Grace Houck has never formally played volleyball. But even with more than 120 girls crowded into a gymnasium at Fort Couch Middle School for tryouts, she wasn’t nervous about making the team.
“It’s no pressure,” said Grace, an eighth grader. “It’s just fun to play.”
To provide physical, social and emotional benefits to their students, Fort Couch Middle School in Upper St. Clair has been gradually building a huge intramural program in volleyball and basketball. Last school year, the school with 620 total seventh and eighth grade students had over 850 instances of students participating in school sports (some did both volleyball and basketball).
“Seventh and eighth grade can be a very difficult age developmentally,” said principal Erin Peterson. “This gives the opportunity to connect with other students, to be physically active and have a sense of community. They can learn to get along, work as a team and feel better about themselves.”
In addition to physical exercise, research has shown numerous health benefits in sports participation for children and adolescents, from fewer depressive symptoms to an increased sense of self-esteem and social supports.
The intramural program at Fort Couch Middle School started four years ago with boys basketball. The district was trying to operate under an inclusive, no-cut philosophy, but had so many students who wanted to participate that it wasn’t practical to include them all on a traditional middle school basketball team. The boys basketball program was such a success that the district added intramural girls volleyball in 2020 and girls basketball in 2021. It is planning to add boys volleyball as well.
About 120 girls are playing volleyball this fall — with about 30 selected for the school’s “travel” team that plays against other schools — and the rest playing intramural, split into eight different teams.
Results of games are broadcast on the morning announcements, and the season even includes a postseason tournament. “Once we get into the postseason, it’s almost like March Madness,” said physical education teacher and athletic coordinator Garrett Beard. “There’s definitely some bragging rights to being the top intramural team.”
Seventh-grader Addison Pope watched her sister, Kenzie, enjoy intramural volleyball last year and decided to try it out herself this year. Addison and Kenzie, who both play other sports more seriously, appreciate the chance to play a school sport just casually.
“I like that I don’t have to be very good at it — I’m short so it’s kind of hard,” said Addison, who seriously doubts that she would be playing school volleyball if the school only had a travel team. “All my friends wanted to do it, and I’m just looking forward to having fun and learning more about it.”
Because intramural volleyball wasn’t every day, and didn’t involve evening games, it didn’t interfere last year with her other sports, basketball and softball, said Kenzie, now in 9th grade.
“It gets them doing something, interacting with kids after school as opposed to just coming home and being on their devices” said their father, Ryan Pope. “It’s provided an opportunity for a bunch of kids who might not have gone out for the middle school team — they don’t have to cut a bunch of kids or keep a bunch who don’t get the opportunity to play much.”
While many of the participants are just playing for fun, others fall in love with volleyball and continue improving their skills. The high school volleyball coach is a huge fan of the intramural program, said Beard, and took several girls for the high school team this year that had played intramural in middle school.
“These kids are still young and they are still growing and changing,” said Jamie Houck, Grace’s mother, who played college volleyball and is helping as a coach. “Who is to say that in three years, the person who didn’t make the travel team won’t be the best player on the team? It still gives them a chance to play.”
Running the program does take a significant logistical effort, said Peterson, and she is grateful for the support from the district’s central office. Beard, the athletic coordinator, is often scrambling to find coaches and coordinate schedules; there are six coaches for intramural volleyball in addition to the two travel coaches.
Franklin has heard inquiries from other districts that want to implement similar programs but hasn’t heard of any actually doing it because of the hurdles involved. For Fort Couch, the “enormous undertaking” is well worth it.
“We’re both parents of middle schoolers,” said Peterson of herself and Beard. “We understand from both an educational point of view and a parent point of view how important it is to be able to be involved.”
Anya Sostek: asostek@post-gazette.com
First Published: September 16, 2023, 9:30 a.m.
Updated: September 17, 2023, 3:50 a.m.
