In a way, Tanner Tumblin only discovered volleyball by accident.
“Growing up, baseball was my sport,” said Tumblin. “My older brother was playing football at the time when I was like 13 or 14, but he got injured and couldn’t play one season. So my parents sort of told him he should give volleyball a try.”
Tanner’s older brother, Ty, ended up finding a love for the sport while playing at Eastside. He suggested Tanner — who was homeschooled at the time — give it a shot, too.
“I played for [Easley Homeschool] in middle school, and kept playing and progressing,” said Tumblin. “I fell in love with the sport.”
So much so, that Tumblin decided to drop baseball altogether. He enrolled at Riverside, joined the school’s rising boys program, and the rest is a story still being written.
“It was too much to balance baseball, boys volleyball, and school,” said Tumblin. “It’s hard to be good at two sports while also maintaining academics. So I dropped baseball. That’s when I started really taking off in boys volleyball. It’s a decision I’ll never regret.”
It’s a decision Riverside certainly appreciates too, as Tumblin is now leading the Warriors to unprecedented heights in boys volleyball. Riverside currently sits at 21-0 on the season and is ranked No. 1 in the nation via MaxPreps.
Tumblin, now a junior, knew the Warriors had promise. But he didn’t quite see this coming.
“Everything is going our way so far this year,” said Tumblin. “You could see the potential the past two years, even if our record didn’t always reflect it. If we keep doing what we’re doing, I don’t see anything that can change our momentum. I think we’ve got a great chance to make a run at state.”
“Tanner is so valuable to this program, especially as we keep this [season] rolling,” said Riverside head coach Luke Densmore. “We’re going to have a target on our backs every game this season as it goes on. And he’s the guy that’s echoing what I tell the team about treating every point like it’s the last, and not letting anything about our record feel less than normal.”
Tumblin, the 2025 Greer News Boys Volleyball Player of the Year, often seems to be playing a different game than most. His kills are nearly impossible to stop. His movements and digs are calculated and almost exclusively mistake-free.
Densmore still remembers the first time he met Tumblin, when, coincidentally, he was the head coach for Tumblin’s homeschool team, Easley Homeschool.
“I will never forget [Tanner’s] mom referring to him as just ‘Little Red,’” Densmore recalled with a laugh, referencing Tumblin’s red hair. “I could tell right away that he was super coachable. Whatever I told him, he’d just put it into practice immediately. It was one year there, and then when he came here, and I became the coach at Riverside, he just kept getting better.
“It became impossible to keep him off the court.”
And when surrounded on the court by as talented a roster as Riverside boasts — including players like senior Christian Humphrey, sophomore Omar Rida, senior Nathan Garrido, and several other standouts — it’s proved to be a recipe for the Warriors’ success.
Riverside currently sits at 21-0 on the season and is ranked No. 1 in the nation via MaxPreps.
They’ve got their eyes on capturing the first state title in program history.
“These teams are going to know we’re ranked high, they’ll know we’re undefeated,” said Tumblin. “They’d love nothing more than to be our first loss or to knock us out of the playoffs when the time comes.
“I use that to fuel our team. We have to stay locked in. These other teams are going to give it their all, so we have to do the same.”
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