After much student request, RHS recently brought to its students a sand volleyball club. As an eager volleyball player myself, I am in full support of this addition to the school’s extracurricular offerings. But as much as I would like to join, though, I’m faced with a problem: sand volleyball, if it actually becomes a sport, will be a spring sport.

Of course, there are various sports that are held in the spring without an issue. However, one of these sports is indoor volleyball, and this is what raises the issue. If boys choose to participate in sand volleyball in the spring, they will not be able to participate in indoor volleyball at the same time.

In addition to clashing with the practice times for indoor volleyball, sand volleyball practices themselves are extremely long (at least a couple of hours per practice, multiple times per week). That too, sand volleyball is a club sport, which means that it won’t even be considered by colleges as a varsity sport.

Even though RHS is a decent-sized high school, it would be hard to build a proper team for sand volleyball. It’s hard enough to build a team for indoor volleyball, given that volleyball in general doesn’t have nearly as much prominence in a northern Californian school as it does in, say, a southern Californian school. It would be even harder to create a second volleyball team.

Being a volleyball player who enjoys both indoor and sand, I’m left in the tough position of having to decide whether I want to play indoor or sand volleyball before the season starts. Even though I am debating, I’m still currently a part of the indoor volleyball team.

I have to also speak for my team when I say that losing impact players to a sand team is not something we’re all looking forward to. In a perfect world, we would have the choice to play both sports, and neither team would take the blow. Sand volleyball would be a winter sport for both girls and guys, and then indoor volleyball would take place in the spring as normal.

As an indoor volleyball player, I want there to be a balance between the two sports, especially if come this spring, our team will be split. Especially in my last year at RHS, I would love to be able to avail of all volleyball opportunities possible, that said, some things are just out of my control.