South Jordan UT
3-23-2024 3:55pm

Herriman Boys Volleyball Off to a Hot Start in Year One

By Justin Adams

Starting this spring, boys volleyball is an officially sanctioned high school sport in Utah. It’s always an exciting challenge to get a brand new program up-and-running, so I attended a recent Herriman boys volleyball game to see how they’re coming along.

That game was on March 14, as the Mustangs took on Syracuse High. Herriman took a commanding 2-0 lead, before dropping the third set. But they came back and won the fourth set in dramatic fashion, as the two teams went back and forth, unable to secure the two-point lead required for victory. After several potential match points, the Mustangs eventually walked away with a 30-28 victory for the set and a 3-1 victory overall.

After the game, I talked to head coach Austin Linford and asked him about how the process of creating a new team has gone so far.

“We were kind of lucky, with the club scene, there were a lot of guys that already played. So it’s not like you’re teaching everyone to play volleyball for the first time,” he said. “However, most of the clubs aren’t getting the kinds of athletes that other sports might get… because it wasn’t sanctioned, it wasn’t real to them.”

Now that volleyball is sanctioned by UHSAA, Linford believes that more and more of any given high school’s top athletes will gravitate to the sport. It’s a trend he’s already seeing among his younger players.

“On the JV team, we have a 6 foot 6 kid who has never played volleyball in his life. He’s a basketball player but he really likes it and his sister played for me. He’s doing great things already and I bet he’ll be starting on varsity next year,” Linford said.

With the influx of more athletes, combined with the fact that volleyball is a very fun and exciting sport to watch, Linford predicts that it will soon be one of the more popular sports at the high school level.

“Volleyball in five years, for many schools, will be as big as basketball,” he said.

While the future is bright, the Mustangs’ present isn’t looking too shabby either. The team currently has a record of 9-2, with both of their losses coming to Westlake High School during a two day tournament.

The team’s leaders include senior setter Cooper Scranton, backline specialist Joe Kirby, and junior hitter Tony Kowalewski, who leads the team in kills.

“I was extremely excited about volleyball becoming an official high school sport,” said Kowalewski. Formerly a lacrosse player, he gave volleyball a chance four years ago and loved it.

Also assisting the team are three team managers who all play for Linford on the Herriman girls volleyball team. Linford said they’ve made a big impact in helping the boys with some of the procedural aspects of the game, like substitutions and rotations, which can be difficult to master, especially as a brand new team.

Another facet of the game that Linford would like to see improve on is positioning.

“Girls are very concerned with the spot on the floor - having the right positioning. Because if they don’t, they won’t be able to recover in time. The guys are a little bigger and faster so they can recover from bad positioning more. So it’s difficult to get the guys to be disciplined with their positioning,” he said.

While the new team is doing great on the court, they’re also making waves online, as one of their promotional videos got reposted by ESPN. In the video, Kirby is seen diving to reach a ball before it hits the floor. He slides for several feet, dragged by someone else off camera, while simultaneously looking up to the camera and inviting the viewer to come watch their next game. The video, as reposted by ESPN, has racked up 20,000 shares and over 22 million views.

Asked how it felt to be famous, Kirby credited the team and one of the team managers for coming up with the idea for the video. A consummate teammate.

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