With the fall sports season underway, the Dougherty Valley High School womens volleyball team finds themselves with roughly a 160% increase in interest displayed by student athletes. This has led to the formation of a new freshman team, helping to bolster their ranks for the 2025 season. This growth in popularity across all three levels of high school volleyball at Dougherty Valley, from freshman to varsity, has been reciprocated across the United States throughout the past five years.
Senior Allison Shui, a varsity volleyball player, initially discovered volleyball through school and family friends, a common method for finding new hobbies or extracurricular activities. She also attributed a rise in volleyball to younger people following in the footsteps of their older siblings.
“I did the Windermere Ranch Middle School recreational volleyball program in 6th and 8th grade, but it wasn’t until 8th grade when I found interest in the sport and wanted to pursue it,” Shui explained.
One of the factors for the rise in womens volleyball is the boost in opportunities made available to athletes in the Bay Area. Private volleyball clubs, such as NorCal Volleyball Club, Red Rocks Volleyball Club and more, have expanded their team sizes and opened new locations. As a result of these new locations, more and more student athletes are able to access these club volleyball teams, leading the students to gain confidence to join their high school team as well.
Senior Violet Bothwell, one of the two captains on the DVHS womens varsity volleyball team, first pursued the sport during an eighth-grade club volleyball tryout. This opportunity helped her find her passion for volleyball, and she has continued playing throughout high school thus far.
“I think there are just a lot more opportunities to start compared to before. There’s a lot of local clubs that are beginner friendly, which makes it easier for players to start young and grow into the sport,” Bothwell reflected. “Volleyball has always been fun to both watch and play, so once people try it, it’s easy to see why it’s so popular.”
For athletes, oftentimes choosing a sport requires the right mix of competitiveness and enjoyability. Shui reflected that one of the reasons she chose volleyball was due to the energy that volleyball has on every moment of the game, no matter the outcome.
“In my opinion ,the most appealing thing about volleyball to me is the team bondings we have because it helped bring the team together and build chemistry with one another,” Shui noticed. “I also believe that being in a sport in general helps you with communication skills and working together to help win a match.”
One of the biggest benefits of the increasing popularity of womens volleyball at DVHS, according to senior Akshara Vermula, another varsity captain, was the reintroduction of a freshman volleyball team.
“The growing popularity of womens volleyball has definitely made a positive impact on our team at Dougherty. Growing interest means more people trying out every year, which means there’s always new talent to look at and a wider range of people and skills to play,” Vermula noted.
With the popularity of womens volleyball expanding throughout California, this dramatic expansion demonstrated the shift of volleyball as a sport. It transformed from a niche activity to a more mainstream one as interest piqued. One of the prominent clubs in San Ramon, Red Rocks Volleyball Club, has seen the benefits of this expansion up close. David Huan, one of the main directors at Red Rocks, has noticed this increase in athletic participation not only at the high school level, but in the younger age divisions for womens volleyball.
“Historically speaking as a club, in the last four years post-COVID, we expanded into the TriValley area in 2021 and started with three girls teams in Danville. In 2022, we added three more girls teams in Walnut Creek for a total of six girls teams,” Huan explained. “In 2023, we grew from six girls teams to 13. In 2024, we grew to 22 girls teams and two boys teams across Walnut Creek, Danville, Dublin, Martinez and Brentwood.”
With the rise in interest and participation in womens volleyball not only at DVHS but around the Bay Area, womens volleyball has solidified itself as a strong competitor with other mainstream high school sports such as football, basketball and more. This rise in popularity has created a surge in viewership across high school volleyball games, which led to heightened exposure of the sport to rising athletes.
“I think volleyball is a fun sport to watch because throughout an entire game it’s a very engaging sport because there’s always something happening,” Vermula reiterated. “Every point and every play is something new and something interesting, so it keeps people invested.”
