LOS ANGELES, CA – July 15, 2024 – League One Volleyball (LOVB) – the largest brand in youth volleyball with its professional volleyball league launching in the U.S. later this year – today announced the acquisition of leading youth volleyball club, SMASH in Boston, as the organization’s 50th club. LOVB’s first club in Massachusetts, the SMASH acquisition brings LOVB’s nationwide community to more than 14,000 athletes competing on 1,300 teams across 23 states.
“At SMASH, we are committed to developing the next generations of great volleyball players and we see that same dedication to growth and development from the team at LOVB,” said Lucas Coffeen, Director of SMASH. “Becoming a LOVB club will help us to support even more young people, so we couldn’t be more excited to join this community.”
Founded by Judy Slamin and Richard Barton in 1989, SMASH quickly built a name for itself throughout Massachusetts, evolving from its original all-girl club to adding boys teams in 2012. In 2020, SMASH expanded once again, entering into the Beach Volleyball arena, with the addition of its first Beach Club featuring 18 athletes. Now, the club trains over 100 beach athletes a year, with multiple players in USAV’s National Team Development program.
The club’s indoor teams have also garnered multiple accolades, including its 2021 AAU 16’s Girls team and USAV 17’s Boys team winning national championships. Its teams also produce a number of players that go onto compete at leading Ivy League schools, including Ashley Wang (setter) and Maile Somera (libero), who finished historic careers at Harvard and Yale as 4-year starters.
“We are excited to welcome SMASH and its incredible leadership team, coaches and staff to LOVB as we celebrate what this milestone means to our community. It highlights not only the rapidly growing interest in playing volleyball, but also the impact our club directors and thousands of coaches are having on the growth and development of young players across the country,” said Mike Bufano, President of LOVB Clubs. “We are incredibly proud of the dedication of our community to supporting our athletes throughout their entire volleyball journeys.”
Volleyball is the highest team participation sport - and the fastest growing - for girls in the U.S. Since 2022, LOVB's club business has grown by 85%, adding leading clubs like Tstreet and Premier Nebraska to its roster. Central to LOVB’s momentum is its youth-to-pro ecosystem, presenting an all new path to pro for club players in the US for the first time. Under LOVB’s community-up model, clubs are tied to its pro teams, providing club athletes with the opportunity to learn from, witness, and build even stronger ties with pro players they admire.
LOVB has doubled down on this model, investing in state of the art facilities to help ensure youth players gain the best training possible. In Madison (WI), for example, in partnership with LOVB’s Madtown Juniors club, LOVB has developed a state-of-the-art 10 court facility, where its club players will train alongside the LOVB Madison pro players, starting when they report to training camp in November 2024. LOVB’s professional league kicks off with first serve in 2025, making it the first pro league with a youth-to-pro ecosystem. In the lead-up to LOVB’s inaugural season, nine LOVB pro players will be competing in the 2024 Olympics where they will be defending their gold medal.
For more information about LOVB and its club business, please visit LOVB.com.
About LOVB
Founded in 2020, LOVB’s mission is to reimagine the future of volleyball. With a unique community up approach, LOVB is one holistic ecosystem - from club to pro. The largest community of youth clubs in the country, LOVB is launching its pro league in November 2024, which will feature some of the very best players in the world including the American gold medalists from the last Olympics. For more information on LOVB, its clubs, and its professional teams in Atlanta, Austin, Houston, Madison, Omaha, and Salt Lake, please visit www.lovb.com, or follow on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.