High school boys’ volleyball’s fledgling league holds state tournament in Lexington

With the Kentucky High School Athletic Association learning last week that there are 49 schools interested in having boys’ volleyball as a varsity sport, some schools that already have teams on the court battled it out Saturday in the club sport’s state tournament.

St. Xavier defeated Lafayette in the championship game of the 2022 KVCA Boys’ Volleyball State Tournament at Lafayette by a score of 2-0 (25-21, 25-15).

The title game for the club sport came at the conclusion of a full day of pool play featuring 12 teams who played games at two sites, Henry Clay and Lafayette.

The top teams in the tournament played in the Gold Bracket with Lafayette defeating West Jessamine 2-1 and St. Xavier beat DeSales 2-0 in the Gold semifinals. Henry Clay defeated Western Hills 2-1 to win the Silver Bracket.

Since 2019, the Kentucky Volleyball Coaches Association has been pushing to get more schools involved in boys’ volleyball, which is already a sanctioned varsity sport in a number of states and is a college sport in many areas. Louisville private schools St. Xavier, Trinity and DeSales have had high-level teams competing for a number of years.

According to the KVCA’s website, club teams from 13 schools participated in an eight-week regular season that began after the basketball season ended. In Lexington, Henry Clay, Paul Laurence Dunbar, Lafayette and Tates Creek had teams this year. They were all part of Saturday’s tournament along with Danville, Western Hills, Louisville Holy Cross, West Jessamine, Franklin County and Marion County.

While the ultimate goal of fostering boys’ volleyball is to get it sanctioned as a KHSAA sport, the number of schools who expressed interest in the sport (49), according to the KHSAA’s triennial survey, took organizers by surprise.

“In my head, I felt we were still a few years away from having the 50 interested schools,” said Brad Wilson, KVCA’s director of men’s and boys’ volleyball and the AVCA awards. “Given the news from (last Wednesday’s) KHSAA board meeting, my expectation for serious conversations for state sanctioning should happen next year. I am looking to connect with Butch Cope at the KHSAA to put together a reasonable timeline.”