Posted: 2022-01-05 20:49:28
Modified: 05/01/2022 20:48:48
After open volleyball nights hosted by the girls’ team in the fall sparked the interest of more than 20 boys, the Frontier Regional School Board approved a vote this week to add a volleyball program for boys to start this next spring season.
“The youngsters are interested in playing,” Frontier sporting director Carl Cyr said during Tuesday’s meeting. “I was hit with a barrage of ‘Where’s the boys’ volleyball?'”
The men’s volleyball approval follows the addition of a unified basketball, indoor track and swim co-op, which were approved at a meeting in June. Frontier is one of the few schools in the county to buck the trend of cutting programs — including some forced into soccer co-ops — as it has now added four sports in the past year.
Last fall’s volleyball nights generated enough interest for Cyr to launch a survey of the student population, which received 23 positive responses – broken down into 19 “yes” and four “maybe” responses. .
Cyr noted that there is a wide range of students interested in playing men’s volleyball, which will allow the school to add the program without drawing too many students away from other sports. Of the survey respondents, 15 do not currently play a spring sport, four are baseball players and one plays tennis.
“One of the big concerns every time we add a sport is that we don’t have the greatest school ever, so we don’t want to take from one sport to feed another,” he said. -he declares. “It’s kind of putting too many slices in the kind of thing.”
The age of those interested in playing would also be conducive to building a program, according to Cyr. He said two students are seniors, five are juniors and nine are sophomores, which would ensure that they will also have enough students to play next season.
“It’s a good group, it seems, in 10th grade who really want to play,” Cyr said, “and that’s a good thing.
The program would start with just a varsity team and a coach in its inaugural season, and the school would gauge interest from there. Cyr said they have no plans to pursue Frontier women’s volleyball coach Sean MacDonald to coach the men’s team because he coaches at Athol High School during the boys’ spring season. The Frontier Women’s Team has won 16 consecutive Western Mass Championships.
The team would compete as an independent and play up to a maximum of 20 games during its season. The Redhawks are expected to travel outside of Franklin County to play games, as schools in Athol County and Hampshire are the closest competition.
“I don’t know why in Franklin County there aren’t more,” Cyr said, noting that the county doesn’t have any other boys’ volleyball programs. “In the [Route] 91 lane, there are plenty of teams… there would be plenty of people to play.
Financially, the program would not add a heavy burden to the school. Cyr estimated the total cost of the program would be around $7,000 to pay for a coach, buses, officials and other miscellaneous costs at the Massachusetts Interscholastic Athletic Association. If the school fields a full squad of 15 players, an additional $1,875 could be waived due to user fees.
“Everything costs money, of course,” Cyr said. “We have everything we could possibly need for a volleyball program.”
Chris Larabee can be reached at clarabee@recorder.com or 413-930-4081.