- April 25, 2024
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Senior Brooke Ballschmeider has played with the Matanzas beach volleyball team for the past two years. Photo by Brent Woronoff
Players crowded the one court at Holland Park on tryout day. Photo by Brent Woronoff
Sydney Moses, left, is playing indoor club volleyball at DME Academy right now as well as beach volleyball with the Pirates. Photo by Brent Woronoff
Sophomore Senna Thayer is also a member of the Pirates' indoor volleyball team. Photo by Brent Woronoff
Senior Ashley Grove likes the freedom of the beach volleyball game. Photo by Brent Woronoff
The Pirates line up for a drill. Photo by Brent Woronoff
Dawn Moses coaches both the Pirates' beach and indoor volleyball teams. Photo by Brent Woronoff
A player dives in the sand on tryout day. Photo by Brent Woronoff
With temperatures in the low to mid 50s, it was not exactly beach weather as 19 girls crowded onto the one sand volleyball court at Holland Park on Feb. 7 to try out for the Matanzas High beach volleyball team.
Under the watchful eye of head coach Dawn Moses, the players took part in group drills on a court, and in a sport, designed for two-person teams.
“It’s hard to practice on one court,” Moses said. “On Fridays, we’ll go to Wadsworth Park to scrimmage. They have two courts, but the sand is not as nice as (Holland Park). There's a lot of pebbles.”
Moses, the volleyball director at DME Academy, started a beach volleyball club team at Matanzas two years ago. The Pirates played against other area schools in the Sunshine State Athletic Conference.
This year, the FHSAA — the state’s high school athletics governing body — is sanctioning the sport for the first time. There are five other Volusia-Flagler teams — Atlantic, New Smyrna Beach, Seabreeze, Spruce Creek and DeLand. All of them, except DeLand, are in Matanzas’ district. There is one classification in the state with 32 districts.
“It’s one of the fastest growing sports in the NCAA,” Moses said. “The kids enjoy it, because you’re outside in the fresh air, and with just two players on a team, you’re going to touch the ball.”
The Pirates’ season begins March 2 with a tri-match at Jacksonville Episcopal. All of their matches will be on the road, including their “home” matches at DME in Daytona Beach. With five doubles matches, and an optional sixth non-scoring match, at least three sand courts are needed.
Matanzas athletic director Jordan Butler said the school is looking into building courts on campus.
“It’s definitely a project that’s on our radar,” he said. “We’ll have to fund-raise for it.”
Moses, who will also coach the Pirates’ indoor volleyball team next season, has started a beach volleyball booster club. She said each sand court could cost as much as $25,000 to build.
Moses is keeping 13 players with 10 starters manning the five doubles teams. Because they will have to travel in vans, she said she needed to limit the size of the team.
Many of the players are indoor volleyball players who have been playing beach volleyball for only a couple of years. The team is not as established as other area programs such as New Smyrna Beach and Spruce Creek, Moses said. But as the number of players that braved the chilly weather for tryouts attests, the sport continues to gain popularity.
“We have more fun out here,” said senior Ashley Grove. “The (indoor) season is more serious.”
Grove said that while there is more ground to cover in the beach game, the players feel less constrained.
“If you dive for a ball, you don’t have to worry about bumping into a group of players.”
ASHLEY GROVE
“If you dive for a ball, you don’t have to worry about bumping into a group of players. You have more open space,” she said.
“It’s just two of you on the court interacting,” senior Brooke Ballschmeider said. “So you have a different bond with your teammate, better communication.”
Players say beach volleyball helps them improve their fundamentals.
“If you’re pretty good at indoor volleyball, it should carry over,” said junior Sydney Moses. “It’s just harder to move in the sand.”
