South Side Boys Volleyball League (SSBVL)

Welcome to the SSBVL Home Page!

The 2024 SSBVL Championship matches were played on Sunday, May 5 at Brother Rice HS, and the winners are:

4th Grade Maroon- Mount Greenwood Blue

4th Grade Orange- St. Christina Red

5th Grade Maroon- St. Barnabas

5th Grade Orange- Incarnation

Grade 6A- St. John Fisher Blue

Grade 6B- St. Linus

Grade 7A- St. Alexander

Grade 7B- St. Christina

Grade 8A- St. Catherine

Grade 8B- Christ the King 

Congratulations to these teams and the over ninety teams that participated in the SSBVL this year.

Information on the 2025 season will be available in January, 2025- especially for new schools that want to join.

2024 men's collegiate volleyball season:

• Congratulations to SSBVL alum Jimmy Dwyer- St. Catherine '10- for leading the Georgetown, KY team to the NAIA National Championship!
• Congratulations to St. Xavier University for qualifying for the NAIA National Semi-finals for the first time before losing a close 5 set match to Georgetown KY.

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Amy Balicki- one of our co-founders pictured below- smiles upon us still! 

January 3, 2022:

The SSBVL Board is very saddened to announce the passing of Amy Balicki- Co- Founder of the South Side Boys Volleyball League.  The wake for Amy will take place this Wednesday, January 5 from 3-9 PM at Becvar Funeral Home in Crestwood, and the funeral will take place at St. Catherine in Oak Lawn on Thursday, January 6 at 12 pm.  Please click on the link below for a complete obituary:

https://www.becvarfuneralhome.com/obituary/Amelia-Balicki

Link to Beverly Review Article on Amy- February 1, 2022:

https://www.beverlyreview.net/sports/article_e16f769a-838b-11ec-8e47-6713903ea12a.html

Reflections on Amy:

Personal Background and the Early Years of the South Side Boys Volleyball League.

Both Amy and I grew up in the same neighborhood and parish- Brighton Park's St. Agnes Parish at 39th and Washtenaw on the near southwest side of Chicago.  One of my best memories of the neighborhood and parish was playing volleyball.  From spring through fall, we would play on the outdoor asphalt courts at Burroughs Playground at 36th and Washtenaw.  During the winter, we would play at the St. Agnes Social Center at Archer and Rockwell, McKinley Park at Pershing Road and Western, and Kelly ark near Archer and California Avenues.  Sometimes the games were all girls, sometimes all boys, and other times co-ed.  I would realize much later that very few boys anywhere at that time would have the same experience of playing competitive or recreational volleyball as I did.  Once I entered high school in 1978, there weren't many opprtunities to play volleyball, especially since high school boys' volleyball was not sanctioned by the IHSA until the spring of 1992.  I did not have much involvement with volleyball again until I was given the opportunity to start the boys volleyball program at Brother Rice HS on the far southwest side of Chicago during the 1992-1993 school year.  During my first season, I heard about a new grade school boys volleyball league that was playing out of Scottsdale Park near St. Bede Parish called the South Side Boys Volleyball League.

Part 2:

I will never forget the first time I saw the new South Side Boys Volleyball League in action.  It was a Friday night in the spring of 1993, and I walked into the gym at Scottsdale Park to see Chicago Police on the scene removing unruly kids who were disrupting the matches- since volleyball was a girls sport... something that many of us ran into early on!  I saw the person that was running things- it was Amy!  I re-introduced myself to Amy and told her that I had started the boys volleyball program at Brother Rice.  I told Amy that Brother Rice wanted to become actively involved in the development of grade school boys volleyball, and I told her that the gyms at Brother Rice were sitting empty most times during the weekend.  The following school year, Amy called me and I met her and the other co-founder of the league named Roxanne Gonzalez who had a freshman son (Chris) attending Brother Rice that I had for freshman theology.  (I can't remember the number of times that Chris brought envelopes of information between me and his mother- thanks, Chris!)  We talked about the vision of the league and the overall development of boys volleyball throughout the Southland.  Brother Rice agreed to be a host site for regular season, playoff, and championship matches starting in the spring of 1994, and thus began Brother Rice's longstanding relationship with the SSBVL.  It was a ton of work, but it was also a ton of fun!

Part 3:

In my opinion, based on my experience, the most difficult scheduling in athletics occurs at the grade school level.  People who volunteer their time go to extraordinary lengths to create a schedule, and scheduling for the SSBVL has even more challenges.  The season basically goes 7 weeks or so, and includes spring and Easter breaks and the Triduum.  Then, factor in conflict dates for Confirmations and other Church and school events like awards nights, varied performances, 8th grade trips, and the like.  Then, you take the gym time that is offered generously by the varied host sites, look at the number of teams you have (which for many years goes over 80 teams), and then create your schedules.  Even now, there is no computer program that I am aware that allows you to factor all of these complexities into creating a schedule like this.  I remember the first time I worked with Amy and Rox on scheduling for the season.  You have dozen of sheets of papers- some separate, some taped together, others clipped together- that contain the teams in each grade division, the gym availability, and the varied conflicts for each school spread out over a table.  You use pencil because invariably you will discover overlaps, conflicts, or errors that need to be changed.  Then, you need to look at the schedule over and over again to make sure you have balanced everything as best as able.  Are schools who are offering their gym space getting too little or too many home games?  Did you remember, for weekend games, the parking restrictions or special events at a parish or host site?  Did you remember to schedule correctly for Pack the Gym days hosted by some schools?  Then, you need to check the date of the South Side Irish Parade because you cannot host games that weekend because of travel restrictions, family get togethers, and so on.  And, for great reason, you cannot matches on Mother's Day!  The season cannot go any longer with players playing other sports like baseball, and you need to wait until the basketball season is over in March before starting.  And this does not include the last minute issues that always arise during a season.  For nearly 30 years, this is just a summary listing of what Amy, Rox, and Nancy Frederick have gone through scheduling matches for the SSBVL with help from varied SSBVL Board members.  Now, for the upcoming 2022 season, factor in COVID!  (See the messages below for the additional scheduling challenges facing the SSBVL in 2022.) 

More to come... 

-Paul Ickes

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The 2024 men's collegiate volleyball season is just starting!

The NCAA Division I and III and the NAIA Championships take place in late April/ early May.  Go to NCAA.org and naia.org and go to the mens volleyball pages for brackets and television/ online coverage information.

Congratulations to St. Xavier University Head Coach Tom Ryan and the Cougars for winning the 2023 CCAC Men's Volleyball Championship and qualifying again for the NAIA National Tournament!  For more information, go to:

www.sxucougars.com/sport/0/9.php 

A number of other Chicago-area teams are also in the top ten/fifteen in their national polls.  To see the latest polls, go to: 

www.avca.org/polls/index.html 

The following schools in our area, city, state, and region now offer collegiate men's volleyball:

NCAA Division I/II: Lewis University in Romeoville, IL, Loyola University in Chicago, IL, Quincy University in Quincy, IL, Indiana-Purdue at Fort Wayne, Indiana, and Ball State University in Muncie, Indiana.

NCAA Division III: Benedictine University in Lisle, IL, Carthage College in Kenosha, Wisconsin, Dominican University in River Forest, IL, Milwaukee School of Engineering in Milwaukee, WI, North Central College in Naperville, IL, Loras College in Dubuque, Iowa, and Illinois Wesleyan University in Bloomington, IL. 

NAIA: St. Xavier University in Chicago, IL, Roosevelt University in Chicago, IL, St. Ambrose University in Davenport, Iowa, Clarke College in Dubuque, Iowa, Cardinal Stritch University in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and Trinity Christian College in Palos Heights, IL.

For more information about these programs- schedules, rosters, player profiles, and more- go the Links section of our web site. A number of collegiate men's volleyball matches will also be televised this year while others can be viewed on-line- more information on these can be found at the school's web sites or check your local TV and cable listings.


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--> UPDATED LINKS SITE!

There have been a number of listings added and updated to the Links section. This is basically a one-stop shop for all boys volleyball-related websites at all levels in our region and country.

This website is being updated continually. If you have a link to suggest, please contact SSBVL Technology Coordinator Paul Ickes at ickespaul9@gmail.com . Our goal is to make our Links section a one stop guide to all things related to boys volleyball in the Southland!