Is Boys' Volleyball Next For The KHSAA? Girls' Bass Fishing? Trap Shooting? Boys' Weightlifting?

[Colonels_Wear_Blue]

Commissioner Tackett was given time on the agenda for today's Board of Control meeting to discuss the results of the KHSAA's annual survey to member schools about currently sanctioned sports/state championships, and the addition of new sanctioned sports/state championships. Here are some of the highlights of that particular discussion:

- 280 out of 286 KHSAA member schools responded to the KHSAA's survey on current state championships, and adding new sanctioned sports/championships.

- "To remind the board of our policy, if 50 of our members say they would participate in a championship, that's the prompter for [the Board Of Control] to talk about adding a championship. If it gets between 30 and 50, then we provide staffing resources, and most of that is simply providing rules interpretations, getting them information, etc. That's where we've been with Lacrosse for the last several years."

- 50 schools represents 17.5% of the KHSAA's member schools.

- Field hockey is currently the one sport the KHSAA that has fewer than 50 member schools.

- "There were 49 schools that want us to sanction boys' volleyball. That's one short."

- 30 schools requested separating girls into their own division for bass fishing.

- Trap shooting. "I believe our heat map is going to skew west, but we had quite a bit of interest in having a championship there. I've continued to ask how we're going to reconcile all the safety training that [the Board Of Control] will do about live guns - and us having a championship involves live ammunition."

- "One that's a fairly typical response...we did get more than 50 who state we should have a boys' weightlifting championship. I will tell you, from the history of this Board, we've had that before - we've had that support before. The Board is always hesitant, well, was it a genuine interest in that competition, or a genuine interest in other sport coaches being able to require the kids to do something in the winter that may keep them from participating in something else?"

[Colonels_Wear_Blue]

 

[gchs_uk9]

29 minutes ago, Colonels_Wear_Blue said:

- "There were 49 schools that want us to sanction boys' volleyball. That's one short."

Wonder when a boys volleyball season would take place? I know the NCAA men's finals were last weekend. You have to think its a spring sport due to gym availability (girls volleyball in the fall; boys and girls basketball in the winter). With 49 schools in favor of boys volleyball it seems like only a matter of time before that becomes a KHSAA sport - probably more so than lacrosse or some of the other proposals.

[vbtalk]

1 hour ago, gchs_uk9 said:

Wonder when a boys volleyball season would take place? I know the NCAA men's finals were last weekend. You have to think its a spring sport due to gym availability (girls volleyball in the fall; boys and girls basketball in the winter). With 49 schools in favor of boys volleyball it seems like only a matter of time before that becomes a KHSAA sport - probably more so than lacrosse or some of the other proposals.

I think you’re correct that it’ll be in the spring. The schools that currently have boys Vball are playing in the spring, and so are the surrounding states that offer boys Vball as a sanctioned sport. 

[Check184]

Hopefully girls wrestling is sanctioned this year.  

[gchs_uk9]

46 minutes ago, vbtalk said:

I think you’re correct that it’ll be in the spring. The schools that currently have boys Vball are playing in the spring, and so are the surrounding states that offer boys Vball as a sanctioned sport. 

As a general breakdown, are the 49 boys schools that play volleyball located between Lexington/Louisville/Northern Kentucky or are they spread out across the state? I know for many years girls volleyball only existed in the golden triangle but in the late-90s it exploded across the entire state. If boys volleyball was sanctioned statewide, do you think it would expand to most every schools just like the girls did?

[vbtalk]

59 minutes ago, gchs_uk9 said:

As a general breakdown, are the 49 boys schools that play volleyball located between Lexington/Louisville/Northern Kentucky or are they spread out across the state? I know for many years girls volleyball only existed in the golden triangle but in the late-90s it exploded across the entire state. If boys volleyball was sanctioned statewide, do you think it would expand to most every schools just like the girls did?

I haven’t seen a list of the 49 schools that have expressed interest. I think initially you would see a majority of the teams would be in the most populated areas (as you put it - the golden triangle). All but 10 or 15 KHSAA member schools have girls volleyball so they already have the equipment. The financial investment would be limited to new balls and a coaching staff. Coaches are hard to come by these days so my guess is that would be the biggest hurdle for a school adding boys volleyball. A lot of girls volleyball coaches are already coaching club volleyball in the spring so it’s not as simple as asking the girls coach to pull double duty. If a school can get a coach and they have some athletes, there’s no reason to think it won’t catch on in all corners of the state. I’ll tell you this, it’s a fun freaking sport to watch. It’s fast paced, and there’s a highlight every 30 seconds or so. 

[cincydragons]

8 hours ago, gchs_uk9 said:

As a general breakdown, are the 49 boys schools that play volleyball located between Lexington/Louisville/Northern Kentucky or are they spread out across the state? I know for many years girls volleyball only existed in the golden triangle but in the late-90s it exploded across the entire state. If boys volleyball was sanctioned statewide, do you think it would expand to most every schools just like the girls did?

Here's a link to the boys volleyball state championship this weekend https://kvca.org/KY_Boys_Volleyball.  12 teams competing - mostly from Louisville and central KY.  I can definitely see this taking off pretty quickly though.  I know it's been pretty popular at Henry Clay and they've already had 2 graduating players join teams at the collegiate level.

[BlueRaider]

This is my personal opinion but I've always thought that boys volleyball and girls contact football should be in the spring.  

[brooksville]

Bracken County has a trap shooting team and they are understandably pretty good.  Would love to hang a banner lol.

 

[mcpapa]

Looking forward to hearing about the Mr and Miss Bass frontrunners.