Bay County high schools to introduce beach volleyball

PANAMA CITY, Fla. (WMBB) – A handful of Panhandle high schools have introduced beach volleyball teams over the past few years, and now Bay County is joining in on the action.

On Tuesday, Bay District Schools voted to approve funding for two beach volleyball courts, one at Bay High School and another at Arnold High School.

The two courts will host the matches for Arnold, Bay, and Mosley who will all introduce a beach volleyball team in the spring of 2025.

The Florida High School Athletic Association first sanctioned beach volleyball in 2022 and they will be entering their fourth season with a state tournament.

In 2024, six local teams fielded a beach volleyball team including Blountstown, Liberty County, Sneads, Marianna, South Walton, and Walton.

Bay District Schools Athletic Director Josh Laatsch said installing beach volleyball in Bay County has been more than a year in the making.

“It’s been one of those things that that we’ve been working on since last August,” Laatsch said. “One of my first weeks in the job, going around to the different AD’s and coaches, you know, ‘What things would you like to see?’ Beach volleyball was at the top. And we think it’s going to be a huge asset for the for the girls in our community.”

The sand courts at Bay and Arnold are scheduled to break ground in a couple of weeks. They will be around 9,000 square feet and have three courts/nets a piece.

Even though the other three Bay County high schools will not have a team this spring, student-athletes at those schools will be able to compete with the schools that do have beach volleyball, per the FHSAA’s new guidelines.

“If you are a student at Rutherford or a student at Bozeman or North Bay Haven that does not have a beach volleyball team, and you would be interested in playing at Mosley, at Bay, or at Arnold, you would be able to try out for those teams under the FHSAA guidelines,” Laatsch said. “If you’re interested in playing beach volleyball and you don’t go to the brick-and-mortar school, that offers it, you can always contact my office.”

The construction project, funded by the St. Joe Foundation, is estimated to cost approximately $65,106. That number does not include the cost of sand which will cost BDS around $24,000.

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