Boys volleyball took center stage this fall as a new sport not only at Falls Church High School, but in Fairfax county as well.
According to WTOP news, FCPS added a varsity boys volleyball team to 28 high schools for the 2024-25 school year. FC has raised Boys volleyball from a club sport to an official team, giving opportunities to boys that played club volleyball to show their skills to possible college scouts.
“I have played in my cousin’s club since I was little but most recently I have been playing pick-up volleyball at community centers,” said Daniel Pineda (10) captain of the FC Boys Volleyball team.
The 2024 volleyball season was filled with excitement, progress, and wins for Falls Church.
“It was super exciting to have this opportunity for the first time this year! Falls Church ended up 5th out of 8 in our district and I thought this was good considering our level of experience coming into the season,” said Rob Baily, FC boys volleyball coach. “Everyone, including the coaches, learned a lot about how things work at the varsity level as most of us had not done this before.”
The team’s improvement wouldn’t have been possible without Baily and his expertise. All of Baily’s kids went to FC, and taking up the position as coach was his way of giving back to the school.
“I have coached a travel club before and we have been coaching the boys at Falls Church in the local league for several years,” said Baily.
Additionally, the team didn’t just grow skill-wise, but they got to build connections and bond with each other as the season progressed.
“The team got to know each other and formed bonds which was really great,” said Baily.
The volleyball team had great players this year, but due to its novelty, some people didn’t have a way to know about it.
“I’d probably say that yeah, it wasn’t really told to us in an email, you had to figure it out yourself or ask people,” said Elijah Holston (10).
Some people thought that the new sport could’ve been advertised better because tryouts were during summer break which made it more difficult for athletes to know about it.
“They could’ve advertised better through social media like hyping up a new sport for boys volleyball or something to let the parents know of a new sport throughout the county,” said Holston.
Some players have expressed their opinions on the improvements that can be made for the following years.
With the foundation already set by the first Boys Volleyball team at FC, progress can be made.
“I think some improvements that could be made to the program are a JV team so that more underclassmen get a chance to improve on their own skills and still have the experience of being in the falls church team,” said Pineda.
Baily has hopes for the team next year as well, like adding a JV team and possibly a freshman team to include more of the underclassmen.
“I am hoping we can expand to JV next year to expand the opportunities for more young men to play.  I also hope the boys who played this season got excited about the sport and want to continue,” said Baily.