A visiting Apple Valley team won in three Thursday, but that was kind of beside the point.
The point being Park High boys' volleyball is launched, and the Wolfpack looked good doing so.
Playing just its second game ever, the Park team fell 25-14, 25-19 and 26-24. The improvement as the match went on was evident.
The Wolfpack just got stronger every game; a pattern head coach Robert Lozinski-McLean hopes will continue this season in the initial foray for the Wolfpack team.
Next season the Park boys will compete for real. This season is all about learning the game and learning to play together as a team.
“It’s really fun, it’s a great opportunity we have here,” Park setter Gavin Oberding shared.
The Minnesota State High School League approved a proposal to sanction boys volleyball as a high school sport for the 2024-25 season by a 39-7-2 vote on May 9, 2023. Next spring the games will count for real.
High school club volleyball has grown in Minnesota from 38 teams and 400 athletes in 2018 to 72 schools, 183 teams and almost 2,000 participants in 2023. Teams from Apple Valley, Burnsville, Eagan, Eastview, Rosemount, White Bear Lake, Roseville, East Ridge and Woodbury have been playing for several seasons. Park joins the list this spring.
Boys high school volleyball is reportedly the fastest growing sport in the nation.
According to the MSHSL, some 91 percent of the boys playing high school volleyball are not participating in any other spring sport. Park coach Lozinski-McClean noted that for about 90 percent of the Park team, volleyball is brand new. “Before Tuesday they’ve never played an organized game of volleyball.”
On Thursday there were some things that Park did well, and some things to work on, both players and head coach agreed.
“I think we played a lot better as a team today but then we still had a lot of holes in our defense and our offense so I think we could fix that up,” said right hitter Mason Vang. “We need to work on transitioning from defense back to offense and back to defense because we were too slow to get back on the block, so they got us there.”
“You know it’s interesting because we always, you know, we don’t call these losses,” said Lozinski-McLean. “We call them learning moments. Something I think we did well was when we are on, we really executed. You know everything we teach them starts with a pass. Get that pass up to your setter and then our hitter's job is to find the floor. I think that when we started with that great pass it always ended well for us. And we teach that. We always tell them you need to be in the right spot. You need to be poised and be ready for, you know, anticipate the ball. I thought we anticipated well.
“Some things we definitely need to work on that showed true tonight is just making sure we’re in the right spots, specifically on defense,” Lozinski-McClean continued. “And making sure we’re anticipating what the other side of the net is doing and then adjusting accordingly on our side of the net. So that anticipation factor is definitely something we need to work on.”
Asked what would make for a successful season, Oberding said: “I think just coming together as a team, winning some games here and just overall having a fun time.”
Park will host Cretin-Derham Hall Monday, April 22, starting at 7:30 p.m.
