HRV boys volleyball’s dramatic turnaround

Emerging activity

In October 2023, the Oregon School Activities Association (OSAA) delegate assembly voted to approve boys volleyball as an emerging sport. To be considered an emerging activity, at least 25 teams from schools across Oregon would need to participate. In the spring of 2022, boys volleyball completed a season with 32 teams. This season, 68 teams across all OSAA classifications took part in boys volleyball.

Two years ago, Hood River Valley High School sophomore Anthony Petros began playing club volleyball with classmates from Hood River and White Salmon. When OSAA ruled that boys volleyball would be an emerging sport, Petros and friends put up posters advertising tryouts around school, trying to generate buzz, and it worked.

“We got more people than we expected,” he said. Anthony’s parents, Xani and Brian Petros, wanted to help build the team, so they turned to HRVHS Athletic Director Sean Mailey.

“My wife, who had been in contact with [Mailey] about forming, not even necessarily a team, just an activity club at the high school,” Brian said.

The only obstacle was that funding for a boys volleyball team had not been budgeted. Still, Mailey offered to let them use the equipment and gym space. The next order of business was to find a coach.

Volleyball for dummies

Brian asked around the community and was unable to find anyone interested in serving as coach, driver and team manager. Being supportive parents, Brian and Xani took charge.

“My wife brought home a Volleyball for Dummies book,” he said. Brian filled the head coach role and Xani took over as team manager.

Scott Walker, former HRVHS girls volleyball coach, helped teach fundamentals and Chris Eisele joined at the beginning of this season to provide a more technical perspective. Eisele is from Irvine, California, and played college volleyball at Orange Coast College.

“Brian’s been a great leader and coach for them,” Eisele said. “I have technical skills that I’m able to kind of impart, so together, I think it works out really well for us as a team. Xani does a lot of things that we don’t see in the background, that kind of keeps it all moving forward smoothly.”

Brian and Xani said they are paying out of their own pocket for the boys to travel and compete.

Zeros to heroes

In their inaugural season, the HRV boys volleyball team found success hard to come by. The young team — mostly freshmen and sophomores — went winless, only winning a handful of sets. And for some of the athletes, boys volleyball was their first taste of high school athletics.

“We have a really young team, and a lot of kids on the team are relatively new to high stress, competitive environments,” said HRVHS junior Sebastian Clarkson.

On the other hand, for players like sophomore Eli Kellert and Gus Reed, volleyball has been a constant in their lives since they started playing.

“My friends really got me into it,” Reed said. “As soon as I started playing, I loved it, and I’ve played almost every day since.”

When asked if he thought he would ever be a volleyball player, Kellert responded candidly. “No, not at all. I started playing at lunch my freshman year, and I have played like every day since then.”

Kellert serves as co-captain with junior Teaghan Oakes, who everyone described as the “No. 1 motivator” and “hype man.”

“I’m more of like the support type. I try and keep people together,” Oakes said. “When we get down, I do my best to get us out of tough spots. You know, that’s what my job is.”

The boys rallied behind Oakes and returned nearly every player including sophomores, Teague Price, Warren Eisele, Reymundo Ortiz, Everen Garrett and added freshman Milo Roof.

Playoffs or bust

The Eagles opened the season by winning three of their first five matches and hit their stride in mid-April with a three-game win streak against Wilsonville (3-1), Hillsboro (3-2) and Molalla (3-1) — all of which came on the road.

In a complete turnaround, the Eagles qualified for the postseason tournament on the final day of the regular season defeating Wilsonville, 3-0.

The Eagles’ postseason run started in the quarterfinals against Parkrose, winner in 10 of its past 11 games entering the tournament. The Broncos swept the Eagles and beat No. 5 Silverton in four sets to advance to the Class 5A state championship. They eventually fell to No. 2 Summit in straight sets.

In the consolation bracket, Hood River took Ashland (13-4 overall, 8-2 Special District 1) to a fifth set but couldn’t get past the Grizzlies. Hood River went on to face Thurston in the seventh place game but lost in four sets.

The Eagles squad graduated just two seniors and hope to return most of the players.

Kellert said that three or four of the varsity players have committed to play club volleyball, and together they have already hit the recruiting trail trying to find the next generation of boys volleyball players.

“We’re working on recruiting my little brother and some other freshmen next year. So, I think we’re going to keep getting better. We want to succeed at state next year,” he said.

Anthony was just as optimistic. “I think next year is going to be our best year,” he said.