Success of regional volleyball club helping sport grow in Kitsap
Published 1:30 am Tuesday, July 22, 2025
Dakine Volleyball Club’s high placement at nationals has sparked growth for volleyball in Kitsap County.
The club, based out of University Place, features athletes from South Kitsap and Central Kitsap and placed third overall in the USAV Nationals July 3 at the Kay Bailey Hutchinson Event Center in Dallas, TX.
The road to placing third at nationals didn’t come without hiccups, providing challenges for the club to overcome in the tournament.
“There were five girls who lost grandparents this year, so that kind of brought the families and the players closer,” Katie Pasi, the head volleyball coach at Central Kitsap and an assistant coach on the girls’ national team, said. “It was the craziest thing that the girls…all experienced loss together because so many were going through it at the same time.”
In recent memory, there have not been many clubs for kids who want to play volleyball at a higher level, leaving Kitsap girls without an option to pursue volleyball further. However, Pasi notes that she has witnessed a shift in the number of girls and families that want to partake in volleyball as a sport, largely in part due to the club’s performance at nationals. She says there are a lot of people now who want to come into the club to try and get the training and exposure it offers.
“Usually if (a team) finishes that well, they’re coming from Seattle,” Pasi said. “And just beyond that, Washington isn’t really known for volleyball, [so] these kids are super excited to be on the map.”
Three girls in total from the club team will end up going to Central Kitsap (Sydney Lingenbrink, Elliana Smith, Manaia Pasi) to continue playing volleyball for the high school team, and four girls will be going to South Kitsap (Angelique Bernard, Savannah Browning, Payton Elmore, Analiah Lauifi).
As a result of doing well at nationals, the team is growing. Pasi notes that when she first started with the club, they didn’t have to make cuts because there were not enough girls trying out for the team and volleyball itself wasn’t as prevalent in the community as it is now.
Currently, Dakine has 60 girls trying out for the team. The club is now forced with having to cut about 20 kids due to the growth the sport has seen.
