(St. Joseph, MO) – Last May, the MSHSAA officially announced that men's volleyball will become a sanctioned spring sport for the 2024 season. In the first year, 72 high schools across Missouri participated. Most of those schools were in the Kansas City and St. Louis areas, but one of his was at Central High School in St. Joseph.
“Tryouts were great, we had 60 people at tryouts, which is actually a huge number,” head coach Dan McCamey said. “There are some numbers in the Kansas City area that teams that have been playing for four or five years didn't have as strong of a tryout as we did.”
“I was really excited because I heard from other relatives that if they had a chance here they would have played,” Central senior Ryan Newey said. “I was so excited. I had been playing volleyball for years and I was so excited to be able to join the school and play this sport that I love so much.”
For a first-year team, the Indians did surprisingly well against some of the bigger schools in Kansas City. Let's get Central in a good frame of mind heading into next weekend's Class 1 District 8 tournament. Central is just 7-10 on the season, but some of Central's losses have come in four or five sets.
“When we started the season, we were new to rotation and communication, but as we went along we improved a lot and to be honest, I think we can really compete with the top teams.” Central senior Tanner Ledford; “I think we’ve proven that over the last few weeks, so I think we’re definitely the favorites to win.”
Additionally, some of the other schools in the St. Joseph area are a little jealous of Central.
“I've heard some of the guys from Benton (High School) say, 'Why don't you come here? Why don't you come to Lafayette (High School)? Just because Central is a bigger school.' are more interested here,” Newey said.
However, Coach McCamey believes that Central is not the only school in the area to continue playing boys volleyball for a long time.
“There's enough interest in this area that I think we'll see some development with other city schools that want to get involved,” McCamey said. “Especially after looking at us and our success this season, again, maybe not the success we were hoping for, but we have had some very successful moments. It's a good experience for the kids.”
Central has two home games this week, against East (Kansas City) on Monday, April 29th and against Belton on Wednesday, May 1st. Central will then face Lincoln College Prep in the first round of the Class 1 District 8 Tournament on Monday, May 6th.