- April 23, 2024
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Every day Port Orange is becoming more and more committed to the sport of volleyball.
The Port Orange Volleyball Club was formed just around 18 months ago and it’s co-sponsored by the city of Port Orange parks and recreation department. In the first season of recreational volleyball leagues, there was a good showing of 101 participants. The following season grew to 150, and the club only wants to ascend from there.
“Our mission is providing kids in the community with a chance to play,” said Lauren Valle, a coach with Port Orange Volleyball Club as well as nearby Mainland High School. “We never want money to be an issue. We rely on business members and our business affiliates because there’s a need in Volusia County for kids to be able to play volleyball.”
Valle was raised in Port Orange and went to Spruce Creek High School where she was a member of a squad in 2000 that reached the final four in the state. She currently coaches at Mainland, where she explains the culture as a bit different from Port Orange Volleyball Club.
Typically with the club game, Valle coaches kids who are around seven or eight years old and can nurture them as they grow into themselves and the game. At Mainland, Valle typically will coach players who are 15 and have never even picked up a volleyball before. She has to teach athletes to become volleyball players.
At Port Orange Volleyball, she teaches volleyball players to become even better volleyball players.
“Volusia County has been blessed with outstanding athletes,” Valle said. “And our kids don’t get the exposure they need to go to the collegiate level, so we help mentor kids with that.”
Valle said it’s also been a great experience to be a part of the city council process.
She loves that Port Orange is passionate about its parks and recreation department and the city has been receptive about requests to enhance the presence of volleyball in Volusia County.
“I have enjoyed sitting in the city councils and not just being a city member, but being a pioneer and pushing for volleyball,” Valle said. “It costs a lot of money at the club level and a lot of times, kids will be growing up with a football, baseball or basketball in their hands, but not a volleyball.”
Valle enjoys the practice of helping kids in part because it’s an avenue she wasn’t able to utilize when she was a player. Now 35, she started playing at 15 and realizes what might have gone differently had she had the instruction that she’s currently giving.
“Who knows what my outlook would have been if I had the opportunities that these kids have?” Valle said. “When it comes to volleyball in Port Orange, we want to see more of it.”
