Boys volleyball scores varsity status

WILSONVILLE – Oregon high school boys will have another varsity sport available to play in spring 2026 as boys volleyball joins baseball, softball, track and field, golf, and tennis.

The Delegate Assembly of the Oregon School Activities Association (OSAA) voted and approved boys volleyball as fully sanctioned activity at the assembly’s Monday, Oct. 6 meeting.

“I’m happy because now we get to play more schools,” said Cameron Gallegos, a junior volleyball player at Creswell. “It just feels like there’s more opportunity.”

Spring 2026 will be the sport’s first official season as a sanctioned activity following a strong showing as an “emerging activity” the past two years. OSAA rules require all emerging activities to cycle through a two-year provisional period before becoming eligible for a vote through the Delegate Assembly, along with a 50-school participation quota.

Boys volleyball, in particular, has skyrocketed in popularity both locally and nationally. Oregon is now the 26th state in the country to add boys volleyball. From its inception in the spring of 2022 with five teams, there are now 68 teams and 974 players in Oregon.

The last time OSAA sanctioned a sport was girls wrestling in April 2023. And before that, it was softball in 1979.

“It’s long overdue,” said Creswell’s head boys and girls volleyball coach, Anna Baltrusch, who in 2022 was one of the original pioneer teams in the southern Willimatte Valley. “I’ve always had boys ask me, ‘When do we get to play?’ And I felt a commitment to help them, because I just love the sport and love seeing kids play.”

Thurston and Pleasant Hill were in their second year during the 2025 season, Cottage Grove in its first, and Springfield has yet to field a boys volleyball team.

Baltrusch said she is excited due to the opportunity this will provide athletes, many of whom are talented and show athletic prowess in many sports.

“The boys love it and I’ve just had the best time coaching them,” Baltrusch said. “They’re so athletic, their ability to play the game is different from girls. They need this. We’ve had so many talented players passing through who could’ve gone to college for boys volleyball. And then other players who had only played volleyball and it was their only option.

“I also feel bad for all the boys that I’ve had that have been my managers – they never got to play,” she said.

Senior Creswell volleyball players Brady Pratt and Lukas Garzanelli said they look forward to the fiercer competition and expanded schedules.

“I saw it get passed and I was pretty excited, because now it’s official – now we can actually get it in the books,” Pratt said. “I like how it will be more competitive. I think that could switch our mindset and what we want to do as well.”

“It’ll be pretty similar to last season, just more competition – hopefully more fun,” Garzanelli said.

School district decision

Thurston athletic director Justin Starck said he is eager to field boys volleyball as an OSAA varsity sport. He said it is important to add a new sport in a bigger school and classification, where providing opportunities for multi-sport athletes with transferable skills, is vital.

“We’re excited that it’s now going to have official status,” he said. “It’s just more opportunities for kids. We have 1,200 students, so it’s nice to have something that suits each one.”

Starck said that boys volleyball won’t impact his responsibilities too much, since they’ve already been running the team as a club the past two years. However, the next step in the transition is to wait if Springfield School District 19 will approve it and fully fund it. This will also be the case for all schools across the state.

If the district decides to fund it, it would shift financial burdens off the team and boosters and onto the district. A district stipend would pay coaches, officials, and provide transportation – reducing the need for fundraising and parent volunteers.

Factors in OSAA’s approval process include participation, budget, and staff workload.
Nate Lowery, OSAA director of media communications, explained that while OSAA centralized the decision for the state, it’s up to each individual school district to make that decision and have that autonomy.

“As far as the OSAA is concerned, we have done everything we need to as an association to have boys volleyball be available for schools,” Lowery said. “Each school is going to be a little bit different in what they can and cannot offer, and schools are under no obligation to offer every single activity of the OSAA. For instance, there are a couple schools out east that don’t do soccer for boys or girls, and that’s completely fine. It’s really about what makes the most sense for those communities.”

Another decision that OSAA has left up to the school is following compliance with Title IX, which according to OSAA, “Title IX compares the entirety of the athletics offered for boys to the entirety of the athletics offered for girls, not just one team to another.” It protects gender equity in Oregon high school sports.

For many schools, that would look like adding an additional girls sports team to “offset” the addition of boys volleyball. One potential varsity sport addition is girls flag football, which has boomed in popularity.
It is entering its second year in “emerging status” and will be eligible for a vote to varsity status in October 2026.

Starck, who also serves as the head coach of girls flag football, hopes to address Title IX in Thurston through the addition of flag football.

“I’m hopeful we bring both of them together – boys volleyball and girls flag football – so we add a boys and a girls sport for equity. I just think it’s a good way to go,” he said.

Starck said that if Springfield School District 19 does not approve expenses for boys volleyball in 2026, he will still treat it as “just one more sport for us to cover,” and emphasized that it’s worth the extra financial lift because it’s “doing the right thing by the kids.”

The Delegate Assembly also voted on lacrosse earning “emerging activity” status – which did not pass.