When Kurt Nusterer came out for the Columbus North boys volleyball team the spring of his freshman year, he had very little experience with the sport.
Now, Nusterer is headed to one of the top men’s volleyball programs in the country. The 6-foot-8 senior signed recently to play at University of Hawaii.
“He came in his freshman year and didn’t really know how to spell volleyball,” said Shannon Burch, the North boys coach at the time. “He was pretty new with it, and here he is three years later getting a scholarship.”
Nusterer played both JV and varsity as a freshman before moving up to the varsity full-time his sophomore year. The summer after his sophomore season, he joined Indy Elite’s 16-and-under club team coached by Andrea Behling, who had been the assistant coach at North.
After one of Behling’s middle hitters wasn’t able to go to Dallas for the national tournament, she invited Nusterer to come along and play.
“The timing worked out for us,” Behling said. “His growth has been incredible over the past couple years. I don’t know many kids that love volleyball as much as Kurt does. He’s a big kid. You can’t teach 6-foot-8, but the passion that he has is incredible to watch.”
Nusterer, who grew seven inches his eighth-grade year, had been a soccer player, but did not get to play soccer as a freshman because of two broken legs. He played soccer and was on the swim team as a sophomore, but gave up those sports after that year to focus on volleyball.
“I just enjoyed volleyball so much,” Nusterer said. “The reason I decided to take it to the next level was how much fun it is. The team camaraderie is so huge. In volleyball, it takes 75 points for the other team to win, and in soccer, the other team can get one or two goals and win.”
Last spring, Nusterer had visits lined up with UCLA and Pepperdine and was doing to meet the Hawaii coaches at their match at Pepperdine. But as he was on his way to the airport, the NCAA canceled the seasons because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Nusterer still was able to fly to Hawaii last March for vacation and got to go on campus, but wasn’t able to meet with coaches or watch practice. He also visited Ohio State and NAIA national champion Campellsville (Kentucky), and a scheduled visit to Ball State was canceled.
“The pandemic really didn’t mess up to much for volleyball, but it messed up my visits,” Nusterer said.
Nusterer received scholarship offers from Ball State, Loyola (Chicago), Pepperdine, UCLA and Hawaii.
“Loyola has a huge freshman class of middle blockers, and that’s my position, so it didn’t make much sense to go there,” Nusterer said. “Pepperdine and UCLA were too expensive. Hawaii has such an awesome team culture, that was probably one of the biggest reasons.”
Burch said Nusterer is the first boys volleyball player from North to receive a scholarship. The Bull Dogs will celebrate Nusterer’s signing at its final regular season game Tuesday at home against Bishop Chatard. The JV game starts at 6 p.m., followed by the varsity at around 7 p.m.
North is 5-10 this year.
“It’s been a tough season learning a lot,” Nusterer said. “Honestly, the program at North is all about getting the kids to have fun and trying something new.”
Even though he is 6-8, Nusterer plays all six rotations. First-year coach Sarah Boldrey said he is the team’s top all-around player.
“Kurt started out super new,” Boldrey said. “He came in never playing before, and he has grown so much as a player. He’s a captain, and he’s such a great leader. He wants everybody to love the game as much as he does. He’s been a great role model, not only for our boys, but for Columbus volleyball in general.”
