The fact that Dawson County High School doesn’t have a men’s volleyball team, couldn’t stop Kody Stamey from pursuing his goal of becoming a collegiate volleyball player. 

Now, he has signed his letter of intent to become the first member of Truett McConnell’s inaugural men’s volleyball team, making him the first men’s volleyball player in the university’s history. 

Starting in the sixth grade, Stamey started playing club volleyball for a club team in Roswell, the closest team to Dawsonville at the time. Most recently, he played with a club team out of Suwanee. 

“When I first started playing there were not a lot of local opportunities to play,” Stamey said. “Most of our games were out of state and involved a lot of travel.”

Stamey said the smaller campus size, the welcoming Christian atmosphere and the large selection of majors offered were the main reasons he landed on continuing his volleyball career at Truett McConnell. He plans to study nursing. 

Though men’s volleyball has not reached the popularity in the South that it has on the West Coast, Stamey said men’s volleyball will eventually reach national popularity. 

“I see it continuing to grow and hopefully become a top tier sport in the future much like Lacrosse did, once it got to the east coast,” Stamey said. 

Stamey said he wants to thank his parents for supporting his dreams and his first coach Kip Buss for teaching him everything he knows about volleyball.