By Loyd McIntosh photos by Jordan Wald
History was made on Saturday, August 29, at Wald Park in Vestavia Hills as the location of the first-ever outdoor high school volleyball showcase. Officially sanctioned by the Alabama High School Athletic Association and hosted by Vestavia Hills High School, the event brought together some of the top ninth-grade, junior varsity and varsity high school teams in the area for a day of volleyball that began in the sunshine and ended under the lights.
The event brought teams from Mountain Brook, Spain Park and Thompson, and while the final scores didn’t exactly lean in the direction of the over-the-mountain clubs, nothing could dampen the spirits for the local coaches and athletes.
Vestavia Hills head volleyball coach Ashley Hardee says the event was more than just an excuse to soak up a few rays but was a chance to promote the sport to a wider audience in a fun and exciting setting. “Today was a celebration of all our athletes and our sport too. I got a lot of responses from people who just attended their first volleyball match, and they were blown away about how exciting it was,” says Hardee.
In the days prior to the Wald Park matches, Hardee spoke about the idea’s genesis and the opportunity for his players to be part of a historic first. The idea for outdoor volleyball games began with an event called “Volleyball Day In Nebraska” held at Memorial Stadium at the University of Nebraska. In 2023, more than 90,000 fans came out to watch the Nebraska Cornhuskers—one of the nation’s most successful volleyball programs—defeat the Omaha Mavericks. The event set a record for the highest attendance at a women’s sporting event in the United States and started a similar trend at the college and high school level.
Hardee also cites other special outdoor athletic events, such as the National Hockey League’s annual outdoor game and the inaugural Carrier Classic, a college basketball game featuring North Carolina and Michigan State on the deck of the USS Carl Vinson in 2011.
Sensing an opportunity to highlight the Vestavia Hills volleyball program and the sport in general, Hardee presented the idea to Director of Athletics Laura Casey, who was enthusiastic about the idea. “It’s a celebration of our sport with our athletes and the talent we have here at Vestavia Hills but throughout Birmingham too,” says Hardee. “There’s a strong history of good volleyball in Birmingham. I went to our athletics director, Laura Casey, back in January and said, ‘Here is something that has been happening and is a bit of a trend in our sport,’ and she said, ‘Absolutely. Let’s do this.’”
Hardee says the outdoor volleyball event generated a significant amount of buzz throughout Birmingham’s volleyball community, especially among the players. It also created a little light-hearted envy among the outgoing senior class. “The players were super excited about it. As you can imagine, last year’s seniors, when they heard about it, they were like, ‘What? You waited to do this now,’” Hardee says.
With a court set up in the outfield of the baseball field at Wald Park, games started at with the Mountain Brook and Spain Park ninth grade teams and continued well into the evening, as fans gathered on the surrounding hillside on blankets and lawn chairs to witness history in the making.
Despite temperatures reaching the mid-90s, some delays affecting game times and losses by Mountain Brook to Spain Park (2-1) and Vestavia Hills to Thompson (2-0), it was a great day for volleyball regardless of the final scores.
