Submitted Photo To the left are the Pioneers Boy’s Volleyball team in green, then the Crusaders Volleyball Club from left to right, (back row) Wyatt Decoteau, Malachi Baldwin, Gage Saltzman, Chuchu Ugobi and Marques Overby; (front) Brayden Rose, Jacob Rose, Noah Lawson and Ben Brown in the Bismarck Memorial Gym.

There is a new men’s volleyball team in Minot that is completely student-led.

The Crusaders Volleyball Club was the brainchild of Chuchu Ugovi, a senior at Our Redeemer’s Christian School, who has spent his time figuring out how to build a functioning team from the ground up. It is an independent club, separate from any particular school, and is managed by its members.

Ugovi has placed students from various area schools in the leadership and management positions for the team, and they have begun their debut season with games around the state and even in Canada with minimal adult assists.

The Crusaders played the Jamestown Pioneers in the first official boys volleyball game in North Dakota, according to Ugovi.

The biggest challenge getting started, according to Ugovi, was getting gym space to practice. “It is harder than you think because schools can’t just give away gym space. It took a lot of convincing different schools, and bouncing around to different places,” said Ugovi, who thanked all the schools who donated space to the team.

Ugovi described building the team as a grassroots process, where finding the money to fund the project was a challenge, as well as getting sponsors to take the idea seriously. He was able to use connections from his school to get connections to a pair of sponsors who he said “changed our season. We couldn’t have done it without them.”

“It’s a team effort – the sponsors, coaches and players all came together to make it a success,” Ugovi said. He explained that to gain his sponsors he had to put together proposals and meet with potential sponsors, and one of his toughest challenges was building his credibility and “convincing people that the team is actually real and to take us seriously.”

Noah Lawson, one of the players on the Crusaders, said he found the team originally through its social media platform. He said he started out not really knowing anything about volleyball but Aubrey taught him how to play and how to win. He said the team is made of players of varying skill levels and they learn how to cooperate. “It’s a really good time and the team is super accepting. It’d be awesome to get more people to join the team,” he said.

Ugovi said his drive to build a volleyball team was from his younger years in Canada, where boy’s volleyball is much more popular than it is in North Dakota. He asked his school gym teachers about boys volleyball and was told that “it isn’t a thing here (in N.D.),” and until his team was made, volleyball wasn’t locally considered “a boy’s sport.” Once the team started getting together and practicing, he said, people began to take them seriously and word of mouth helped them gain members. Currently, the group has enough members for two starting lineups, and hope to grow further.