Belleville West hopes to contend for SWC volleyball title in 2016

In seven seasons as the head boys volleyball coach at Belleville West, Austin Betz has seen both the Maroons program and the sport itself grow in popularity both at the high school and at the club levels.

No longer thought of as primarily a girls sport, numbers in high school boys programs continue to rise as athletes advance their skills for the highest level of competition.

“Across the board, the level of competition has gotten better. It’s easier now to recruit athletes because it’s now a boys sport. In the beginning it was hard to convince boys to play volleyball because they all thought it was a girls sport,” Betz said. “Club volleyball on the Illinois side has gotten better. This year there were I believe six high school age club leagues on this side of the river whereas before there were only two.

“We had some our players playing club volleyball and I think every other team in the Southwestern Conference did too. That also helps the level of play as well.’’

Betz begins his eighth yearthis spring with a Maroons squad which has perhaps the premier player in the Southwestern Conference in senior Nick Stevenson and one hoping to gain on perennial league powers Belleville East, O’Fallon and Edwardsville.

“I know Belleville East had almost an entire club volleyball team themselves in the offseason and so they will be very good and O’Fallon and Edwardsville also had kids play at a pretty high level so they’ll be good as well. We’re just hoping to be competitive with them,” Betz said. “We lost five of our seven starters from last year. But we do have Nick (Stevenson) back. That’s a pretty nice place to start.’’

A look at the Maroons

Entering his fourth and final season in the Maroons starting lineup, Stevenson has grown into a 6-foot-3 NCAA Division I recruit. The leader for the Maroons a year ago in kills, Stevenson will be an outside hitter and will combine with junior Tim Neff (6-2) in the middle to give West a good one-two offensive punch.

“Nick led us in kills and Tim was second and so its nice to have our top two offensive weapons back again,” Betz said. “In my mind, Nick is the best player in the SWC just because of his skill level and his knowledge of the game. We’re also hoping that Tim has another good season and continues to progress.”

The person Betz hopes will be setting up his two offensive stars is junior setter Clay Sharron who moves up from the junior-varsity squad.

Quick jumping junior Trevor Pentland (6-1) and senior Henry Holm (6-2) will join STevenson as outside hitters. Betz said that either Pentland or Holm could be moved and that Stevenson will also be able moved around depending on certain matchups.

“If we see a matchup that we think we can can take advantage of, we’ll move Nick around. He can also come up from the back row and hit as well,” Betz said.

Junior Devin Hunt (6-3) and senior Micqwan Alford (6-1) will also see playing time as middle hitters, while sophomores Blake Grosse and Tony Brooks will split time at libero and are both excellent defensive players.

Seniors Teantez Anthony and Kaylon Nelson round out the Maroons varsity squad. Neither has played volleyball at the high school level but Betz is hopeful that because of their athleticism, that both will be able to contribute as time goes on this season.

This story was originally published March 17, 2016 at 12:14 PM with the headline "Belleville West hopes to contend for SWC volleyball title in 2016."