The Nebraska Boys High School Volleyball League is continuously striving to bring attention to themselves with an end goal of creating more opportunities for boys involved in volleyball.  

Boys’ volleyball is not a sanctioned sport in the NSAA, so USA Volleyball’s Great Plains Region created its own league to compensate for the lack of opportunities. The league consists of six teams within Omaha and Lincoln.  

 This is the inaugural season, with a central goal of visibility. The goal of bringing attention to the league is to eventually get it as a sanctioned sport by the NSAA, where it would most likely become a spring sport.  

 Junior Steven Dickerson is a part of the league, and he enjoys being part of the community. He has been playing volleyball since third grade, and four of those years have been club.  

 “We all have each other’s backs,” Dickerson said.  

 League Director Lindsey Smith said volleyball allows one to be a part of a community bigger than themselves. “The people I’ve met through volleyball are some of the most important people in my life, and the experiences I’ve had in volleyball are the best experiences of my life,” Smith said.  

 The future hopes of this league include expansion within the metro areas of Omaha and Lincoln and extending into central Nebraska. “I believe everyone should have the opportunity to experience that, which is why growing the game on the boys’ side is so important to me,” Smith said. 

According to Team Snap, girls’ participation in volleyball to boys’ participation ratio was 8-1in 2019, with 450,000 girls and 63,000 boys. But that increased to more than 77,000 in 2023, according to the National Federation of State High School Association.  

“Girl’s volleyball is characterized by longer rallies, more defensive plays and more ball placement shots. Boys’ volleyball is very power and speed-driven, more athletic and often has shorter rallies because the serves and hits are just harder to defend,” Smith said.  

“It’s very fast paced,” Dickerson said.  

There are even boys’ volleyball opportunities opening up at Central. Coach Ariel Gass and coach Jackson Jordan are running open gyms after school from 3:15 to 5 p.m. on Mondays and Wednesdays.