BOISE, Idaho — Starting in the spring of 2024, College of Idaho Athletics will compete in beach volleyball in the Cascade Collegiate Conference, the department announced Thursday morning.
The program addition makes the Yotes the second college to offer beach volleyball in Idaho, alongside Boise State University. Four Cascade Collegiate Conference schools currently compete in the sport, with six participating institutions needed for the CCC to sponsor a championship.
"We are thrilled to announce the addition of the fastest growing sport in the NAIA, Women's Beach Volleyball, at The College of Idaho," College of Idaho Co-President Jim Everett said. "Anytime we can provide opportunities for more students to engage in the outstanding liberal arts and sciences program that The College of Idaho offers, while also providing competition at a high level, we are excited to do so."
In 2014, Boise State competed in its inaugural beach volleyball season. At the time, 61 NCAA teams competed in the sport. 179 teams now compete in beach volleyball, making it one of the fastest-growing sports in America, according to Thursday's news release.
30 NAIA schools sponsor a beach volleyball program. In order for the NAIA to sponsor a championship, there must be 40 institutions with a beach volleyball program, according to College of Idaho Athletics.
In 2022, Corban University out of the CCC won the NAIA's national invitational. The competition consisted of three conference automatic qualifiers, along with three-at large schools. Corban claimed one of the at-large spots before winning the invitational.
"Congratulations to The College of Idaho on the addition of Beach Volleyball as its latest varsity sport," CCC commissioner Robert Cashell said. "Beach is clearly a fast-growing activity and we are very close to being able to consider it a conference championship sport once we reach the critical number of six sponsoring schools."
During the 2023-2024 athletic season, the Yotes will have 21 varsity programs competing with the addition of beach volleyball.
College of Idaho Vice President of Athletics, Reagan Rossi, said the Yotes' expect to begin with a roster of 14 women, "with the potential to grow that number."
The Yotes have already kicked off their search to hire the first C of I head beach volleyball coach. For interested candidates to learn more information on the role, click here.
"One need look no further than to our most recent Rhodes Scholar, Kaya Evans, who played soccer here, to know the benefits of blending faculty mentorships with the relationships built with teammates and coaches and the lessons taught in real time in competition," Everett said. "When done right, it is a powerful combination that can produce incredible results."
Evans graduated from the College of Idaho summa cum laude, with a bachelor's degree in political economy and minors in pre-law, Spanish, environmental science and anthropology-sociology.
Evans became the eighth Yote alum to be named a Rhodes Scholar. The award is given to just 32 American students each year and is one of the oldest and most celebrated international fellowships worldwide.
Watch more Sports:
See all of our sports coverage in our YouTube playlist:
