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Mountain View and Pleasant Grove players pose for a photo before the start of the first-ever high school boys volleyball match in Utah on Monday, March 4, 2024.

Darnell Dickson, Daily Herald

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Pleasant Grove's Weston Johanson (4) takes a swing against Mountain View in the first-ever boys high school volleyball match on Monday, March 4, 2024.

Darnell Dickson, Daily Herald

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Pleasant Grove's Ethan Hillyard sets the ball during warmups before the first-ever high school boys volleyball match in Utah on Monday, March 4, 2024.

Darnell Dickson, Daily Herald

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Pleasant Grove players celebrates a point against Mountain View during the first-ever high school boys volleyball match in Utah on Monday, March 4, 2024.

Darnell Dickson, Daily Herald

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Pleasant Grove's Brayden Thomas (33) takes a swing against Mountain View in the first boys high school volleyball game played in Utah on Monday, March 4, 2024.

Darnell Dickson, Daily Herald

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The Pleasant Grove and Mountain View volleyball teams square off in the first boys match played in the state of Utah on Monday, March 4, 2024.

Darnell Dickson, Daily Herald

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A Mountain View player chases down an errant ball during the first high school boys volleyball match in Utah against Pleasant Grove on Monday, March 4, 2024.

Darnell Dickson, Daily Herald

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Mountain View's Conner Fairbanks serves the ball in the first-ever high school boys volleyball match against Pleasant Grove on Monday, March 4, 2024.

Darnell Dickson, Daily Herald

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Mountain View fans cheer on the Bruins against Pleasant Grove during the first-ever high school boys volleyball match in Utah on Monday, March 4, 2024.

Darnell Dickson, Daily Herald

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Students unfurl a large American flag for the national anthem during the first-ever high school boys volleyball match on Monday, March 4, 2024.

Darnell Dickson, Daily Herald

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Pleasant Grove players are introduced against Mountain View in the first-ever high school boys volleyball match in Utah on Monday, March 4, 2024.

Darnell Dickson, Daily Herald

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Pleasant Grove's Weston Johanson (4) sets the ball against Mountain View in the first-ever high school boys volleyball match in Utah on Monday, March 4, 2024.

Darnell Dickson, Daily Herald

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A photo of the commemorative t-shirt wore by a Pleasant Grove player before the first-ever high school boys volleyball match played in Utah on Monday, March 4, 2024.

Darnell Dickson, Daily Herald

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Pleasant Grove's Aki Malietoa (10) tries to power the ball through the Mountain View block during the first-ever high school boys volleyball match in Utah on Monday, March 4, 2024.

Darnell Dickson, Daily Herald

❮ ❯

When Dave Neeley took the Pleasant Grove boys volleyball head coaching job just over a year ago, he made the school’s administration promise that the Vikings could play the first match of 2024.

The significance of the match is that it would be the first high school varsity boys volleyball match ever played in the state of Utah.

That dream became a reality on Monday. Pleasant Grove and Mountain View squared off with all accompanying hoopla, including commemorative T-shirts for both teams, a giant American flag unfurled on the court for the national anthem and video messages from prominent members of the U.S. volleyball community.

The result — the Vikings earned a 25-12, 25-21, 25-19 sweep — was secondary to the fact that high school boys volleyball had arrived in Utah.

“We’ve been waiting 13 months, well, more than 13 months,” Neeley said. “To have it here, it’s awesome. We had a big crowd. I didn’t know what to expect, I didn’t know if there would be 20 people or 200 and it was closer to 200. It’s fun that there was a big crowd for both teams.”

Boys volleyball was approved as an official Utah High School Activities Association sports nearly two years ago and is making its debut this spring.

Senior Ethan Hillyard has been playing club volleyball since his freshman year and will be the setter for Pleasant Grove. He just finished playing for the Vikings basketball team that set a state record with 288 3-pointers, of which Hillyard contributed 34.

Now, he’s trading in an orange ball for a white one.

“I’m really excited,” Hillyard said. “I’ve waited a long time for this. My older brother’s played volleyball. It’s my first year as a setter but it’s a position I’ve been wanting to try for a long time. Everything is new, but I think we’re bonding pretty quickly, even though it’s only been a week. I know a couple of guys from last year but we have a pretty new squad.”

Utah has had a strong club boys volleyball program for a number of years and is further along than some other states that play. Neeley said he has a friend who coaches in Colorado, where the teams are formed from several different high schools in a district.

“We’re going to have 90 teams in Utah and zero combo teams,” he said. “That’s unbelievable compared to what other states are doing. From a talent standpoint, we’re sending girls to major D1 programs every single year. It’s not going to be long before our boys teams in Utah will start sending guys to BYU, UCLA, Stanford and Ohio State.”

Neeley, who will remain as the Mountain View girls volleyball coach as well, said he’s spent a lot of time digging into the analytics of boys volleyball since its been nearly 15 years since he’s coached the boys side. He’s done the detail work like ordering uniforms — though they haven’t arrived yet so his team played Monday in old Pleasant Grove basketball jerseys.

Neeley estimates about 70% of the players on the team have no previous experience playing the sport.

“We’ve had about six open gyms and we have a class where I get to see the boys every day,” he said. “We can’t play volleyball in the class but we can learn about positions and rotations and watch videos. We’ve only had about five practices.”

Before the match players were able to watch welcome messages from such national volleyball luminaries as John Speraw (UCLA and US men’s volleyball coach), Karch Kiray (US women’s coach) and former BYU legends Taylor Sander and Ryan Millar.

The game play, as expected, was a little ragged. There were several out-of-rotation errors and the pace of the game was slow as players are still trying to figure out where they should be. Pleasant Grove senior Tyson Jarvis scored the first official point on an ace serve. There were moments were the look on the player’s faces was “look what I just did!” and some confusion on substitutions.

“Boys volleyball is going to give us a lot of moments like that over the next several months,” Neeley said. “Hopefully, over time, the sloppiness will start to go away. We have more match days moving forward than practice days so there’s not a ton of time to practice. But we’re going to clean things up during matches as much as possible. And hopefully the level will rise throughout the season.”

Hillyard and middle hitter Aki Malietoa tried several times during the match to connect on a quick attack but the timing was off — “My adrenaline was really going and I was setting it too high,” Hillyard said later — but the two players finally got their big kill by teaming up to reach match point in Set 3. Jarvis got the game-winner off the set from Hillyard to end the night.

“Volleyball is really a team sport,” Hillyard said. “You can’t solely rely on just one person. In basketball you see a lot of teams with a star and then there are role players. In volleyball, you have to have a good squad and that’s what wins games. I think that’s what we have here.”

Neeley orchestrated the night and was still getting photos taken after the match concluded.

“This is a night that these boys and their families will remember forever,” he said. “They will always remember that they played in the first ever boys volleyball match in the state of Utah.”

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