Boone Grove’s Pauly McCoy is ready for a new level of competition in Indiana boys volleyball.
The 5-foot-10 senior setter understands that the growing popularity of the sport, which is sanctioned by the Indiana High School Athletic Association for the first time this season, is an encouraging development but presents a challenge.
“The game itself has grown so much,” Pauly McCoy said. “It’s exponential. Almost everyone that you play against now is playing club. Having the IHSAA sanction it brought so much light to the sport, and the competition is so much better.”
Pauly McCoy, who was second on the team with 340 assists and third on the team with 27 aces last year, is one of the few returning players for the Wolves (28-7) after a successful 2024 season. So he wants to do whatever he can to position Boone Grove for long-term prosperity.
“I want to work with everybody we have, any new kid who’s coming in, any of the people who are here,” Pauly McCoy said. “I want to make sure that I set the best example that I can while I’m here for my last year and show them as much as I can.”
Two players who may not need as much guidance are his younger twin brothers, junior libero Ryder McCoy and junior defensive specialist Levi McCoy. The three McCoy siblings have played multiple sports for years but spent the most recent club volleyball season as teammates for the first time, so their on-court chemistry has never been sharper.
“We’ve mostly played team sports, so the three of us understand each other really, really well, and we try to use that to do the best we can for our team,” Pauly McCoy said.
Playing together also means Pauly McCoy isn’t outnumbered anymore. In the past, his younger brothers often teamed up against him.
“It was them against me most of the time, and we’d banter a lot,” he said. “But once we got into high school, it cooled down, and these guys are my best friends now.”
Ryder McCoy said any competitiveness that still exists between them only brings out the best in them.
“It just pushes us a lot, having all three of us on the same team,” Ryder McCoy said. “We all want to be a little bit better than each other, but we also want to see each other succeed.”
Levi McCoy actually had to be convinced to play volleyball last season.
“I wasn’t going to play at all,” he said. “But they pushed me to join, and it’s been fun being around them. I’m just trying to get to their same level now.”
The family ties extend to Boone Grove’s coaching staff. Andrea McCoy, who coaches the junior varsity team, is happy to see her three sons playing on the same team.
“To see them all together, I just love it, and I feel like they like it too,” she said. “On the court, they all communicate so well. They have a way of moving the ball and making it work, maybe even a little better than ones who haven’t been playing together as long as they have.”
The McCoy brothers have spent countless hours playing volleyball together, including at home, where a net often pops up when the weather cooperates. But this season offers a unique opportunity for them to experience a deep run in an IHSAA-sanctioned postseason.
Pauly McCoy believes all their time together will pay dividends.
“It’s been amazing so far,” he said. “I have full trust in those two, that the ball will at least be up enough for me to get over there and work with it.”
Dave Melton is a freelance reporter.
