From club to sport

The start of the school year brings lots of new opportunities to get involved in after school extracurriculars. Ranging from honor societies to contact sports, Wando High School provides its students with a multitude of organizations to become a part of. One of the school’s newest additions is a boys volleyball team. 

Volleyball is a team-oriented sport which involves a net, a volleyball, and a collaborative spirit. 

Before the boys volleyball team was able to become a sports team, it had to remain a club for two years. This process was extended due to the break in time, which was a result of the pandemic. After completing two years as a club, the offer of the club team becoming a sanctioned sport was brought before an appellate committee and was approved in May of 2022. 

So it’s official, there is now a boys volleyball team that plays under Wando’s name. With 41 other boys volleyball teams throughout the state, this team has plenty of options when it comes to competitions. Unfortunately, boys volleyball will not have a state championship this year since the sport must be sanctioned for a year prior to it having a state championship. 

Bruno Kretzschmar, the hired coach for the boys volleyball team, is enthusiastic to start the season. 

“I think by the time our first season is over, I think we’ll be just as good as anybody else,” Kretzschmar said.

Kretzschmar is new in terms of highschool coaching and has high hopes and expectations for the success of the new team. 

“I’m pretty new at coaching but I love it so far, I definitely see the challenges and I definitely see the rewards of it,” Kretzschmar said.

With the help of Alexis Glover, the coach for Wando’s varsity girls volleyball team, Kretzschmar was a last minute addition to the team and he couldn’t be more excited to be there. 

Glover played a key role in the initial creation of the boys volleyball team before they were approved to become a sanctioned sport. She met with a committee of people to discuss how they should go about creating this team. 

“Believe it or not, in the midwest, the North, California, Texas, and in Florida, they’ve always had boys volleyball. So, South Carolina is a little slow to the go but we’re here now,” Glover said. 

 With the help of many directors and representatives throughout the state, the boys volleyball team was able to become a club in 2019. In order for the sport to become sanctioned however, there needed to be at least 20 teams in the state. With hard work and dedication, there ended up being a total of around 41 boys volleyball teams throughout South Carolina. 

Getting the sport approved by the state was not the last hurdle for the creation of this team. Now they needed players. 

Tryouts were held prior to the start of school for the varsity team and there are now 15 boys a part of the team.

Brody Bundis is one of the 15 who made the team. He is a senior at Wando and a middle back player for the new volleyball team. 

“I always admired the sport and I always enjoyed watching it so I just decided I wanted to play it,” Bundis said.

Callan Potter is a freshman at Wando and a right side hitter for the team. To motivate himself, Potter reminds himself to maintain focus during a match.

“Eyes up and focus on the objective. You can lose your focus very quickly in a game,” Potter said. 

Volleyball requires unwavering focus and razor sharp reaction times. These players know that in order to be successful in their season, they need to keep their eyes on the prize and stay motivated. 

“It’s not what you’re doing when people are watching, it’s what you’re doing when nobody is watching,” Kretzschmar said. 

Kretzschmar motivates his players by encouraging them to continue good habits even when nobody’s watching. He wants the team to understand that when nobody is watching them, they still need to show effort in order to get better and reach their full potential. 

All in all this team has been the result of dedicated coaches and sports administrators who wanted to see boys volleyball become a reality in South Carolina. Now that it is a reality, it’s up to this new team to make Wando proud. In order for these boys to stay motivated, there needs to be lots of school spirit and encouragement from fellow peers at all of their games. 

“This is our first year so we’re hoping to have a really good season and we’d like to see the student body come out and support us,” Bundis said.