 As a youth, he played for the Bridgetown Baseball League in Hamilton County, Ohio; Vollmer was a leader on the team that won the Hamilton County Grade School baseball championship in 1935, according to a publication called "News of the Reds" dated May 20, 1947.Vollmer graduated from Western Hills High School in 1938 and signed as a free agent with the Cincinnati Reds the following year.Vollmer did not appear for the Reds until May 31, 1942.