A volleyball league for those with mobility issues has returned to Omaha.
The city had a sitting volleyball recreation league and a competitive team in the 2010s, but due to the COVID-19 pandemic they were canceled. A joint effort from Omaha Parks and Recreation, CHI Health and Nebraska Adaptive Sports has brought back the recreational league.
Sitting volleyball is very similar to standard volleyball. It has the same number of players on each team and the players move around to keep the ball in bounds and off the floor. The only differences are the players sit on the ground, the net is lowered and the court is smaller.
Jena Munson is a recreational therapist at CHI’s Emmanuel Rehabilitation Institute and board member of Nebraska Adaptive Sports. She said the sport is great for those who struggle to be active due to a physical impairment.
If you can imagine somebody that has some type of physical impairment that’s occurred to them, they were active before, and then all of a sudden they become sedentary and potentially depressed,” said Munson. “It’s really, really important for them to identify something that helps bring joy back into their life again.”
The new league began because a family whose daughter is pursuing her dream to be a part of the U.S. Women’s sitting volleyball team reached out to Munson and Nebraska Adaptive Sports asking if there was a league their daughter could get more experience with. Nebraska Adaptive Sports decided to pursue this by creating a league for anyone to join, the daughter included.
Kylee Doremus, who wears a prosthetic, is the daughter. She used to play traditional volleyball but now said she found a new passion.
“I feel like it’s important because people who aren’t able to do like jump as high or do all that can have a chance at doing something good, like to their like bodies,” Doremus said. “Because, yes, I felt like I could do the same thing as everyone else in standing but now I feel like you can do the same thing, but better, like it’s just to give more people an adaption to a sport that they love to play.”
The new rec-sitting volleyball league requires no prior experience, and meets at Mockingbird Hills Community Center every Tuesday in Omaha from 5-6:30 p.m.