A Brooksville student-athlete’s push for a boys volleyball program in Hernando County has led to a new team at Challenger K-8. Arlo Sandifur, now a sixth grader, recently began attending Challenger K-8. Navigators Volleyball Coach Foley began holding tryouts for a boys volleyball team for the 2025-2026 school year after Sandifur’s speech before the Hernando County School Board. Sandifur was the first to be informed of the team’s creation on October 30.
Sandifur told the board near the end of the 2024-2025 academic year that Hernando County public schools offered no competitive path for boys volleyball. “I love this sport, and I put real work into it, but have run into a wall that boys in every other sport don’t face,” Sandifur said. “There is no competitive path for boys volleyball in Hernando County public schools, no club team, no middle school team, nothing.”
As a fifth grader at Chocochatti Elementary, Sandifur competed in i9 volleyball as the only boy among dozens of girls. His mother, Sarah Sandifur, said he was fine with it. Sandifur competed with i9 Sports for three years before aging out of the program when he entered middle school. He had started in youth football before taking an interest in volleyball three years ago.
Sandifur’s research found no other option to play locally until high school, and then only at Hernando Christian Academy, a private school. Because he wished to stay in the public school system, the only alternatives were leagues based in Orlando or Tampa.
As of the writing of this article, Sandifur and several other interested male athletes were competing in tryouts for the Navigators team.
Originally reported by Hernando Sun
