An interesting new sport that might be coming to DeMatha, led by Tyler Sanchez is a brand-new volleyball team. Tyler is a sophomore at DeMatha and plays club volleyball for Maryland Juniors. He recently has been looking into bringing a volleyball team to DeMatha because the school does not currently have one. His plans to make a team are still in the developmental stages but he has some key aspects that have already fallen into place.
He already has a coach that would love to work for and coach the DeMatha team. His name is Nick Sharp, and he is also the coach of Tyler’s club team. Coach Sharp has 20 years of coaching experience, coaching players from middle school to high school and also providing training and assistance to other young athletes. Tyler said, “He is a great coach, and I would love to be able to have him be a coach at DeMatha.”
The reason Tyler wants to create this team is that he wants to share his love for the sport of volleyball with everyone. He talked about how “it was a smaller sport and I know that not too many people that enjoy playing get to play volleyball at their high school,” and he just wants to provide that opportunity for those kids here at DeMatha. He also wants to spread recognition of the sport because it has minimal supporters on the men’s side but is super fun when you actually get to play it. “It’s something you need to try before you can judge it,” he said.
Some problems that might stop this team from coming together are funding, availability, and finding players that want to play. There currently isn’t a select date to when you can expect the team to be created and ready to play due to certain requirements and rules the team must comply with. Some of these requirements include player and coaches’ requirements, league regulations, and DeMatha requirements. Some examples are having enough players to play, having a certified head coach, having a league to go play in, having a place to practice, and so much more. These all would have to be handled before the team could be created.
Tyler’s plan on fixing all of these issues is talking with the athletic directors and figuring out any possible ways he can create a volleyball team. He says he plans for the team to be created in around a year or so, but lots of things have to happen to meet that timeline.
Volleyball is a spring sport, so finding time to practice shouldn’t be a problem with most of the sports at this time being outdoors. There are some other issues that he still needs to figure out, but DeMatha is working with him to settle those things. He understands that making a team is a process and it can’t just be done at a snap of a finger, but he’s committed to trying his hardest to bring this sport to DeMatha.
