This fall season the boys have finally gotten a beach volleyball team. Around thirty kids are expected to try out for the team this year. There has been a boys indoor team for the past eighteen years, and they have been waiting for a beach team since the girls adopted one in the spring of 2022. Despite having the same core rules, beach volleyball has some differences from indoor. Indoor Volleyball is played indoors with six players on the court, but beach is played outdoors on sand with two players on the court. For many of these athletes, stepping into the sand for the first time is both exciting and intimidating, as they must quickly adapt to an entirely new pace of play and an unfamiliar environment that tests their endurance and teamwork in ways they have not experienced before.
The coach for this new team is Fred Mann, a counselor specifically for STEM students and also has coached volleyball at Perry for several years. Mann is optimistic about the upcoming season. Mann explained that he wants to teach the kids how to play and hopes that this sport will become something they love in the future because Mann greatly enjoyed playing it for a large part of his life. Mann has coached both boys and girls volleyball for close to thirty years and has coached hundreds of club teams. He explained that the love for beach volleyball came from watching it on television since the 80s. Mann said, “You know, the reason I came out to the United States is to play beach volleyball.” Watching some of the greatest players of beach volleyball lit his passion for the sport.
Junior Tate Higgins, a volleyball player, was asked about which is harder to play, beach volleyball or indoor. He said, “I’d say indoor volleyball you have six people, but in beach volleyball you have only up to two, so two people have to take up the whole court and basically you just have to touch the ball every time.” The beach court is smaller than the normal indoor courts, it is 16 meters long and 8 meters wide, compared to the regular 18 by 9 on the indoor courts. They also usually play beach with a larger, softer, and lighter ball opposed to the heavy, smaller ball for indoor.
Junior Greyson Carter, another volleyball player expected to also play beach, elaborates when he said, “The endurance, doing anything in the sand is so tiring.” Carter also said he is optimistic and hopeful about this season because last year indoor volleyball won state championships. He hopes to go undefeated despite losing a big senior class. Last year the volleyball team had seven seniors graduate, but players said there is a large freshmen class and they are expecting a good season.
The team heads into its first season with plenty of challenges ahead, but also the chance to set the standard for Perry boys beach volleyball. With the excitement of something new mixed with the experience of seasoned indoor players, the boys have a rare opportunity to build a foundation that could carry the program for years to come, inspiring future athletes to embrace the game.
