Student-led Volleyball Team is a Net Gain for Valley

Victoria Tellez did not dig that Valley College lacked a volleyball team, so she started her own club.

By: Lamonta Amos, Staff Writer

Portrait of Victoria Tellez, majoring in Kinesiology first year, stepping up as president for the volleyball club. (Lluvia Marinero Arevalo for The Valley Star)

While Valley College offers a volleyball class, it lacks a competitive volleyball team. Motivated by her desire to play the sport, Victoria Tellez took matters into her own hands and started her own volleyball club.

The freshman ambitiously started the campus volleyball club after encouragement from the campus's Athletic Director Dave Mallas. The club was officially chartered in fall of 2023 and has since accumulated between 30-40 members. 

"We didn't have a team or anything, I talked to the Athletic Director Dave and he said, well if you want to play volleyball, why don't you start a club,” said Tellez. "So I went ahead and started the club."

Tellez said that her interest in volleyball started back in ninth grade. She was initially drawn to softball but had a friend who convinced her to join the volleyball team together. The fun they had practicing influenced this decision. After some time, her friend ended up leaving the team but the club founder stayed behind due to her newfound love for the sport.  

“Just leave whatever you have at the door and just come in and play volleyball for a bit and then just go back to your normal life for a bit,” said Tellez

The kinesiology major was able to recruit members from the volleyball class run by health and kinesiology professor Anna Morente. According to Tellez, the recruiting process was simple given that she was already familiar with many of the students in the class.

Along with one-on-one invitations, Tellez also put up flyers online as an open call for those interested in the sport. This effort resulted in over 20 additional players for the club. 

 Watching the club grow and seeing everyone get along is fulfilling for Tellez, whose initial desire to play volleyball with friends has evolved into something potentially bigger than ever thought possible. 

The hardest part about keeping the club together was working around students’ schedules. With so many people on the roster the 18-year-old can't always accommodate everyone. 

“I wanted to start a club, and next thing you know the position of president just kinda fell on me and I just ran from there,” said Tellez

Tellez would love to have a more structured volleyball team. She said that the laid-back vibe that they have now is great, and that's what they are keeping just for the semester with hope for it to grow and evolve.

“If one day the club were to be turned into a team that would be amazing and I would love that, but currently we are just not there yet,” said Tellez.  “I know a lot of people here and the main reason that people joined the club was because they want to play volleyball competitively and would love to be on the team. I know that they would be really happy, so I would be overjoyed to have a team established here.”