Boys volleyball debuts in the Northland

FLOODWOOD-The back of Coach Derek Hart's T-shirt said it all.

"Making history," it read.

"I've told every one of these kids, everybody who walked through the door, that's exactly what they're all doing," Hart said.

We're not talking serious memorizing-date-in-a-history-book history, though. More just a first-time-ever history, a little piece of Northland volleyball history.

"Have fun with it, enjoy it," Hart continued. "But don't get stressed out over it, it's a game."

The Floodwood coach was fairly giddy Monday night, as six boys volleyball teams from Cloquet, Floodwood, Grand Rapids, Hibbing/Chisholm and Proctor/Hermantown played a flurry of sets in about three hours and two gyms - all of them members of the first Northland high-school-aged boys volleyball league.

It wasn't always pretty. Although most of the kids on the Hermantown-Proctor Norsemen team played in a winter league which competed in the Twin Cities, the Cloquet boys have been practicing together once or twice a week for about a month.

But it was fun. And they learned really fast.

Although the Norseman beat Cloquet pretty handily in the first game, the Lumberjacks came back in the second game and won, forcing a third game through feats of sheer athleticism ... diving, punching and slapping at the ball, racing across the floor to catch an errant ball, jumping up to block an opponent's spike, making more killer bumps than spikes, but trying everything.

No one criticized, the atmosphere on the court was very supportive, with players high-fiving whether a player made the serve or not. But the good plays, oh, they made them smile. And sometimes it made Markus Pokornowski so happy that he had to jump up and hang on the basketball rim ... not something you'd see much at a high school girls game. In fact, it might be something a girl would get in trouble for during a high school game.

Cloquet coach Kelsey Motzko said the boys definitely bring "a different kind of energy and excitement."

"I am really enjoying the challenge of breaking the skills down for the boys. They come to practice each day with so much athleticism from the sports they've played in the past," she said, adding that "It's been difficult to talk about and teach the skills needed to be successful in volleyball, like passing and setting, when they are so used to the way other sports are played. Fellow Cloquet coachRick Rice is hopeful the club sport will become a sanctioned sport in a couple of years. For now it is a club sport, independent of the schools. Cloquet activities director Paul Riess said many schools are concerned about a lack of gym space, and adding another option to an already crowded field.

The Minnesota State High School League voted 12-7 against advancing boys volleyball at its April 4 meeting, but Rice thinks that resistance will fade as the sport grows. Already there are 91 teams from 61 schools playing statewide.

But it's still new to the Northland. Monday marked only the second time that referee Sean Foley had officiated a boys competition, who said it was fun to be a part of the new effort.

For Hart, it's a dream come true.

"It's new. It's fresh," he said. "It's something I wish I would have had the opportunity to play in high school. We were always in the gym practicing against the girls before football practice."

Junior Jonny Dunaisky said he joined volleyball because he wasn't doing much else. Now he loves it.

"It's a blast," Dunaisky said. "Coach makes it great, and all the players are great. It's a good team."

Parents thought so too.

"It's wonderful," said dad Chris Swanson. "It's good to see the boys having fun, laughing, not taking themselves too seriously."

Mom Natalie Swanson played in high school, college and coached for 11 years. She admitted it was difficult for her to not get up and start coaching the boys. But she really admired their bravery, she said, for stepping up and joining a brand new team.

"It will take time for them to mesh together and find strengths and weaknesses to use to their advantage," she said. "Team camaraderie and fun is what it's all about."

Still, the Cloquet team learned a lot from its first games. And now that they've had a taste of competition, they will have a better idea of what their coaches are trying to tell them at practice.

"I was so impressed at how much progress I saw just [Monday] night with the boys," Motzko said. "From sending the ball over on one or two hits all the time to really trying to set it up."

"I think it's awesome and I hope it gets bigger," said Cloquet junior Caleb Swanson, heading out onto the court.

Hart just wanted the kids to savor the moment, as things wound down for the night.

"You guys are the first ones," Hart told Cloquet sophomore Jack Slater. "No one can ever take that from you. It's cool; it's a great opportunity. Have fun with it. Take pride in it."