Key Takeaways
- Carter Booth, daughter of former NBA player and Nuggets GM Calvin Booth, stands 6’7″ and plays for Wisconsin in the NCAA Final Four
- Penn State’s roster includes three daughters of pro athletes, while Stanford, North Carolina, USC, and Texas each have at least one
- Youth volleyball tournaments regularly draw 6,000 participants at convention centers, compared to approximately 800 for basketball events
- ESPN recorded its most-watched women’s college volleyball season in 2025, including a Nebraska-Kentucky match that drew 1.2 million viewers on ABC
- Riley Curry (13) and Zhuri James (11) are already competing in youth volleyball, with Kevin Garnett’s daughter Kapri joining Michigan’s incoming class
Elite Athletes’ Families Gravitating Toward the Sport
As Wisconsin prepares to face Kentucky in the NCAA women’s volleyball Final Four, the roster includes Carter Booth, the 6’7″ daughter of Calvin Booth, who played 10 years in the NBA and served as GM of the 2023 NBA champion Denver Nuggets.
“Volleyball really appealed to her. She gravitated toward it early. She never really played basketball,” Calvin Booth told Front Office Sports. “There wasn’t really a fork in the road to make a decision.”
Cari Spears, who plays at Texas, chose volleyball despite both parents playing professional basketball. Her father Marcus Spears is an ESPN NFL analyst and former Cowboys first-round pick, while her mother Aiysha Spears was a first-team All-SEC basketball player at LSU and WNBA first-round pick.
“I wish it was some intricate story, but it’s what she chose,” Marcus Spears said. His wife introduced Cari to volleyball at age five, and she committed to the sport immediately.
Penn State’s current roster features three daughters of pro athletes: Caroline and Ava Jurevicius, whose father Joe Jurevicius had a 10-year NFL career, and Alexis Ewing, daughter of NBA Hall of Famer Patrick Ewing. Tim Duncan’s daughter Sidney plays at Stanford. Jackie Taylor, daughter of late NFL safety Sean Taylor, plays for North Carolina. Willie McGinest’s daughter plays at USC.
The pipeline continues to build. Kevin Garnett’s daughter Kapri is in Michigan’s incoming signing class. Steph Curry’s daughter Riley (13) and LeBron James’s daughter Zhuri (11) are both competing in youth volleyball.
Scale of Youth Participation
Youth volleyball operates on a massive scale that many outside the sport don’t recognize. Calvin Booth described convention centers hosting over 100 courts with continuous action. “There’s games going on from 8 am till 8 pm,” he said. “The amount of girls playing the sport is probably mind-blowing if you’re not really familiar with it.”
Marcus Spears drew a direct comparison to basketball. “You can go to a convention center and see 6,000 girls playing volleyball, whereas with a basketball tournament it’s probably 800.”
Media Coverage Accelerating Growth
Television networks have significantly increased volleyball coverage in recent years. In 2023, Fox aired a Wisconsin-Nebraska game immediately following an NFL broadcast window. Nebraska also hosted a match in its football stadium that drew over 90,000 fans, which Big Ten Network televised.
This year, ESPN delivered its most-watched women’s college volleyball season on record. A Nebraska-Kentucky game on ABC drew 1.2 million viewers.
Katie George, ESPN sideline reporter and former ACC Player of the Year at Louisville, explained the network’s approach. “One of our bosses once said you have to show the game to grow the game. The more that we’ve shown volleyball, the more people across the country are falling in love with it, because it’s such an easy watch.”
George highlighted the sport’s appeal: “There’s a fast-paced nature, and you’re seeing something unbelievably athletic happen in women’s volleyball every 10 seconds. People are diving all over the floor, laying their bodies on the line.”
Looking Ahead
The combination of expanding media coverage, massive youth participation, and high-profile athlete families choosing the sport creates conditions for continued growth. The scale difference between volleyball and basketball participation at the youth level (6,000 versus 800 at comparable tournaments) suggests volleyball’s grassroots foundation may be stronger than commonly understood in the broader sports industry.
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