Sonny Naipo graduated from Lewis and Clark High School on Sunday. On Monday, he was in his car, headed to Long Beach, California to start the next chapter of his life as a junior college student and football player.
A few days before collecting his diploma, Naipo was coaching the LC boys’ volleyball team in a match against Ferris. Ideally, that might have been for a league or state championship. But, for now, volleyball is only a club sport for boys. It’s not sanctioned by Washington’s state athletic authority, as it is for girls.
But this year, each of Spokane’s public high schools developed club teams, in part to gauge interest in boys’ volleyball.
Sonny Naipo: Volleyball is very popular everywhere else in the world. Canada has it, high school sports, you know, all over Asia, Europe. But here we haven't really caught the trend other than California and Utah. So I am just super encouraged to see the amount of boys that have come out and just tried it. Volleyball is here to stay.
DN: Why do you think boys' volleyball hasn't caught on before now?
SN: I think the hardest part for boys is guys just don't know about it. Volleyball is typically an outsider sport, especially at the high school level, because you're trying to steal from baseball players and track athletes and football players, right? So if it's not offered as compared to these girls who have been playing since they were eight, right? These guys don't know that this option is available to them and that even it's an experience to have.
DN: When would you have the volleyball season be for boys?
SN: I would have it as a spring activity and I would start up almost how we're doing it now, because we were so lucky to have Rogers, NC and Shadle start up their pilot program. They've been practicing since the fall. But if it were to receive funding and become an actual sport, it would probably stay in that spring season.
DN: So football players like you wouldn't have to choose, make a difficult decision about what am I going to play in the fall?
SN: Yes, that's the thing is, volleyball is a sport for everybody. Typically, you know, you see in the media all these six-foot-nine to seven-foot guys playing volleyball, but the truth is, here, everybody can play volleyball, everybody can have a good time. So especially at the high school level, it's just about getting that engagement and showing people it's an option.
DN: Okay, so next year's your senior year. You got a choice between volleyball and football. Which do you choose?
SN: Honestly, I think the advantage to volleyball is that you can play volleyball when you're 60. You can go to an open gym and a league and play volleyball forever. Football, there's not a lot of 60-year-old football leagues. So I would choose football personally just because I know how finite that time is. But if you don't play any other sports, volleyball, you can play it forever and you'll meet some of the best people you've ever met.
DN: That’s new Lewis and Clark High School alum Sonny Naipo.
There’s been interest for years in adding boys’ volleyball in Spokane, says Stephanie Splater, the executive director of athletics and activities for Spokane Public Schools.
This interview edited slightly for length and clarity.
Stephanie Splater: I remember back in high school, I had classmates who actually went to college and played volleyball. I had a best friend, her brother played at Santa Clara. So I know that boys want to play volleyball. It just hasn't been an official WIAA recognized sport in Washington, but we know the interest is there.
So fast forward to 2018-2019, my great nephew had a wonderful experience doing a club boys volleyball group at the end of the school year. It was actually Ferris and LC combined for a team and played against Mead and Mount Spokane on a late May night that was one of the most memorable nights we've all ever experienced. It was high level volleyball. It was Ferris and LC wearing orange and red together, playing against Mead and Mount Spokane and it just really set the tone for, this is something kids are interested in.
We get through COVID, we get back, we get back to normal. We're doing all the things we're doing with Engage IRL to get kids’ interests met and student voice is loud and clear and they are sharing with us, they want to play boys’ volleyball.
So Rogers was the first to start this year and they got going in the winter because they were so excited. Gradually the other schools came on board.
One of the things is we have to think about gym space. So it makes sense for us to do boys volleyball in the late spring because that's when the gyms are available because everybody else is doing track and tennis and golf and so on. So boys volleyball has taken off. We now have five teams, they're not combined. They're their own singular teams.
We've made it about as official as we can for this moment, but we're constantly striving to make it even more a part of the fabric of what we do. So right now it's technically a club at the schools and we support as a district transportation and officials and so on to make it more of an actual game setting because that's what we're all working towards. Volleyball practice is really fun. I was a volleyball coach for a long time. Volleyball practice is fun, but there's nothing like being in a competitive game, especially against some crosstown rivals.
So this has grown. We have hundreds of people coming to support and watch and there's a lot of pride in what's happening and also a lot of growth and development.
One of our teams had really not ever played before and played together and they had to learn the sport, kind of PE style, kind of developmental, starting out with just the basics. And now they're all high level, having a great time.
We also have multi teams at some schools. So I had asked about the attendance at one of our games and one of our engagement navigators for Rogers had said, oh, well, the first game was at 4.30, the second game was at 5.30 and the third game was at 6.30. Those were all different teams playing and different people coming in and out to support the team. So there's multi levels now of development and competition level. So that's just really cool.
As far as it becoming an official sport, we would look to the WIAA to do that because they're our governing body for all high school athletics. What that does is that formalizes it and it provides a state tournament level competition. We can do things without those structures in the meantime. There are Title IX considerations for sure.
DN: If you bring on a boys’ sport, are you bringing on a girls’ sport?
SS: It's not that equivalent, it's not always about that, but it's a factor and a consideration.
So we look at that, the state looks at that. We just want tp make sure that there's equitable opportunities for kids, not equal exactly, because nothing's ever exactly that way, but equitable opportunities. And our layer of doing that is what are kids interested in? What do they want to do? Well, we can say with certainty, they want to play volleyball. Both boys and girls want to play volleyball. Record number of teams in middle school and high school right now for girls’ volleyball. And now we've got the start to this great boys’ club pilot.
DN: So if there was a companion sport on the girls side, what would it be?
SS: Girls’ flag football was recently approved as an official sport in Washington. That doesn't mean that we automatically do it in Spokane schools. I've been tiptoeing into it myself because they didn't really consider the east side of the state when they said, let's just do girls’ flag football.
The west side has a late winter season that makes sense weather-wise to do flag football. We had some girls out experimenting with flag football this year in early February and late January and you can imagine what the weather was here in Spokane. So we don't necessarily have the same conditions that they do on the west side. That was something we knew was maybe a barrier for us. It went a little faster on the west side.
There's also a connection to the NFL and the Seahawks on the west side of the state that we haven't been as connected to. The Seahawks provided and the NFL provided some funding and some initial organization for girls’ flag football. You might see on a Superbowl ad or on a game advertisements for girls’ flag football because it is in line with the NFL. And by nature of Seattle, they're more closely connected to that.
So we've just been a little behind. We anticipate doing a pilot for girls’ flag football. We are still in the early, early club stage. I would say it's not as far along as boys’ volleyball as far as how we've done it, partly because of the season and partly because we don't actually have an avid interest right now in girls wanting to play some, but it's just not to the height that some other things that we're doing are.
We also have a small swim experience that we're currently doing. We co-op with Cheney for our girls’ swim and dive programs. So that's something that's limited because our community is limited as far as pool access. We just don't have enough pools and we only have the one diving facility there at Eastern. So that's an interest.
It comes and goes that we have an interest in bowling in this area. That makes sense for Spokane. We do have bowling alleys and we do have the ability to play indoors, obviously for bowling.
So those are the actual official sports that could come along and be an avid interest for our kids. But all of those are on, not really on the table right now for consideration.
I guess I would throw in that lacrosse is quite an interest and that lacrosse organizations have approached the WIAA. But if it doesn't appear as an initiative that the WIAA is driving, it doesn't become an official sport. So that has to be enough interest for sure. And those can come locally.
So we could absolutely put forth that if we want boys’ volleyball to be an official sport, that could be something that we look at down the line.
DN: We finish with Sonny Naipo.
DN: So is there a successor to Sonny when it comes to advocating for volleyball?
SN: You know, my brother's only in middle school right now, but I hope he'll pick it up.
Honestly, the advocacy really comes from the players this year and our in coming eighth graders, right? At the first day of practice, we had 16 guys come out. These were all guys who have never played, just intrigued to try the sport. And then in two weeks, we had doubled to 32 players. We've had four practices, maybe eight hours of gym time total. And I'm just so proud of how the boys have learned and adapted to just a new sport.
When you talk about volleyball, what people forget is that volleyball is a different language and so you're trying to think about, I need to hit, I need to set, I need to pass and do all of these things when they have no fundamentals. So they're learning everything for the first time as a high school junior, sophomore.
I want people to come out, I want them to be encouraged by the progress that they've made and understand that in four to eight years, this is here in Washington and it will be a legit competitive sport.
