To meet the growing popularity, encourage participation, and increase the quality of girls’ volleyball in the area, parents from Sea Cliff, Glen Head, and Glenwood Landing formed the North Shore Volleyball Organization this year.
Girls’ volleyball has reached a fever pitch of popularity in the United States, with participation and growth accelerating over the past decade, according to the National Federation of State High School Associations.
Allan Wright, North Shore Volleyball’s director, said that before the organization's creation, volleyball in the area was primarily consistent with a spring season run by the Catholic Youth Organization.
North Shore Volleyball offers fall instructional programs, summer camps, and even a few end-of-year tournaments, according to Wright, who is also the coordinator for the spring CYO league.
Registration for the instructional program takes place in August. It began in 2022 with a limited number of girls and was expanded to three different sessions for girls in grades 5-7 in 2024. The program will be offered to the same grades as last year and will also include 3rd, 4th, and 8th graders in the fall.
The summer camps run by North Shore Volleyball take place in St. Boniface gym and are limited to 20 participants. Wright said participants will have a full court to practice on, while other camps use a partial court.
Incoming sixth graders will have the opportunity to be coached July 7 to 11, from 9 a.m. to noon. by Doug Ebert, the former head girls' varsity coach at Lawrence Woodmere Academy and now the program coordinator and coach at The Green Vale School.
Jules Fazio, who has four years of experience coaching at 516 Elite Volleyball and Atlantic clubs, will be leading a camp of incoming seventh and eighth graders July 14 – 18 from 9 a.m. to noon. The cost for both of the camps is $200 per child.
The North Shore Invitational, a full-day six-team tournament held in the Saint Boniface gymnasium on May 31, was the first of two tournaments hosted by North Shore Volleyball.
“I talked to all five other coaches, and they all said their teams were super excited to be there,” Wright said after the tournament. “They had been looking forward to the tournament for a whole month.”
“Volleyball is exploding in popularity on the North Shore. Everyone’s jumping into it.” Matt Desanto, an assistant coach with the organization, said. “They want to win, to be competitive. The interest is there; you just got to go and promote it.”
The popularity of girls' volleyball in the United States has increased every year, excluding the 2020-21 pandemic year. The sport’s participation reached an all-time high of 479,125 in 2023-24, surpassing the previous record of 470,488 set in 2022-2023. The figure is second only to outdoor track and field with 506,015, according to the Federation of State High School Associations.
Wright pointed to positivity and participation driving the growth of sports on the North Shore.
“The girls support each other every time they score a point and every time they make an error,” Wright said. “This same positivity filters down to how the teams interact with the referees. In many sports, you often hear players complaining to the referee. That never happens in volleyball. It's not allowed.”
Caroline Bernholz, an 11-year-old on Wright’s sixth-grade team, echoed her coach's thoughts on the positivity of the sport. “I love playing together as a team and getting another chance to perform well together,” the Sea Cliff resident said. “I love volleyball, my coaches and my team.”
Unlike sports such as basketball, where one exceptionally skilled player can have a disproportionately large impact, in volleyball, everyone has a role and purpose, according to Wright.
“If the ball comes to you on the court, you have to hit it,” he said. “When you're up for serving, you have to serve. You can't have the best player do all the serving. Everybody has to take their share.”
Liena Riess and Bella Smith praised their coaches' kindness and help in improving their skills on the court. “It gives you many opportunities, and you get to meet all these people,” Riess said. “It's really fun.”
Smith, who has been playing since fifth grade, added that she has seen steady improvement over the years thanks to the additional practice. “We have been getting so much better since we were in fifth grade,” she said. “Now we understand the sport and stuff. We got serious.”
