Bishop England to field boys’ volleyball this fall

Janel Swanson will be the faculty representative in charge of the Bishop England High School boys’ volleyball team, which will make its debut this fall when the South Carolina High School League finally sanctions the sport.

 

Swanson will share the coaching duties with her children, Alec and Sawyer, who will serve as the head coaches as the Bishops prepare to make history when they hold tryouts for the first time on Aug. 1 and play their first game a few weeks later.

 

“It’s still so very new, so very, very fresh,” Swanson said of building a team from the ground up. “My children are helping out with coaching and I thought their attitude would be ‘Why mom? Why are you dragging us out to do this?’ But so far, they have enjoyed it.”

 

For the record, Alec is a fighter pilot for the U.S. Air Force while Sawyer is a physician’s assistant at MUSC. So, they won’t be quitting their daytime jobs just yet. But the two could be part of something big as Bishop England joins teams around the state in growing the sport.

 

Swanson doesn’t understand why it took the SCHSL so long to sanction the sport. She’s just happy the beginning is near.

 

“It’s been a long time, maybe eight years ago when Alec was at BE when we first approached the High School League,” Swanson said. “It’s just not as popular here as it is in the Midwest or West Coast.”

 

Bishop England is holding open gym during the summer to gauge interest. A recent night included about 14-16 potential players and that doesn’t include freshmen, who haven’t officially enrolled at BE.

 

“We’ve got a good list of players started, but that list, like the rest of the process, can change almost daily,” said Swanson, who teaches physical education at Bishop England while serving as an assistant coach to Cindy Baggott, the head coach of the ultra-successful girls’ program. “The High School League is adding teams to the list all the time, and some of the local schools that will have boys’ teams include: Academic Magnet, Hanahan, Lucy Beckham and Wando. Philip Simmons and Goose Creek are other local schools that are expected to have teams.”

 

The big difference in boys’ volleyball versus girls’ volleyball will be the height of the net, which will be almost a foot higher for boys’ competition. Swanson doesn’t expect the boys’ players or teams to be as polished as their girl counterparts because of experience, or lack of it. Most of the boys playing volleyball around the state this fall won’t have as much club experience as the girls.

 

There will be no playoffs, no state championship with the schedule being very limited in 2022. Swanson said members of the first volleyball team will include athletes who play soccer, baseball and basketball.

 

Swanson said the High School League considered the spring season for boys’ volleyball, but finally decided on the fall, when the girls play. She said Athletic Director Paul Runey was receptive to the team, but pointed out scheduling practices with only one gym could be a challenge.

 

“But the work, the effort, will pay off,” Swanson said. “Sometimes you watch them at the beginning of practice and say, ‘Oh Lord.’ But by the end of the practice, you are saying, ‘Oh, wow.’”