Is Title IX Harming High School Volleyball?

We know the enforcement of Title IX at the college level has been devastating to men’s volleyball programs, but what sort of effect is it having at the high school level? According to at least one newspaper in Colorado, the law is retarding the growth of the sport for young men:

The CBHSVA has been petitioning for years to become a mainstream sport in Colorado’s high school athletics. Its biggest hurdle isn’t interest, necessarily, but Title IX might be.

Because of laws spawned by the 1972 women’s rights amendment, high schools and colleges are required to have a proportionate number of girls and boys sports offered.

So, if boys volleyball is to become a sanctioned CHSAA sport, there must be another girls sport introduced at the same time — and there’s not likely to be as much interest in a girls sport that isn’t already offered.

“In many cases, boys volleyball really wasn’t as popular in previous years as it has been in the past 10 or 15 years,” CHSAA assistant commissioner Bert Borgman said. “The popularity is growing, but there may be too many factors impeding it from becoming a sanctioned sport.”

Just another example of the law of unintended consequences.

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