Women’s sports are having a hard-to-miss moment. Total revenue is projected to reach over $2.3 billion in 2025, and viewership continues to set new records across athletics. The 2024 Paris Olympics marked the first-ever Olympic Games to reach participant gender parity.
For League One Volleyball (LOVB), the timing is just right. The organization, founded in 2020, is on a mission to reimagine the future of volleyball through a holistic ecosystem of both club and pro teams. LOVB Pro’s inaugural season launched in January 2025 with some of the world’s elite players competing across six teams.
“Today when you turn on the TV, you’re as likely to see a women’s professional or college sport as you would a male sport,” says Kelley Kish, Head of Pro Volleyball Operations for LOVB. “Our league is so intentional about not just being driven by revenue or by TV ratings. It’s about how we are impacting the next generation.”
Championing volleyball at all levels
Between its professional teams and more than 75 junior clubs, LOVB isn’t simply maintaining a volleyball portfolio—but rather a pipeline for nurturing the sport’s future.
“What drew me to LOVB is this volleyball ecosystem where our youth have an advantage of being in a club and getting to interact with our pros (even if they’re not in a pro team city),” explains Kish.
All LOVB club members are matched with a pro athlete in the same position who provides feedback and motivation, whether it’s through journaling, video messages or in-person events. With certain clubs and pro teams training or competing in the same facilities, young players get direct access to some of the sport’s top talent, not to mention award-winning Olympians. At the same time, many LOVB Pro players get the opportunity to pioneer a new class of competition for volleyball as a whole.
“[For Pro athletes] you are getting to play at this high level that’s never been played in the U.S. before,” says Kish. “But more important is that they really can see the impact that they’re having on the youth.”
Scaling pro athlete support for a critical inaugural season
LOVB prides itself on supporting its athletes on and off the court. Leading up to LOVB Pro’s first season, organization leadership knew it would be critical to have a mechanism for capturing real-time feedback from the athletes themselves.
Says Kish: “We knew we wanted to elevate our athlete voice and have a forum for that.We also needed to make certain that while we’re in startup mode (with a small but mighty staff working remotely from different locations), there would be a way to always stay connected to our players.”
Before joining LOVB, Kish held Athletics Director roles at numerous Division II institutions where she saw first-hand how RealResponse provides a safe space for athletes to speak up. “I knew this would be a forum that would be easily adopted by our players. It was a really easy decision to have a platform like RealResponse for our players, and it makes each of us better on this end too.”
LOVB rolled out RealResponse as part of the professional players’ onboarding, even before their first practice. QR codes and links to the platform are embedded across high-traffic areas, and leadership regularly pushes out messages through the app to keep the resource top of mind.
Throughout LOVB Pro’s first season, Kish’s team not only captured valuable athlete feedback, but made adjustments because of it. Input shared through RealResponse uncovered one team’s frustration with commuting to a temporary practice facility while their new building was under construction. This jumpstarted a larger dialogue—and a plan was developed to (safely) relocate practice back to the permanent building as it was being worked on.
“It is so important to have a pulse of how everything really is and answer ‘What are the scotomas that we’re not seeing? What are things that we need to have on our radar?’” explains Kish. “What I was most excited about is that reporting stayed consistent. Even if it was toward the end of the season, athletes were willing to come forward and share or ask questions. To me, that is a vital benchmark.”
Real-time data fuels long-term success for LOVB Pro
With RealResponse, Kish’s team has assurance that players can reach out in any moment of need, rather than internalizing concerns until the end of the season or when staff happens to be in the right location. The platform’s two-way communication ensures the athletes know there is a real person receiving their feedback.
“We found that back-and-forth dialogue to be very helpful in this inaugural year, where things are happening for the first time,” says Kish. “Being able to work through things as they came up was important, but more important is that human touch, being able to say ‘We hear you. Now what can we do to act on what you’ve shared to make us better?’”
In addition to delivering an extra level of support for its current roster, LOVB’s partnership with RealResponse is helping evolve its operations for future players (at all levels).
“In season one, in an inaugural year, feedback and data are so important. RealResponse is helping us gather even more input so that our players can concentrate on volleyball, their friends, families and loved ones—and not have any worries or concerns around their safety or wellbeing.”
Learn more about how RealResponse uses anonymous communications to amplify the voices and insights you need to strengthen your athlete experience.
Photos courtesy of LOVB.
