Volleyball in the United States

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Volleyball is a popular sport in the United States with both male and female participants of all ages. Almost all high schools and colleges in the United States have female volleyball teams, and most regions of the country have developmental programs for girls of all ages as well. While many areas of the country are forming male teams and development programs, there are still fewer opportunities for young male athletes to play volleyball in the United States than for young female athletes. Men's volleyball is a fast growing sport among high schools, with 36 states having male volleyball programs (though in several of these states, it is organized as a club sport and not sanctioned by the state's high school governing body). Most men's seasons are in the spring while women's seasons take place primarily in the fall; however, there are a few men's teams such as in Wisconsin, Virginia, and New York who play in the fall as well.

The United States men's national volleyball team has won three gold medals at the 1984, 1988, and 2008 Olympic Games, the 1986 FIVB World Championship, the 1985 and 2015 FIVB Volleyball Men's World Cup, and the 2014 FIVB World League. Meanwhile, the United States women's national volleyball team has won the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, the 2014 FIVB World Championship, six editions of the FIVB World Grand Prix, and the 2018, 2019 and 2021 FIVB Nations League. Also, they finished second at the 1984, 2008 and 2012 Olympic Games, the 1967 and 2002 FIVB World Championship, the 2005 and 2013 FIVB World Grand Champions, and the 2011 and 2019 FIVB World Cup

Volleyball is a popular NCAA sport, mostly for women. In the 2013 14 school year, 1064 NCAA member schools, 329 of them in the top level Division I, sponsored women's volleyball at the varsity level, with 16,647 participants across all three divisions. At the same time, 109 schools in all three NCAA divisions combined sponsored varsity men's volleyball, with only 23 of them in Division I; the number of men's varsity volleyball players was roughly one tenth of women's participation (1,720 to 16,647). Men's volleyball experienced explosive growth at the Division III level in the 2010s and early 2020s. In the 2010 season (2009–10 school year), only 13 Division III schools competed within the NCAA, although many other D III members competed outside the NCAA. The next season saw 56 teams play under D III regulations, leading the NCAA to establish a separate Division III championship in 2012. In that season, 63 teams played D III men's volleyball, with the number increasing to 113 by the 2022 season. In 2012, NCAA sanctioned college beach volleyball teams for women for the first time; 14 schools sponsored the sport, with slightly more than 200 participants.

Junior volleyball is played in the U. S. in many organizations such as churches, the YMCA and the Amateur Athletic Union (AAU), but the largest sponsoring organization is USA Volleyball, which oversees what is commonly referred to as "club volleyball" and hosts a Junior Olympic Championship each year. In club volleyball, junior players develop their skills and knowledge of the game, usually with the purpose of playing for high school teams. Elite players also prepare for college volleyball. The club season typically lasts from the end of November until July, with the annual Junior Olympic Championships (JOs) taking place in late June, early July. Teams typically play tournaments throughout the season, establishing their ranking in the various regions and preparing for JOs or a season ending tournament such as the Volleyball Festival, which claims to be the largest annual sporting event in the world. To qualify for JOs, teams must compete in JO Qualifiers, also referred to as National Qualifiers. There are nine qualifying tournaments across the country, to which teams travel to gain an invitation to JOs. Top teams attend these tournaments to earn their bids, and college coaches will attend to view the year's crop of players. The club season, long considered a supplemental place for girls and boys to gain experience in preparation for their upcoming high school seasons, is now an almost necessity to stay competitive in the local high schools. It is also extremely important in the college recruitment process, as most college seasons coincide with state high school seasons, causing the college coaches to miss the entire season. This time is made up during the club season when college coaches are able to travel to various tournaments and meet with club coaches, watch club players, and recruit for their teams.

Volleyball is one of the most popular girls' sports, and strong high school and club programs are found throughout the country. One of the biggest events in high school age sports is the annual Volleyball Festival in Phoenix, Arizona, (formerly in Reno, Nevada until 2009 and Sacramento, California until 2004), which draws as many as 10,000 players and 3,000 coaches for its five day tournament. Boys' volleyball is popular on a regional basis, and by far the greatest number of boys' teams are in Southern California. However, on the national stage, boys' volleyball remains far less popular than the girls' game at the high school level, as borne out by the following statistics from the aforementioned 2022 NFHS survey:
While all states as well as the District of Columbia sanction girls' volleyball, about half of the states do not sanction the boys' game (25 sanctioned the sport in 2021–22). Sixteen states reported participation of over 10,000 girls in high school volleyball. Of these states, four have no boys' high school volleyball—Texas (#1 in girls' participation), Minnesota (#8), Iowa (#11), and Washington (#15), though Minnesota will begin sanctioning boys' volleyball in 2024–25. Two other high participation states for girls, Michigan (#4) and Ohio (#6), reported fewer than 500 boys' participants (respectively 337 and 23). Even those states that do sanction volleyball for both sexes typically have considerably fewer schools sponsoring the boys' game and thus fewer participants. Of the remaining 12 high participation girls' volleyball states, only California, with over 45,000 girls and about 25,000 boys, had even half as many boys competing as girls. California has more than a third of all boys' players in the country. In the four years from 2004 to 2008, high school participation in boys' volleyball rose by more than 15%, from about 42,000 to nearly 50,000. Boys' volleyball has experienced noticeable growth in the 2010s and 2020s, coinciding with the relative boom in NCAA Division III men's volleyball; in 2021–22, roughly 66,500 boys were reported to be playing officially sanctioned high school volleyball. This does not include boys playing at club level in states where high school competition is not officially sanctioned.