West Ranch High School graduate Noah Douphner of Stevenson Ranch is one of 12 players from around the country who made the USA Volleyball Boys U19 National Team.
According to Douphner, he took part in the USA National Team Development Program, was scouted, invited to a volleyball camp and subsequently placed on a 28-player training roster in Anaheim. He then qualified for and made the 12-player traveling roster and with his team is set to compete in the 2025 FIVB (the International Volleyball Federation) Boys U19 World Championship between July 24 and Aug. 3 in Tashkent, Uzbekistan.
“It’s the sport that I love, and it’s become very special to me,” Douphner said in a telephone interview. “I have the opportunity to compete on a world stage — even if it’s a youth world stage. It’s been a big goal of mine to try and make even the training roster. Being able to now travel and compete under USA and represent my country, yeah, it means a lot to me. It’s really special, and it’s a great opportunity that I have.”
Douphner, who just graduated high school in the spring, has plans to attend California State University, Northridge, in the fall and play on the Matadors’ volleyball team. While he’ll be studying cinema and television arts, he said he’ll also be looking to position himself to one day play professional volleyball and even possibly in the Olympics.
But professional volleyball isn’t like other sports in America.
“I want to try and take volleyball as far as I can for a career,” he said. “But unfortunately, we don’t have a professional league inside of the United States as of right now. So, what most of the Olympic athletes and older USA players do is they go play in other countries, like France, Poland, Germany.”
In other words, the pathway to the Olympics would be through professional ball overseas, and it’s something he’s definitely thought about.
For now, however, he’s focused on competing for gold.
Douphner remembered where he was and how he felt just before finding out he’d made the national team. He was in a hotel room in Anaheim during training camp, anxiously waiting for a message on WhatsApp. The coach was about to announce the final 12-player roster from the 28 athletes still in contention.
“I just remember sitting in my hotel room, on my bed, waiting,” he said. “And then I saw the coach typing, and it took him like three minutes to type out the whole roster. I was just watching the three little bubbles just move up and down for like three minutes. It was probably the most stressful time of my life.”
He said that when he found out he made the team, he was filled with pure joy and excitement — it was the result of all his hard work. In that moment, seeing his efforts pay off felt surreal.
Now that he’s on the team, he’s looking forward to the journey ahead.
A release from USA Volleyball indicated that the team would attend a training block in mid-July in Colorado Springs, Colorado, then they’ll immediately head to Madrid, Spain, for more training before the World Championship.
The World Championship, according to the release, will feature 24 teams divided into six pools. After the conclusion of pool play, the best four teams in each pool will advance. The U.S. will be in a pool with Korea, Brazil, Colombia, Cuba and Finland.
Brandon Johnhson, Douphner’s former coach at West Ranch, sent a message about Douphner:
“Noah is as good as it gets,” Johnson wrote. “He is a hard worker, both on and off the court. He has overcome more than anyone and has come out of it better and stronger than ever.”
According to an April 28 USA Volleyball release, the previous U.S. Boys U19 Team won gold at the 2024 NORCECA Continental Championship and has won the last two Pan American Cup tournaments in 2022 and ’23. The 2023 Boys U19 Team finished fourth at the World Championship, which, the release indicated, was its best finish ever.
The upcoming 2025 FIVB Boys U19 World Championship can be viewed on VBTV, which is Volleyball World’s official streaming platform. It can be accessed at bit.ly/3ZWHqh7.
