Synergy Volleyball is a growing club in need of more practice space.

Now in its third year, the Maple Valley-based youth club could use a gym to play in, even if that means converting a barn, said Jeff Potter, who started the program.

“Because of the fact it is a struggle for us year in and year out to get gym time we’re looking for other opportunities,” Potter said. “We worked a deal with a local church to install the equipment in the floor so we could practice in their gym … so that helped us stay local. But that doesn’t give us all the time we need (in the gym). We were thinking as a club, ‘What other opportunities are out there?’ We’re looking for a gym that doesn’t necessarily have to be a gym, a warehouse, or a pole building, a barn.”

The club needs someplace they can install equipment, put down a sport court and pad that’s 50-feet-by-80-feet with a ceiling which has a clearance of at least 25 feet.

This kind of facility would allow Synergy to do more as well as build on the success its teams had during the first three seasons.

This past season, the U-11, U-12 and U-14 teams were competitive in the region, Potter said.

The season runs from November — tryouts are typically shortly after the high school season ends — through May. When the season ended, the U-14 finished ninth as did the U-12s, while the U-11s were developing as a team which had to play up against squads a year older.

“The Puget Sound region is pretty big, there’s probably close to 100 U-14 teams in the region, so when you look at that (ninth place finish), not too shabby for a small club based out of Maple Valley,” Potter said. “Our U-12 team ended up ninth in the region, as well. They were very competitive in the top levels.”

Synergy is part of a larger vision Potter has for growing volleyball in Maple Valley.

It started more than a decade ago when Potter began a volleyball program for elementary school students in partnership with Tahoma Learning Communities. It’s offered every spring for six weeks.

Synergy Volleyball was started in 2010 to build on the success of that elementary school program and offer local players the opportunity to train as well as play close to home.

A year ago, that elementary program fed into Synergy, Potter said.

“Last year there was a group of fourth grade girls who seemed to enjoy it, they were very athletic and I asked the parents if they’d be interested,” Potter said. “So they showed up at tryouts in the fall, 12 of them. I told the parents and the players this is a development year. We’re not going to win tournaments necessarily, we’re going to learn the game, we’re going to learn the skills.”

And learn they did, Potter said, including a sophisticated offense which will look familiar to them if they continue on at the high school level. But, more than that, Potter said, the U-11 team developed a level of resilience.

“The players, I think now, understand,” he said. “If all the players (from U-11) return next year, they’ll be a U-12 team that will have a year under its belt and they’ll be very competitive. So, that was an exciting year for the club in that respect.”

Potter said it’s nearly a miracle how Synergy was able to draw competitive, athletic players for three teams while many clubs based in larger communities can’t do that.

“That’s a big statement about Maple Valley and what we have here,” Potter said. “Maple Valley is a community that’s sports oriented. There are a lot of girls out there who may not have found their sport.”

Volleyball could be just what girls in the area — players don’t have to be from Maple Valley — are looking for in terms of a new sport. And unlike other athletics or activities where the best players start as early as pre-school, volleyball players do start later, even middle school.

And Synergy is a club, Potter said, that is about more than learning how to play the sport. He wants players to walk away having grown as people not just as athletes.

“Wins will come, dependent on the players commitment and the coaches efforts, but personal growth is really what we’re looking for … on the court and off the court,” Potter said. “Volleyball … is a tool for you to deal with life better, get a little tougher, discover what you can accomplish and have friends around you while you’re doing it. We’ve gotten a lot of feedback that we’re doing the right thing. We’re excited for next year.”

And what could make the season better would be more gym space.

“With all the great families and all the people out here who do want to help the youth … this is another opportunity to help a non-profit youth program for local girls,” Potter said. “If we can bounce around all these gyms and still achieve the level we’re getting, imagine what we could do if we had one gym that we could use. One of the missions of this program is to keep the costs down and this will help that if we’re not paying other people for gym space.”