Boys volleyball was added because of a lot of interest expressed to the school board. There is an existing club volleyball program with teams from most FCPS high schools, which validated that there is plenty of interest in volleyball. They are going to start with just varsity (no JV or freshman teams).

The folks saying that they don't know boys who play volleyball just are traveling in different circles from the boys volleyball leagues. Also, you may not know that many kids who do rifle team or golf or other varsity team sports in FCPS, but that doesn't mean they don't exist.

Anonymous wrote:Most people think of it as an only-girls sport like Field Hockey.

Ironically Field Hockey is a huge male sport in many other countries

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Its not a sport in FCPS and it won't be any time soon due to need for parity with girls sports, so it doesn't matter. Find a rec league.

That’s not accurate. It’ll be a boys sport in FCPS in Fall 2024. https://www.novaboysvb.org/news_article/show/1299759?fbclid=IwAR0XL0cA7RTxgxrxg3XfJLaKEjgvJcPQk-B3rXJF04QL2d1WjWwPLlqtDN4_aem_AacQOapB815l1NHAkYiOMkSs1ICit1nZHnMnwitUX6ozvhaPuUvEMBDGhlVTzRFtvPA

Thank you for this!! I had heard talk of this last year so thought the FCPS boys volleyball would start this year 23-24. But now see it Fall of 24 AND girls wrestling!! Our HS has girls on the current team but they don’t have an all female team.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Are the rules that you need equal numbers of teams or equal numbers of sports participants, or what?

"Benefits, opportunities, and treatment for boys and girls teams .When a school offers boys and girls athletic teams, the Title IX regulations require that the school offer equivalent benefits, opportunities, and treatment to its boys and girls teams overall. Answering “no” to any of these questions may indicate a possible Title IX violation"

https://www2.ed.gov/about/offices/list/ocr/docs/ocr-k12-athletic-resource-202302.pdf

So it sounds like you just have to offer even numbers of teams.
They can't force girls to sign up or participate.

Our HS is so tight on fall and winter gym space already. If the SB is going to add programs, they need to add facilities or space somehow.

That would not satisfy the meeting students' interests's abilities tests. Keep reading to the bottom of the document.

Anonymous wrote:I don't think boys play volleyball here. More an international thing.

There are many Boys HS volleyball teams in the north east.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Are the rules that you need equal numbers of teams or equal numbers of sports participants, or what?

"Benefits, opportunities, and treatment for boys and girls teams .When a school offers boys and girls athletic teams, the Title IX regulations require that the school offer equivalent benefits, opportunities, and treatment to its boys and girls teams overall. Answering “no” to any of these questions may indicate a possible Title IX violation"

https://www2.ed.gov/about/offices/list/ocr/docs/ocr-k12-athletic-resource-202302.pdf

So it sounds like you just have to offer even numbers of teams.
They can't force girls to sign up or participate.

Our HS is so tight on fall and winter gym space already. If the SB is going to add programs, they need to add facilities or space somehow.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Girls wrestling? Girls don't want to wrestle. Flag football would get more interest.

+1. Friend and I were talking about this the other day. Very few girls in the state are wrestling. Why not add a soccer "b" team or something like that. MCPS has coed volleyball.

There is JV and Varsity soccer.

Anonymous wrote:Are the rules that you need equal numbers of teams or equal numbers of sports participants, or what?

"Benefits, opportunities, and treatment for boys and girls teams .When a school offers boys and girls athletic teams, the Title IX regulations require that the school offer equivalent benefits, opportunities, and treatment to its boys and girls teams overall. Answering “no” to any of these questions may indicate a possible Title IX violation"

https://www2.ed.gov/about/offices/list/ocr/docs/ocr-k12-athletic-resource-202302.pdf

Anonymous wrote:Unfortunately for the few less-athletic boys who play in rec volleyball leagues, as soon as something is a Varsity sport, the really good athletes will be interested, and they will lose their spots to 6'5 basketball players looking for a back up off season sport.

This is sad but true. My HS daughters played club VB for years, we went to the beach, their middle school aged cousin--a basketball player--had never played VB before and they taught him the rules at the beach. By the end of the week, he was better than both of them.

Anonymous wrote:Girls wrestling? Girls don't want to wrestle. Flag football would get more interest.

+1. Friend and I were talking about this the other day. Very few girls in the state are wrestling. Why not add a soccer "b" team or something like that. MCPS has coed volleyball.

Most people think of it as an only-girls sport like Field Hockey.

Anonymous wrote:Unfortunately for the few less-athletic boys who play in rec volleyball leagues, as soon as something is a Varsity sport, the really good athletes will be interested, and they will lose their spots to 6'5 basketball players looking for a back up off season sport.

Yep. I don't actually know any boys who have ever played volleyball either. Is it really popular in certain areas of Fairfax or in certain groups?

Are the rules that you need equal numbers of teams or equal numbers of sports participants, or what?

Anonymous wrote:Our public FCPS high school is 2800 kids and zero girls play football OR wrestle.

Agree that flag football would have been better.

I hope boys volleyball enjoys their 1 season. When girls wrestling can't get enough kids to form a team and there's an imbalance, some parent is going to file a title IX complaint and FCPS will lose.

Unfortunately for the few less-athletic boys who play in rec volleyball leagues, as soon as something is a Varsity sport, the really good athletes will be interested, and they will lose their spots to 6'5 basketball players looking for a back up off season sport.