Velocious volleyball

Boys Volleyball Lands In Ladue For The First Time Ever

By: Devin Freeman

Ladue has added a new sport to the spring sports schedule; boys volleyball! For the first time in LHWHS history, boys volleyball will be played in 2023. Boys volleyball has been spreading throughout the United States, and it finally hit the St. Louis area. At Ladue High School there’s a junior varsity and varsity team, both highly competitive and fun to watch.

Ladue is one of two new teams in the St. Louis area, Clayton being the other, and plenty of boys were willing to sign up for it. The coaches of the varsity team are personal finance and Intro to Business teacher Christopher Geisz and faculty member Jared McCloud.

Andrew Logan, a freshman at Ladue, signed up to play organized volleyball for the first time. He is one of many who have never played organized volleyball before, so it was a fun and interesting experience for him.

“I think just learning the basics and stuff like that,” Logan said, “because like I’ve literally never played before other than PE volleyball, and it is way more complicated than PE volleyball.

Logan, just coming off of basketball season, felt like he had nothing to do for the spring. When he saw volleyball was coming to Ladue this year, he was intrigued.

“You know I was tired of baseball,” Logan said, “I wasn’t very good at it, and I didn't really like it, so I scratched it off and decided to sign up for volleyball as soon as the applications came out. I also just wanted to try something new, of course.”

For a first year team, Logan said they’ve been doing pretty good. They participated in the Francis Howell tournament and got third place out of eight teams.

“We’ve won some games against teams that have been around,” Logan said. “I mean the only other first year team is Clayton, so like we aren’t really expected to win games really.”

One thing that's important to have as a team is chemistry and fun, and says there is plenty of chemistry and fun on this team. His favorite part of being on the team is the coaches and the players.

“The coaches are really nice,” Logan said , “and they’re really good at their job. They know how to make practices fun and productive, and during games they aren’t too hard on the players. I have definitely gotten better since our first practice because of them. I like my teammates just because we always keep each other up, everythings positive around here, nothing negative.”

Keegan Cody is also freshman who is playing organized volleyball for the first time. His mom played volleyball back in high school, so he says he had to try it.

“I play soccer, so the hardest part for me was adjusting to a sport that used your hands 99% of the time rather than your feet,” Cody said, “Volleyball is so mechanically different from any other sport I have played.”

Cody, usually never playing a sport during the spring, likes having something to do. His favorite part of being on the team is having something fun to do at the end of the year.

“It’s fun being a part of the first team,” Cody said, “I feel like we are forever in Ladue’s history books as the ‘The first Ladue boys volleyball team.’”