Volleyball has always been a part of Edgard Junez’s life.
His parents played the sport when they were younger, he said, and his older sisters went through the longstanding girls volleyball program at East Aurora School District 131. His younger sister in middle school plays, too.
“Volleyball’s always been around me,” Junez, 17, said. “It really has a spot in my heart.”
But he didn’t have the opportunity to be part of a school team — until this spring, during his junior year.
After years of attempts to start a boys volleyball team at East Aurora D131, the inaugural East Aurora High School squad is well into its first official season. And it’s in part due to Junez and some other students getting the ball rolling themselves, by presenting their case for a team in front of the district’s school board last summer.
Now, almost a year later, Junez is a libero for the varsity team.
Boys volleyball has been a long time in the making at East Aurora High School.
More than two decades ago, Saul Olivas, now the vice president of East Aurora’s school board, was part of efforts to start a team when he himself was a student in the district, but they never took off.
Later, when he was a teacher in the district, Olivas said he coached volleyball for a fifth-grade tournament, but lamented that boys didn’t have the option to keep going with the sport.
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Then, when Jennifer Wilson, a 2002 graduate who also recalled the past student efforts to get a program started, became the district’s head girls volleyball coach nearly a decade ago, students began reaching out to her, again looking to start a boys high school team.
In response, the district told Wilson — who works as a physical education teacher in the district — that a volleyball program had to start as a club first to determine whether enough students were interested, she recalled.
The after-school club started shortly after.
Around 65 students came to the first meeting, she said, but interest began to dwindle when students realized the club didn’t involve competing against other schools. The club dropped off during the COVID-19 pandemic, but resumed afterwards.
Then, last year, at a July meeting of the district’s school board, Junez and a handful of other students came before district leadership, once again asking them to institute a boys volleyball team.
“Adding a boys volleyball program would not … take away from any existing programs,” Junez said at the meeting. “It would simply bring balance and offer boys the same opportunity to pursue a sport they love.”
The students also started a petition, which Junez said ultimately garnered more than 250 signatures.
“It was worth a shot, you know?,” he said of the plan to address the school board.
For Junez, speaking at the meeting was “a little nerve-wracking.”
“But, once I realized that I’m speaking about something I have a lot of passion for, that for sure helped me calm down,” he said.
And it all began to come together soon after.
At a September meeting, the board approved the creation of a team, establishing a boys head volleyball coach position and an assistant coach job.
“There was definitely support for us to get it going,” Wilson said. She now works as the head boys volleyball coach, too.
“I was happy that they took that leadership role,” Olivas said recently of seeing the students seek the school board’s support to get a team started. “It only took 26 years.”
Then, there were some meetings at the beginning of this school year as the new program came together, Wilson said, and open gyms for students.
“I had a lot of 6 a.m. open gyms, and (they were) very, very well-attended by both the boys and the girls,” she recalled.
Now, the season is officially underway.
East Aurora High School has a varsity boys team of 11 students, Wilson said, and a junior varsity team with 20 on its roster — though sometimes the freshman players split off and play against other schools’ freshman teams.
They’ve played more than a dozen games so far, but still have a few left to go. The regular season concludes later in May, Wilson said, with the regional playoffs starting Memorial Day weekend.
At a game in late April against U-46’s Streamwood High School, spirits were high among student spectators. Students yelled cheers of “E, E, E, EA” and “Let’s go Tomcats!,” responding to cheers and taunts from the other side of the bleachers.
The varsity team took to the court after the junior varsity game, but ultimately took a loss after two sets.
“It’s the first season in history,” Junez said before the game. “I feel like the biggest highlight of this season so far is the improvement.”
And Wilson says her team is picking the sport up well.
“There’s been a lot of growth out of all of the guys,” she said. “It’s something that a lot of them have desired to play for quite a while.”
Wilson also said that while some members of the newly-formed volleyball team play other district sports, some are getting involved for the first time, an opportunity she welcomes.
Noel De La Mar, East Aurora High School’s assistant principal of athletics and activities, echoed a similar sentiment.
“We’re always trying to get kids involved and trying to figure out if it’s a new club, new activity, new sport that are going to get them to take a vested interest in their education, as well as their extracurriculars,” he said. “And this is that avenue for us.”
De La Mar said that, as interest in volleyball grows at the high school level, the excitement will likely trickle down to the middle schools. He thinks the district may one day create a middle school program in response.
One of the benefits of having an official team, Wilson said, is that it enables students to gain a “real understanding” of how to play the sport competitively.
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But volleyball was already a significant part of the community, she said.
“Being in this community all my life, just knowing how much volleyball is something that’s played … a lot of our students and their families go to the park regularly and participate or go to the park district and are involved in some of those leagues,” Wilson said.
Sebastian Sanchez’s family, like Junez’s, also played volleyball. The 17-year-old outside hitter said he started playing in seventh grade, and then started becoming serious about the sport.
Before the late April game against Streamwood, Sanchez was enthusiastic about the work the East Aurora High School team has been putting in.
“There’s been a lot of motivation to keep going in that team,” Sanchez said. “We have a lot of good team bonding moments as well.”
They’ve also learned how to be better communicators, he said, and to be there for one another.
And those lessons are an important part of what the sport teaches, according to his coach.
“To me, volleyball is bigger than just playing on the court,” Wilson said. “There’s so many life skills that you can get out of being an athlete.”