and makes you a better player," Pennridge senior setter Evan Jalosinski said.

"One of my older brothers played here and that helped get me interested. But I grew up doing the usual sports like soccer, basketball and baseball, not really volleyball. But I'm really glad I gave volleyball a try."

Middle school volleyball programs would help

None of the three schools highlighted here, Pennsbury, Pennridge or Dock Mennonite, offer middle school programs.

All of the coaches would like that to happen in order to help develop a feeder system and grow interest in the game earlier, but whether or not that comes to fruition is to be decided at a later date. The fact that the Central Bucks middle schools now offer a combined boys/girls' volleyball team may help the cause.

Pennsbury, Pennridge, Dock Mennonite ask to bring a friend

So, for a lot of their rosters, it's word of mouth and bring a friend.

"My friends were talking about playing volleyball when we were freshmen," Dock Mennonite senior setter Trevor Ridge said.

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"I had played baseball in middle school but decided to give it a try. To be honest, I probably wouldn't have if not for the success we've had in volleyball.

"I saw the older players and how they played, and I wanted to be a part of that."

Ridge's story is not an unusual one.

Take the case of Pennsbury senior outside hitter Nate Knapp, who will continue his volleyball career at Division I-A Merrimack College.

His father, Eric, was a volleyball star for the Falcons (and a teammate of Fee's) and two of his uncles also played for Pennsbury, as did an older sister.

So, naturally, Knapp wasn't enamored with the sport at an early age.

"I played baseball the majority of the time growing up," Knapp said with a laugh.

"But I wanted more of a challenge like you get in volleyball. I'm happy that I did because it's so much fun playing at Pennsbury. The coaches want to make you a better player and there's such a long history of success."

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Club teams aiding Pennsbury, Pennridge and Dock Mennonite

"I'm still a teacher at the school and when you see a tall kid walking around the halls you stop them and ask if they want to try volleyball," King said. "You can find kids that way and they turn out to help your team.

"But it's changing, too. We're a small school and we used to have a really good amount of three-sport athletes.

"Now, you really don't even see that many two-sport kids. The kids are specializing with their sports and a lot of our guys are now playing volleyball in clubs like Indian Valley all year round.

"They're dedicating themselves to playing volleyball and trying to become better players and you love that as a coach."

Drew Markol covers local sports for PhillyBurbs.com . Support our journalism with a subscription.

This article originally appeared on Bucks County Courier Times: Pennsbury, Pennridge and Dock Mennonite soaring again in Bucks County boys' volleyball