On Oct. 9 2023, the Oregon School Activities Association (OSAA) approved boys volleyball as an emerging activity. This is the first sport OSAA has recognized as an emerging activity, which means it now has the chance to become a sanctioned sport in Oregon. There are currently 32 schools with teams in Oregon. “If this number reaches at least 50,it can officially become sanctioned,” the OSAA said.

    Athletic directors of schools are working together with the OSAA to plan the next steps. They need to see if there is enough growth and desire within the schools in the state to continue. “I can’t commit to something and put people in a bad spot,” West Albany’s athletic director Don Lien said. “But if I can commit to something that we can grow and help that sport, I’m all for it.”

    A problem with starting a boys volleyball team in Albany right now is travel. As of now, Crescent Valley High School is the closest school to West Albany with a team, the rest are far up north around Portland. “Until we get five or six teams in our area,” Lien says, “it’d be hard for our teams to even compete.”

    A question that came up with this decision was how this addition would be affected by Title IX, which is a federal law that ensures male and female students and employees in educational settings are treated equally and fairly. Schools must provide equal opportunities to compete in sports for girls and boys. So if boys volleyball is added to the list of sanctioned sports, they will need to add another girls sport. Examples of such sports are girls lacrosse or girls flag football, which has already shown interest to OSAA to become an emerging activity as well. “Girls flag football is also a huge emerging sport too,” Lien said. “So that’s another one they’re running some pilot programs for. And so that would balance that.”

    The biggest concern with all of this would be overloading the spring season with sports, as boys volleyball and girls flag football are both spring sports. “I really have to think about how it’s going to affect the already large number of spring sports that are going on,” Lien said. “You can’t have too many activities going on at once. That becomes detrimental to athletic programs, even though you’re trying to do what’s best for kids and give them opportunities.”

    In the coming months we will see more updates on the future of boys volleyball in Oregon