In its sixth year of existence, Glenside’s TNT Volleyball Club has generated more teams, court time, and enthusiasm than its new facility can handle.
This year’s fall tryouts saw over 800 boys and girls, some as young as 11 years old, vying for 450 spots across 34 teams. Parting ways with many youth volleyball clubs in the area, TNT has made affordability a top priority.
“Our goal has always been to keep costs down. We want to take even more players but we don’t have the space yet,” Chuck Dougherty, club director, said. “We’d like to take on a wider geography, I just have to figure out how to do it. It’s a good problem to have.”
TNT Volleyball is the brainchild of its director, Chuck, a father of three Cheltenham High School graduates, a former president of the Glenside Youth Athletic Committee (GYAC), and a fun-loving advocate for community and sport. The club’s national tournaments, skills clinics, Saturday scrimmages, pick-up games, private and semi-sessions each stem from his vision for more localized volleyball opportunities.
It’s been a long, windy, fun road to today.
“In 2008, my daughter Áine was about nine years old. We were running Little League, and that was when I decided to hold outdoor volleyball clinics to introduce kids to the game,” Chuck said. “We had two nets and a dozen balls and started on the fields of Cheltenham High School.”
When Áine started playing for the local Catholic Youth Organization (CYO) chapter two years later, her father helped participation swell from dozens to hundreds. Invested parents and coaches rallied the girls to compete in AAU tournaments, and sometimes they returned home with gold medals.
“We were very successful at those tournaments. We won a number of them,” Chuck, whose younger daughter Megan played for TNT as well, said. “It’s been a good run so far.”
In 2016, parents planted a seed to organize a local club. One year later, TNT Volleyball was born.
“We had four teams the first year. We grew to nine teams the next year, and we qualified for national events. It was building and growing,” he said.
Growth spurred the purchase of the club’s new facility, a former warehouse in North Wales dubbed “The TNT Bunker.”
“It had a ceiling that was ideal for high-ball sports, which is exactly what we needed. I signed the lease in 2019, and by February 2021 we were in,” Chuck, an engineer by day, said.
Eli Porr ran the Men’s and Women’s NCAA volleyball programs at Arcadia University from 2015 to 2021, and has watched the club progress over time.
“I think it’s awesome for Glenside,” Porr said. “It’s cool to see what he’s been able to do, going from a handful of teams to what it is now. I remember him coming to my office and saying he had this idea for a club. I think our area needs it.”
Coach Porr will be working with TNT’s coaches and clinics this season.
“Chuck has a beautiful demeanor, he’s a yes-person, and he’s here to make the community a better place to live,” he said. “I think there’s a bigger picture with this club. He doesn’t get caught up in some of the things that other club directors sometimes focus on.”
During the summer months you can find Chuck, local coaches, and a growing fleet of young volleyball enthusiasts holding pro bono instructional clinics in grassy fields. Chuck’s spare time in the fall is spent coaching Germantown Academy’s high school team, many of whom play for TNT.
According to Chuck, it all goes back to a brief kitchen conversation in 2005.
“My wife’s standing by the sink and says, ‘Hey, I signed you up for Áine’s tee-ball team. You’re a coach now.’ That’s how a lot of parents get into it, I guess,” he said. “My wife gave me a whole side-career.”
For more details and information about TNT Volleyball Club, you can check out their Facebook page or visit their website here. If you’d like to follow the club’s activities this season, you can check out their Instagram page.
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