Tuesday the Minnesota State High School League Representative Assembly voted down a proposed amendment to add boys' volleyball as a sanctioned sport in state high schools.
"They've disappointed a lot of people, and especially the boys that are involved in this and there are a lot of them," said Walt Weaver, President of the Minnesota Boys Volleyball Association.
Weaver said high school boys' volleyball is growing in interest. Currently, there are 41 schools across the state fielding 70 teams with hundreds of players.
A number of high school leaders were on the call Tuesday morning, including Minnesota First Lady Gwen Walz and Gophers women's volleyball head coach Hugh McCutcheon.
According to the MSHSL, before Tuesday's meeting, the addition of boys' volleyball and girls' postseason wrestling were approved by nine of the league's 16 administrative regions.
Those opposed to the measure cited a number of reasons, including funding, facility concerns, and Title 9 standings.
In addition, the MSHSL voted on creating a separate high school wrestling tournament for girls to compete in. That vote passed 44-4.
Girls would continue to wrestle in the regular season as part of the boys' teams, but this creates a separate postseason tournament for girls.
"It's a huge day," said Chad Shilson, Minnesota USA wrestling girls and wrestling director and coach. "This is the greatest day Minnesota in girls' and women's wrestling."
Shilson pointed to a pivotal time for girls and women's wrestling.
"It's pretty cool because you can trace the explosion to the time when Olympic wrestler Sally Roberts founded her non-profit, Wrestle Like a Girl , when there were just six states that had girl's wrestling as a sanctioned sport in high schools in the country."
Now there are more than 30 states that have girls' wrestling programs.
