Men’s club vol­ley­ball team has held try­outs and is set for a new season

Photo By: Kate Dupon | PhotographerMen’s club vol­ley­ball held try­outs to pre­pare for this sea­son, which will mark their fifth year as a club sports team at Ferris.

After not com­pet­ing against other schools last year, the men’s club vol­ley­ball team is back and ready to begin the 2009 season.

In 2008, the club vol­ley­ball team did not even play. The team never got started and was unable to work out try­out and sched­ul­ing issues. Team pres­i­dent Brian Stohl said the team has been in exis­tence less than five years.

“Last year noth­ing got started, but we had been going for three years before then,” said Stohl.

Stohl, a sopho­more, has been play­ing vol­ley­ball since he was 12 years old. He is from Parker, Colo., where he won three state cham­pi­onships at Chaparral High School.

The team con­ducted two try­out ses­sions over the past week at the vol­ley­ball arena in the sports com­plex. Co-captain and advi­sor, Justin Scheidt, said the team will have between 18 and 20 play­ers this sea­son. The team will be split into an A team and B team, with nine or 10 play­ers on each squad.

Club sports at Ferris are on a “pay to play” basis. Each mem­ber of the club vol­ley­ball team has to pay $100, which goes toward the cost of jer­seys, equip­ment, and tour­na­ment fees.

The play­ers on the team vary in height, abil­ity, expe­ri­ence and age. Justin Scheidt, co-captain and advi­sor, said the team def­i­nitely has poten­tial and he is excited about the upcom­ing sea­son. He is eli­gi­ble to play on the team this year also.

“I still have one year of eli­gi­bil­ity some­how, so I’m going to play this year and help them,” said Scheidt.

Scheidt is in his sec­ond year as a geog­ra­phy pro­fes­sor at Ferris. He brings expe­ri­ence from the Division I level as he played for the University of Florida for three years and Michigan State University for two years. He also brings coach­ing expe­ri­ence to the team as well.

“I was the head coach at Great Lakes Christian College for two years before I came here,” said Scheidt.

The team has prac­ticed at both the University Recreation (UREC) facil­ity and at the vol­ley­ball arena in the sports com­plex this year. The try­outs were held in the sports com­plex and Scheidt is hop­ing the team will be able to play in the vol­ley­ball arena permanently.

“We hope to be here,” said Scheidt, “we’ve been in the UREC, but we worked a deal where we could get this.”

There is no reg­u­lar sea­son sched­ule for the club vol­ley­ball team. The team cur­rently has three tour­na­ments sched­uled, two at Michigan State and one at Central Michigan, with the hope of adding one at Indiana University. The Bulldogs’ first sched­uled tour­na­ment is Oct. 24 in Mt. Pleasant, Mich.

Tournament Breakdown

• Range from 12 to 30 teams
• Broken down into groups of 4 or 5 teams
• Round robin style, not sin­gle elimination
• The top two from each group advance
• The Bulldogs play against schools such as Michigan State, Ohio State Central Michigan and Grand Valley State among others