What it takes to raise a child, Village High School will use to build a girls volleyball and boys basketball program from scratch.

Village will add a pair of varsity sports for the 2024-2025 season, adding a new competitor to the local scene.

Nathan Gorsch, Mountaineers principal, said “there are still some moving parts” to learn what league girls volleyball and boys basketball will compete in next season.

As for classifications, girls volleyball will start at 3A, based on Village’s student enrollment of 530. Boys basketball will begin at 4A.

“I’m motivated to do this because it’s good for our community,” Gorsch said. “Once I pitched it to the district and got approval I said, ‘We have a lot of work to do.’ It’s easier to work on the logistics when you know the students want this and are going to benefit from this.”

Village, previously Academy Online High School, originally operated as an online option for students from its inception in 2008 until 2015.

In 2015, Village became a hybrid school at multiple locations to suit its swiftly growing student enrollment.

Village finally landed at its current location, the old Air Academy Federal Credit Union building near the Chapel Hills Mall, in 2020.

Gorsch said after years of planning Village will have the means to offer athletics to its students.

Jimmy Grantz will take the reins of the boys basketball program next winter following a hiatus from preps basketball after nearly 20 years at Palmer.

During Grantz’s stint with the Terrors, he coached Reggie Jackson, who currently plays in the NBA for the Denver Nuggets.

Grantz has spent the past two seasons coaching boys basketball at Horizon Middle School in District 49 and served as a coach for Vista Ridge football this year.

His experience with the Wolves’ football team reignited his passion for teaching kids outside of the classroom and allowed Grantz to remember “why coaching is so much fun.”

“To have the opportunity to start something new … is exciting,” Grantz said. “I might have had a little bit of scar tissue about how things ended at Palmer but coaching at Vista helped me realize that coaching is something I’m supposed to do.”

Shannon Baker will coach girls volleyball and has an extensive background of success.

At Doherty, Baker won a title as a player in 2003 and was on the team in 2002 and 2004 when the Spartans finished second at state.

In 2012 when the Spartans finished the year 26-0 en route to Doherty’s third title in school history, Baker was an assistant coach on the team.

“I’ve never been part of a program where the kids are so bought in and so excited to be playing for their home school,” Baker said. “They love this school and that’s why they brought it to Nathan.”

Although this will be Baker’s first head coaching gig, she’s spent more than a decade in club volleyball.

Baker, who coaches at Colorado Juniors Volleyball Club, won a USA Volleyball national championship in July 2023 in Chicago.

Now Baker said she’s ready to bring that energy to the Village.

“Part of the buzz is everyone is excited to see what we put out there,” Baker said. “We have a bunch of high-level volleyball players. A couple of them have already committed to playing at the college level. We’re excited to get going and see what we can do this year. I think we’re going to surprise a bunch of people.”

Village will search for a gym to host its home games as the school currently has no gym facilities.

Gorsch said he’s working on plans to secure facilities for future home games and practices.

“We have dreams and plans to build a gym … but there’s no money to build a gym right now,” Gorsch said. “We’re going to try to privately fundraise $25 - $30 million. Until we’re able to get a gym, we’ll probably use one of our local middle schools for our home contests. We’re going to be creative to find a space to rent and then host our home games at a middle school.”