Boys volleyball finding a home in North Jersey with launch of NJAC Tournament

When Anthony McMichael was playing volleyball at Eastern Regional High School in South Jersey in the early 2000s, "we were always on the bus. We would have to travel everywhere to play good teams."

McMichael has spent a little less time traveling lately. The boys volleyball coach at Dover has some local Northwest Jersey Athletic Conference opponents.

The NJAC has grown to seven teams, all of which are participating in the inaugural season-ending tournament this week.

No. 5 Dover defeated fourth-seeded Chatham in a quarterfinal on Tuesday. However, top-seeded Jefferson eliminated the Tigers in Thursday's semifinal. No. 3 Randolph also knocked off No. 2 Vernon on Thursday.

Jefferson will face Randolph for the first NJAC championship at 11 a.m. Saturday at Vernon.

Randolph defeated Jefferson, 25-21, 25-13, to win the first NJAC boys volleyball title on Saturday morning.

"Sooner or later, this was bound to happen," said Jeff DeYoung, a Vernon alumnus who helped launch girls and boys volleyball at his alma mater in 1997-98, and earned his 300th career victory with the boys this spring.

"I'm glad I'm still here and coaching, to be part of it."

Leader of the pack

Vernon was the first local boys volleyball team, going varsity in the spring of 1999 with DeYoung at the helm. He, too, recalls long bus rides to unfamiliar schools. Vernon joined the North Jersey Boys Volleyball League in 1999, which DeYoung called "a super league with Bergen County, Essex County and Passaic County."

That league lasted until 2006, when the Passaic teams spun off their own conference. The Northern New Jersey Interscholastic Boys Volleyball League disbanded in 2009, when the remaining teams were absorbed into the Super Essex Conference and Big North.

Vernon was on its own again, playing an independent schedule that involved quite a bit of travel. As Jefferson and Pope John launched boys volleyball, DeYoung helped to create the West Jersey Volleyball League around 2012, serving as commissioner and making the schedule.

"It can be frustrating to try and maneuver and try to sell the kids on, 'Where do we go play?' Do we play Sussex County teams?'" DeYoung said. "'No, there aren't any.' We're going to Passaic County. We're going to Essex County. For us, there was an appeal to getting out of Sussex County, to see places we don't normally see. We eventually got Pope John and Jefferson, and it was a very long simmer. ... It took some time, but there's been some growth. Slow growth is better than no growth."

'It's come a long way'

There were 148 boys and 299 girls volleyball teams in New Jersey in 2018-19, according to National Federation of State High School Associations data. That would place the state's boys sixth, behind California (944), Illinois (215), Pennsylvania (202), Florida (190) and New York (165).

New Jersey's boys volleyball participation has doubled since 2005-06, and mushroomed to 191 teams this spring.

Slow, steady growth: Why isn't boys volleyball catching on in Morris County?

Boys volleyball: 2022 NJSIAA Tournament brackets, schedule, scores

The NJAC, which began sponsoring volleyball in 2018, is the ninth conference or county with a boys volleyball tournament, joining the Greater Middlesex Conference and Passaic and Hudson counties.

The NJSIAA has sanctioned a girls volleyball tournament since 1981, and boys since 1988 – the same year Vernon's team was born.

"I feel like it's starting to catch on statewide," McMichael said. "In South Jersey, there are six schools adding (boys volleyball) for next spring already. When I was in high school, it was really small. There was one state tournament bracket of 32 teams, and let it rip. In 20 years, it's come a long way."

For McMichael, who led the Roxbury girls to the Morris County Tournament title last fall, "the sales pitch is easy," since gyms are relatively available in the spring. Schools that already have girls volleyball can use the same nets and balls, as well as pre-painted court lines. Also, volleyball has just six players on the court at a time, which lessens even the one-time expense of jerseys – and enables schools to use smaller buses.  Schools also would have to fund coaches – a stipend which varies by district – and officials. But those, too, are often the same across the girls and boys seasons.

Morristown launched a junior varsity team this spring, which plans to move up in 2023. Other NJAC athletic directors have expressed interest in adding the sport.

Dover athletic director Sean Bullock had originally pitched the tournament to his colleagues after the 2019 season. It was unanimously approved, but they had to wait out the COVID pandemic to launch it.

The NJAC Tournament leads into the NJSIAA Tournament, which begins Monday.

"It gives an opportunity for the teams involved to play high-stakes, high-level competition, something to keep them excited, and to look forward to," Bullock said. "You have a (NJAC) divisional champ, but now you have a one-week tournament at the end of the season that gives you an opportunity to compete for a championship. ... There'll be excitement when we discuss it at our NJAC (AD) meetings, that will prompt schools that are on the fence. That's our hope, to grow the sport."

Jane Havsy is a storyteller for the Daily Record and DailyRecord.com, part of the USA TODAY Network. For full access to live scores, breaking news and analysis, subscribe today.

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This article originally appeared on New Jersey Herald: NJ boys volleyball expansion, NJAC Tournament