During a free volleyball event put on by USA Volleyball in Columbus, Reynoldsburg High School Junior Joe Loughry was approached by one of the coaches and athletes from the National Women's Sitting Volleyball team.
USA Volleyball is the National Governing Body (NGB) for the sport of volleyball in the United States. It is recognized as such by the International Volleyball Federation (FIVB) and the United States Olympic and Paralympic Committee (USOPC).
Representatives asked Joe if he had any interest in joining their Developmental Training program with the idea of possibly making it onto the National Men's Sitting Volleyball team once he becomes an adult. The National Team Development Program’s (NTDP) mission is to identify, recruit and accelerate the development of high-potential junior volleyball athletes to achieve sustained international competitive excellence.
They invited Joe to come back that weekend to check it out and allowed him to sit in and play for a couple of hours with the team.
Joe met many individuals such as the manager of the Sitting Volleyball program, the designated coach of the Developmental Training team, numerous players on the national and developmental teams, and many more. “It was an amazing experience,” said Joe.
Joe was invited to try out one of the developmental training camps. “At first, I wasn’t sure,” he said. “I don’t like change and have been playing standing volleyball since 7th grade.”
“What an amazing opportunity this is for Joe. We are all rooting for him. He has worked so hard these past four years,” said Reynoldsburg High School's Men's Volleyball Coach Matthew Bailey.
Joe doesn’t like bringing attention to the fact that he has a prosthetic leg. But, after a couple of days, Joe said he wanted to try out one of these camps.
“As parents, we want to give our kids every opportunity there is to fuel their passions and happiness and volleyball has been one of those passions since the first time Joe played,” said Joe’s mom Kate.
If you’d like to learn more about Joe and this opportunity, please reach out to Coach Matthew Bailey.