Boys Volleyball Explodes in Maryland

By: Tyler Alfriend

The server leaps into the air and drives a devastating top-spin jumper to the back right corner of the court. The libero dives and skids across the floor to dig the ball up to his setter who sends it sky-high to his outside hitter. With his shoulders sailing above the 8 foot tall net, the strong-side player spikes the ball straight down at 90 mph into the face of the opposing blocker. As the ball careens off his nose and into the rows of raucous fans, the blocker falls to his knees. Point 1 for the serving team.

No sport has had a more explosive run in Maryland over the past five years than high school men’s volleyball. With dynamic athletes, packed stands and a volatile style of play, volleyball has the ingredients to succeed in a state known for its lacrosse prowess.

Five years ago, coach Neil Gabbey of Gilman stepped out onto the court to teach a motley bunch of kids how to set a volleyball. He taught them how to approach the net and spike the ball down on the other side. In practice, he would take on the entire team by himself, demonstrating the style of volleyball that he learned to play as a student at Penfield High School in New York state.

Now, when his team lines up on their half of the court, Gabbey does not dare step out on the opposite side for fear of losing his head to his middle hitter’s spike.

Over the past three seasons, Gabbey’s Greyhounds have amassed an unbelievable amount of wins while only suffering a total of six defeats. Unfortunately for them, however, half of those losses have come in championship matches.

For three straight seasons, Gilman has made it to the Maryland Interscholastic Athletic Association A Conference championship match but has failed to prevail in the end, losing to Loyola Blakefield in 2005, Mount St. Joseph in 2006 and most recently, to Loyola in 2007. With this kind of streak, Gilman has come to be known as the MIAA’s perennial bridesmaid.

“If we consistently come up one game short and people say we can't win the big one, that's fine,” Gabbey said. “I absolutely love my kids, our program and the relationships we have.”

Every year, the most important and most hotly contested games seem to come in the showdowns between Gilman and Loyola. In early 2007, Gilman took the first match of the season with an impressive three-game sweep, but the Dons came back with a vengeance in the second meeting, dealing the Greyhounds their first and only loss of the regular season.

“Gilman vs. Loyola matches have featured some of the highest level of play and competitiveness the league has seen, in my opinion,” Loyola coach Tim Baier said. “We've been fairly even. I'd definitely say we've developed a bit of a rivalry, mostly based on the fact that we've both been at or near the top of the league for the past four or so years.”

As fate would have it, Gilman and Loyola met again in November 2007 in a match that will be remembered as one of the most intense championship matches of all time. The hundreds of screaming fans got their money’s worth as they witnessed a five-game, overtime battle in which Loyola refused to surrender and eventually emerged victorious over the top-seeded Hounds.

Baier has watched his program grow alongside Gabbey’s over the past five years. While Gilman always seems to experience the majority of its success in the regular season, Loyola has been able to capitalize off of playoff adrenaline and an underdog status to thrive in the playoffs.

“Loyola has had great success since starting its program seven years ago,” Baier said. “We have been in the finals five of those years and have won three championships. Even though Gilman hasn't won a championship in that time, they have still had excellent teams as well as individual players.”

From a coach’s perspective, one of the most difficult parts of the job is getting new players interested in volleyball. The majority of middle schools in the area do not support volleyball teams, and thus coaches are forced to pluck kids away from other fall sports as they enter high school.

Despite this inconvenience, Gabbey and Baier have had incredible success over the years converting young athletes into volleyball players. Their best bargaining chip right now is the fact that the tough conditioning and strong level of competition of volleyball is perfect training for other sports such as basketball and lacrosse.

Each year, more and more of the area’s top athletes are switching out of sports like football and soccer to test their athletic fortitude on the volleyball court. The question that remains for volleyball is whether or not it can fight for its own fan base in a season that is usually dominated by football. When 300 people packed into a tiny gym to watch the MIAA championship match last November, volleyball proved to its doubters that it is definitely willing to compete for that coveted spotlight.

Posted June 9, 2008