Remembering Hunter

We lost a great friend this past week. Hunter was a great friend who was a huge light for anyone he interacted with. I was lucky enough to know him for the past year and a half. 

One of my first experiences with Hunter was getting the chance to interview him and his teammates last year for a journalism article that I wrote on the team. 

It's a long story, but it's worth the read. This article shows a lot of how much Hunter loved the game, and this article means a lot to me. This experience is something I'll always cherish. 

-Cody

It’s Not Just a Game

Baylor Men’s Volleyball breaks stereotype

By Cody Soto

December 2, 2013

We decided to do a mini photo shoot for the article, and Hunter couldn't be serious for one moment. It was so entertaining to see his teammates get so upset because they wanted a good photo.

Chris Dyer, an Aliso Viejo, Calif., junior, stands behind the service line to send the ball he has in his hands over the net. He bounces the ball three times on the ground, ensuring he is ready. His opponents anxiously await on the other side of the court. With a deep breath and concentration on where he is sending it, he tosses up the ball to the ceiling and slams it over the net on its way down. Boom. Let the game of volleyball begin.

Dyer, along with 19 other students, represents Baylor as part of the men’s club volleyball team. As members of the Southern Intercollegiate Volleyball Association conference, they compete against Texas A&M, TCU, SMU, Texas, and nine other competitive teams.

These 20 players are a rare display of men competing in the game of volleyball, both for Baylor and the United States as a whole.

The team has been a club sport of the Baylor Campus Recreation program for about 10 years, according to head coach Melanie Power.

“The last three years that I have been at Baylor, men’s volleyball has been average at best,” she said. “We always have guys eager to play, but the lack of fundamental work and skills have been nonexistent or very scarce. The past few years though, they have gotten progressively better and have shaped themselves into a very competitive team that can hold up against anyone in our conference.”

In her second year as head coach, Power has been able to give the players fundamental skills and strategic ideas. Prior to her current position, she had been around volleyball since the age of 10 and played at the high school, club, and NCAA level. She led her team to finish as one of the top five schools in the nation as a college freshman at the University of Texas at Dallas.

Power’s current players have different degrees of experience and come from all over the nation. Colin McGuire, a Chicago sophomore setter, partially made his decision on attending Baylor because they had a club team.

“One of the first things I did was email the president and told him I was interested in playing volleyball,” he said.

The men’s volleyball team practices Mondays and Wednesdays throughout the school year in Marrs McLean Gymnasium. Practice helps challenge each individual player with blocking and passing exercises, hitting accuracy drills, and working on transitioning from offense to defense.

We finally got Hunter to act serious for one shot. ONE shot. 

“The guys are amazing to coach because they are willing to learn and get better,” Power said. “I have earned their respect and can relate with them. I have a blast at every practice and tournament.”

Freshmen Daniel Goyco and Hunter Noon are new additions to this year’s team, and they have both come from volleyball backgrounds. Goyco, a Ponce, Puerto Rico libero and defensive specialist, only played in high school while Noon, a Denver outside hitter, played “pretty much all [his] life.”

“Volleyball is a lot of fun for me to play personally,” Noon said. “It gives me a way to get away from everything and get my mind off of school and work.”

Unfortunately, Noon and the rest of the team will not know what it feels like to play for Baylor University as an official NCAA volleyball team. Because they are a club team, they do not receive scholarships for playing nor the “coaching, time, and resources that a Division I team would have.”

“It’s tough being compared to a ‘scholar athlete,’” Noon said. “We work just as hard as an athlete would, but Baylor doesn’t regard you as athletes because you’re just playing for a club team and not on scholarship.”

The team members paid $600 this year for gear, tournaments, and gas to travel to their tournaments. Like all club sports, they have to drive themselves to every competition, regardless of distance.

“It would be nice if Baylor could acquire a bus for transportation to the other universities for tournaments,” Goyco said. “We put a lot of effort into it, so we should get a little more credit. A little more love.”

However, McGuire, Dyer, and Houston middle blocker Joshua Baguley don’t mind paying what they consider a “cheap club sport.”

“To me, volleyball is always worth it,” Baguley said. “I am more than willing to pay money to build friendships, play a sport I love, and get an escape from daily activities.”

Baylor Athletics has no plans of implementing a men’s team because of the “lack of intercollegiate men’s’ volleyball programs within this region,” according to Callie Schrank, Director of Baylor Athletics Personnel and Administration. If they did include men’s volleyball in their funding, they would be joining only 30 other schools that support Division I men’s volleyball in the U.S.

“Baylor is not in a place where we are considering adding additional intercollegiate sports at this time,” Schrank said. “No other Big 12 institution has men’s volleyball.”

The decision that many schools make to exclude men’s volleyball is not a violation of Title IX, the education amendment that states that “no person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any education program or activity receiving Federal or financial assistance.” Instead, it’s due to the lack of participation by men in the U.S.

Of the 30 Division I men’s teams, not one Texas school sponsors this program.

“I think that being in Texas makes it hard for men’s volleyball to take off like it does in other states,” Power said. “Sand volleyball is a good platform for guys to enter the sport, but in Texas, quality sand is difficult to have mainly due to heat conditions.”

In the United States, emphasis is placed on football, basketball, and baseball, so there is no room for a national men’s volleyball league, according to Goyco.

I love this photo of Hunter and his teammates. Those smiles say a lot.

“It’s the culture of the United States,” he said. “Back home in Puerto Rico, they give a lot of emphasis on high school volleyball. If the U.S. would put more focus on volleyball like they do in Puerto Rico, I would think it would be a growing sport and a lot more schools would be joining the program.”

Also, some Baylor team members said that volleyball is not seen as a “manly sport.” In fact, Noon was even ridiculed for playing volleyball in his younger years.

“I didn’t tell people I played a lot, but I also played football as a kid,” Noon said. “I was even ridiculed if I even brought volleyball up.”

McGuire also caught some grief when he quit football his sophomore year of high school.

“I know a lot of people were confused when I chose volleyball over football,” McGuire said. “It’s stereotypically a female sport, but when they see that the men’s sport is such a power game, they usually change their mind pretty quick.”

However, this club team is demonstrating that a game of volleyball is more than just hitting the ball as hard as you can. It’s a game of teamwork and athleticism, according to Noon.

“The lessons you learn on a volleyball court you can apply to real life that help you in the long run,” he said. “It teaches you confidence, how to work to get better for something, how to persevere, and how to achieve a task.”

According to the players, without teamwork, you cannot play the game of volleyball. It comes down to a combination of everything to succeed in each game. It’s the team that makes the difference.

“I love my teammates,” Dyer said. “Some of my best friends are on this team. We are our own little fraternity and definitely a family.”

Even though they will not be playing under the NCAA, this club team will continue to work hard at this “unique sport.”

“At the end of the day, we still get to represent Baylor as a club, which is the most important thing,” Goyco said. “It’s really an honor.”