Jenny Kilkelly and Krista Flemming look back at their time spent developing and running the Minnesota Boys High School Volleyball league and fondly remember all of the ancillary arms with good humor.
And both agree they wouldn’t want to do it again.
The idea of creating a high school avenue for boys volleyball had its roots in a meeting between longtime local volleyball coaching legend Walt Weaver and former University of Minnesota volleyball coach Hugh McCutcheon. Weaver and McCutcheon may have provided the plans, but it was Kilkelly and Flemming who turned them into tangible results. They are the Star Tribune’s 2025 All-Minnesota Sports Awards Difference Maker winners.
Friends through their time with the Shakopee girls volleyball program, Kilkelly and Flemming took leading roles with the newly formed Minnesota Boys Volleyball Coaches Association. They helped spread the word of a new league created for club teams at high schools.
They created and administered a league for the club teams patterned after the ones sanctioned by the Minnesota State High School League. Together they helped create a website, compiled the schedule of games, set up a state tournament format and were instrumental in having studies done to prove the interest in boys volleyball.
They reminisced recently on the gargantuan task they had undertaken.
“I remember driving up to Grand Forks with our husbands while we sat in back, with a big spreadsheet, trying to piece together a statewide schedule,” Kilkelly laughed.
The first version of the league began in 2018 with 21 varsity-level teams and more than 400 athletes. Six years of sweat equity later, the league had grown to more than 80 teams representing more than 2,000 athletes.
