Wisconsin volleyball coach Kelly Sheffield reflects on national title, the program and the future of the sport
Kelly Sheffield was on a recruiting trip when he received an advance copy of a book detailing the rise of the University of Wisconsin women’s volleyball program.
"Point Wisconsin," written by Madison native and longtime Wisconsin sportswriter Dennis Punzel, documents the long coaching journey for Sheffield that led to the Badgers defeating Nebraska to win the national championship last season in Columbus, Ohio.
Ironically, that’s where Sheffield was when he saw the book for the first time.
“I was bouncing around to a bunch of cities and when I got (the book), I had just landed in Columbus and went back to my hotel room and read it,” Sheffield said. “What was kind of ironic is, you know, I’m in Columbus reading a book about a national championship that we won in Columbus. How ironic that turned out to be.”
Sheffield will be speaking this weekend at the Wisconsin Volleyball Coaches Association fall clinic at the Community First Champion Center in Grand Chute and will be signing copies of the book for clinic attendees. For those not attending the clinic, the book is available through kcisports.com, at Barnes & Noble or by calling 800-697-3756.
During a phone interview last week, Sheffield talked about the book, the UW program, the future of volleyball in an ever-changing college landscape, and trying to break the NCAA regular-season attendance record when the Badgers play Florida at the Kohl Center on Sept. 16.
Is it a bit humbling to have someone want to tell not only your story but the program’s story, and to have people want to read it?
“It’s not a comfortable thing reading about yourself and some of your life stories. That’s not a comfortable place to be. But I think what I’m grateful for is to be at a place where this program and the story of the program is so appreciated by so many people. Just gratitude for that. Just very fortunate to be at a place like this. In the profession I’ve chosen, I think this is the best job there is and to be able to be handed the baton is really cool. You could write this very same thing at a lot of other places and very few people would be interested in that, just because they’re not interested in the sport, they don’t follow it or have an appreciation for the history of the program. But I have so many people that came in line buying the book and wanting to chat who have been filling the Field House for 25, 30 years. There’s just so much pride here.”
How has winning the national championship changed the program or the way the program is viewed?
“A lot of people watched it obviously. Those were record numbers. And I think there was a lot of appreciation for the level of play, not just the championship but the matches leading up to it. The Final Four matches, all three of them, the two that we played and the other one we weren’t involved in, were just a really high level of play. So I think there was an appreciation of just watching a competitive sport played at a really high level. We’ve been knocking on the door quite a bit. It was our third Final Four in a row. I think there’s already been an appreciation for us being an elite program. I think the first time we got there in 2013 we were like the 'Rocky' story. We were the underdog. It kind of came out of nowhere. A Cinderella story, if you want to quote ‘Caddyshack.’ But since then it’s been nine years of Sweet 16 or better and four of those have been in the Final Four, so I think there’s been an appreciation for where we have been. But I think what it does is it puts you in a really exclusive club. There’s only 12 teams that have ever won a national championship in our sport. So it’s a really, really exclusive club to be a part of and that part is cool and it’s unique. This has kind of been the last really, really big program with a big following that hasn’t won it. You put yourself in position enough times you’re going to be able to break through, and I feel like that’s what we were able to do.”
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Why is it important to play Florida at the Kohl Center? How important do you think that match will be?
“You want to give your kids and fans cool experiences. Let’s just do something that’s just kind of cool and unique and different. I don’t want to move our matches over there permanently. The size of our court is just so much smaller than basketball, so you’re just asking too much of your fans. They’re more disconnected the further they are. But I think to sit there and say, ‘Hey, we’re part of something that could be record-breaking, that’s a very important goal.’ We’re trying to drive the sport forward, continuing to find ways to entertain and give people access to us that might not be able to do it in other ways because we’ve been sold out every match for years and years. I think we’re all looking forward to it and, man, we really want to break that record. If you’re going to do something, you want to do it the right way. I’m sure Badgers fans will respond and I wouldn’t be surprised if the building is full that night.”
How do you get the sport in front of even more people and make it even more mainstream? What else can be done?
“Here’s the thing. It is the most played women’s sport in the country. There’s more people playing volleyball than anything else. It is the only sport where the women are out in front driving it. Every other sport the females have been on the heels of the boys, right? It is the third-most watched sport on BTN. When the games are on Big Ten Network, people watch it. It’s just behind football and men’s basketball. There are two (youth) national tournaments this year. One was in Indianapolis and this thing had over 100 courts. And the other one was in Orlando, Florida, and it had 220 courts. 220! Played over two weeks. They had almost 50,000 kids down there. This sport is massive. We just have to get national media to pay attention to it, and we have to get corporate to pay attention to it. At the grassroots level, it’s as big as anything in our country but we haven’t been able to get national and corporate to do it and hopefully that continues to change. You’ve got to take some of that responsibility on yourself and I think getting a pro league started here, which is going to be happening right after the Olympics, I think will be a game-changer for our sport as well.”
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How has the talent level of high school volleyball in Wisconsin changed in the past 10 years?
“I’ve been here going on 10 years. My understanding from 10 years ago and beyond that outside looking in, there’s always been massive numbers of people that have wanted to play this sport here. The boys high schools around Milwaukee and Racine, all of that, that whole area, has been huge for 30, 40 years. For girls, there’s always been big numbers but I’m not sure other than maybe Milwaukee 20 or 30 years ago, that there was a lot being played at a high level. I think the level of volleyball throughout the state has really increased. (Fox Valley) area, big-time improvement. Big-time improvement. I think there’s a lot of positive things that are going on in Madison. I think throughout the state, it’s not just one or two areas that are playing really good volleyball. It’s just branching out. I think the numbers have always been high, but I think the quality is really starting to get a lot higher. I think the coaching continues to get stronger and I think there are better athletes that are being more attracted to this sport as well.”
How has Name, Image and Likeness changed the way you recruit or changed the message you deliver to recruits?
“We talk about it, but it’s not one of the first messages that we’re pushing here. I think it is really good opportunities for players definitely, but that’s not why people are coming to Madison. There’s so many things here to sell that I think it’s part of the package. It’s part of, ‘Hey, if this is important to you, there’s really good opportunities here.’ Not only is it the state capital, but it’s a college town as well. So you’re not fighting all kinds of other things for its attention and money and opportunity. But you’re also not out in the middle of a cornfield. There’s businesses around Madison, Dane County and throughout the state. Sports are really important to the people of this state and even for our matches there’s a lot of people that drive an hour or two to come watch matches. So there’s a lot of passion behind the Badgers and behind our program. So there’s opportunities there. Have we been getting recruits because of NIL? I wouldn’t say that that’s the reason why anybody has come here, at least yet.”
What does (Xavier High School graduate) Liz Gregorski bring to the program and what role do you see for her this year?
“She played quite a bit in our four spring matches. She probably played as much or more than about anybody on our team, so there was a lot of opportunity for her there. … What I’m being told is Liz is as healthy as she’s been since she’s been here. And that’s been a big part. Starting maybe her junior year in high school she got hurt and it was one freak thing after another. I think she finally, right now going into the season, is as healthy and as strong as she’s ever been. She’s going into her fourth year. Just a lot more comfortable in her own skin. A lot more confident. A lot more skilled. She’s our smallest outside. She’s athletic and she can jump and she’s got a lot of shots to her, but she’s looking up at a lot of giants in front of her as well, so she’s got to play the game a little bit different than maybe what some other people do. But she does a really good job. Trains hard. Is one of our leaders on our team. She’s really turned herself into and grabbed onto a role of being a really important leader for this program. That’s one of the great things about our program is our culture, and she’s certainly one of those that goes about things in a way that allows that culture to shine.”
The anniversary of Title IX was celebrated in June. A lot of good has happened, but are there one or two things you hope to see happen in the next few years to level the playing field even more?
“We’re in the middle of an earthquake, if you will, in college sports. The grounds are shaking so much. Where does everything settle? It’s hard to tell. Are we going towards a professional model? Are there going to be sports that all of a sudden are DII or DIII or do a lot of sports just become club? Conferences are going coast to coast now, but I have a hard time seeing 20 or 30 sports going coast to coast. So are some sports more local or regional? Are they unionized? It’s just so much uncertainty, but where we’re at right now I think the things that I would like to see there needs to be consistency in a way from sport to sport regarding recruiting rules. The rulebook is just insane and then what it is from sport to sport is insanity. You can’t enforce it. So it’s got to be a lot simpler and where you’re doing things similar from sport to sport, no matter if it’s male or female or whatever. There’s got to be some things that just make a lot more sense. What I would like to see, if you’re going to have 115 guys in football and men’s basketball allowed to be in the gym in the summer with their coaches and get food for the summer, then there ought to be that many females that are able to do it. I have no idea how that is allowed that 115 men vs. 15 females. It’s been over 15 years where that’s been the case. There’s just no way where that’s OK Title IX-wise. I can’t believe that that’s still allowed. So that needs to be one of the things. I think we’re fighting for our sport to not get lost in the shuffle. There’s a Title IX narrative that’s happening that people are comparing let’s say women’s basketball to men’s basketball. Softball to baseball. Women’s soccer to men’s soccer. Those comparisons are happening and they’re happening with budgets and scholarships and salaries and opportunity, all those type of things. But volleyball is just getting left out of the discussion in those comparisons because in men’s volleyball there’s 20 Division I programs. They’ve got four and a half scholarships. So there is no comparisons. So we’ve got to make sure our sport doesn’t get left behind when some of these other women’s sports are being elevated, if you will, and that spotlight is shone on those sports.”
Contact Mike Sherry at msherry@postcrescent.com. Follow him on Twitter @MikeSherry14.
This article originally appeared on Appleton Post-Crescent: Wisconsin Badgers volleyball coach talks about national title, future
