The boys’ volleyball team has not been the same sport that many thought it was when they signed up for it. The season started with a month of two hour practices, which consist of setting up nets, warmups, drills, and scrimmages. Practices usually end with scrimmaging and applying what has been learned from the drills into that play.

The season has not started out as the team has hoped with an 0-6 start to the season for Varsity and JV teams. Coach Michael Becker feels the team has grown immensely since the beginning of the season. Becker, the girls head coach, felt like, especially coming from a team that has no prior volleyball experience, they have come a long way. “The amount of progress that we’ve made and the skills that we’ve learned is tremendous,” Becker said.

Junior Jackson Sando hasn’t been in many other sports while at BSM, but he has liked the sense of community made on the team. He thinks that boys volleyball is much different than a lot of the other activities he has been a part of because of how much of a team sport it is on and off the court. Every game day, if it’s at home, the team sets up nets together and gets team dinner. For away games, most of the team carpools to games and get a team dinner on the way out. On the court, players feel volleyball is one of the most team-oriented sports because if one person messes up a hit, the point could very easily be lost. “I played eighth grade lacrosse. You can do pretty well [in lacrosse] even if you’re alone, where in volleyball, if one person is messing up, the whole team messes up,” Sando said.

On top of the disappointing record, the MSHSL voted on Tuesday May 10 on the sanctioning of boys volleyball for the state of Minnesota. This vote resulted in a 31-17 vote in favor of the sanctioning, but this was one short of the two thirds majority needed to pass the sanction. Coach Michael Becker attended the sanctioning event and was disappointed with the outcome but also the overall bureaucratic process of the vote. He especially thought that the positives greatly outnumbered the negatives to sanction. “I think it’s kind of ridiculous that a few representatives from outside of the city are able to determine the fate of the majority of the schools that already have teams right now and are playing,” Becker said.