85 South Volleyball Club Takes Troup County Sports to the Next Level – LaGrange Daily News

85 South Volleyball Club Takes Sports in Troup County to the Next Level

Published 08:00 am Saturday, July 20, 2024

xxxxaVolleyball is on the rise in Troup County. Interest and participation from all ages has steadily grown and with it the need for an outlet outside of the school system to play once girls outgrow the Troup County Parks and Rec system. 85 South Volleyball is here to fill the void. The travel club based here in LaGrange was founded in 2023 by Chad Noles and had its first season earlier this year.

“Around this time last year, a group of people in the community came up and asked if I was interested in helping out with a volleyball club,” Noles said. “I hadn’t coached in a year, but I was excited to get back into it and we made a plan. We started, we were late to the game, you know, there were tryouts for a lot of clubs, we were way behind on equipment. I had no facilities, no coaches, but we were able to pull it all together and have a great season.”

The club had five teams in its first year: 17h, 16h, 15h, 14h, and 13h. Between the five teams were 80-85 girls. The vast majority of the girls are involved in middle school or high school programs in Troup County, but the teams have also drawn participants from Phenix City and Columbus.

Noles believes it is important to improve the talent in Troup County in all areas.

“I was at Troup High School this morning running a camp for them. I had Callaway players that I’ve worked with. We have players from Lafayette Christian, from LaGrange Academy, and I’ve been up at LaGrange High working with coach (Meghan) Smith,” Noles said. “I want every team in our county to be competitive and stay competitive and we believe our club can help with that.”

“I also offer a position called a ‘practice-only player’ for the girls who aren’t good enough to be on the travel team,” Noles added. “We let them practice with the teams. They just don’t travel with them, so it saves the families a lot of money, they get the same instruction as the other girls. It’s a way to keep them involved. I hate to let girls down. I hate to tell them they can’t be on a team and push them away from volleyball if possible.”

This club did not come out of the blue. Noles has been passionate about improving volleyball in this area for over ten years.

“I started (coaching volleyball) when my oldest daughter was 12. She’s 27 now and for the last 15 years I’ve been helping coach, being a parent coach, community coach or whatever. I’ve had the benefit of working with some really good volleyball coaches around me and that’s really helped me get 85 South started.”

This isn’t the first travel volleyball team to be based in Troup County, but it is the first to focus primarily on this area. Parents no longer have to drive to Columbus, Newnan or beyond to find a quality travel ball.

“There was a club out of Columbus that I was involved with and we had teams in LaGrange, but that was never a focus for that club and that was one of the reasons why these parents came to me and asked, because they wanted to focus on the Troup County area,” Noles said.

Noles is very focused on getting the girls to play well within a team while improving their individual volleyball skills, but he never loses sight of what volleyball and sports in general are all about.

“The girls have matured a lot in their volleyball skills and in their personal skills, because for me as a coach, your job is to make them better volleyball players. But our whole philosophy behind this is that when they leave and when a season is over, we definitely want them to be better volleyball players, but we also want them to be better people,” Noles said.

The club currently practices wherever they can find space, which is often limited. As volleyball continues to grow, Noles believes Troup County needs to add more facilities to ensure the sport can thrive.

“One of my biggest concerns is the facilities,” he said. “And it’s just hard for me to get gym space. The Parks and Rec department is great to work with, as is LaGrange College, but if there’s someone nearby who has storage space that’s not being used or something, I’d love to have a gym on 85 South that’s just for us, where I can work out. I can work out there whenever we want, but that space is hard to come by in this area.”

For more information about 85 South Volleyball, please visit their website 85southvbc.com or contact them at [email protected].