Five Questions With: Mike Endsley – Head men’s volleyball coach at Wis. Lutheran College
Friday, December 11th, 2020
Mike Endsley, the head men’s volleyball coach at Wisconsin Lutheran College, sat down with us for the “5 Questions With” feature earlier this month. Check it out
FOR THE FULL VIDEO, CLICK HERE.
Background
- Head men’s volleyball coach at Wisconsin Lutheran College
- Former high school boys assistant coach at Pius XI
- Badger Region boys volleyball coach at Milwaukee Volleyball Club for
- Ph.D in research sciences
- Went to Marquette University High School, undergraduate degree from Purdue University
Question: You seem to have a lot of crossover between your previous career and your new coaching career. What is your role at the college in the middle of the pandemic?
Answer: In addition to coaching and starting the men’s program, I am also the COVID compliance officer. Using my Ph.D and my research background, I am in charge of all 19 intercollegiate programs that we have here at Wisconsin Lutheran – making sure that everyone is safe and healthy with COVID testing. In addition I also do a little bit of teaching on the side with a physical education classes and have been contact to do some teaching of science classes at the college but I want to get the program up and running first before venturing into that.
Question: I bet you didn’t expect your two worlds to collide right after taking the job in February?
Answer: It was perfect timing for everything and everybody. I am glad to be of service to my athletics department and the university and glad to bring whatever experience I can to help us through it.
Question: What’s the season looking like from a health and safety perspective as your athletes get ready to compete later in the spring?
Answer: Next year, both the men’s and women’s volleyball programs will be playing in the spring season. So we are going to have double headers for all of the conference schools. That will be different because if they allow spectators, it will be nice to have your other program cheering you on. They did postpone the conference season a little bit with it now starting in early March. We did, however, have a lot of our non-conference matches canceled, too. It’s going to be different dynamic. And with us being new and me being new, I really don’t know what normal is or is supposed to be. It’s going to be a little a different though for everyone who has been a part of the conference for a few years already.
Question: The Northern Athletics Conference is one of the strongest NCAA Division 3 men’s volleyball conferences in the country. What is it like to have to start a new program knowing that you are going to have to face some real juggernauts on your schedule?
Answer: It’s funny, one of the first days we had the ability to show the guys some tape, I showed the guys a clip of the MSOE-Benedictine competition when both teams were ranked in the Top 15 in the country. It was a little daunting to watch. On top of those two, there were two other NAC teams ranked last year, and there are others like Concordia Wisconsin who are getting better every year. For us, we are day by day, getting better each day. We’re looking to compete in every match that we can. And then we will build on that year by year.
Question: What is the recruiting focus for Wisconsin Lutheran?
Answer: Our main focus is our back yard. We long to go after Wisconsin after athletes as much as we can. We get to see them much more. We get to develop relationships with them much easier. We’re looking at kids though in the big volleyball areas like Chicago, Illinois, California and around the country. But with my background and my assistant coach Chris Dibb’s background in the area (Franklin High School boys head coach, MVC coach), our big push initially is going to be to get guys from the area who want to stay local and have a good experience here at Wisconsin Lutheran.
Question: You’ve been involved in high school and club scene. Do you feel boys volleyball is in a good place? Do you see it continuing to grow? What do you see from your perspective?
Answer: It’s been amazing to see what boys volleyball has done. My freshman year of high school, there was no official state championship. So to see how much the game has progressed from a rules perspective to make the game quicker and a little more fun is great. I like how everything counts as a point. In the high school level, it’s great to see the sport sanctioned by the WIAA and at the collegiate level seeing so many schools starting out programs. I’m hoping in the future, I hope that in the state of Wisconsin, we have a lot of schools that don’t have boys volleyball. We are mainly focused in the Milwaukee, Madison and Fox Cities area. It would be nice to see the other schools north and west start to implement boys volleyball. As more and more collegiate programs come on board, there is definitely more room to grow at the high school level.
Question: For potential student athletes out there, what is Wisconsin Lutheran known for? Give yourself a plug right now.
Answer: WLC is where the old boys state championship was held. We are in Milwaukee right by the Milwaukee Medical Complex. We are 50 to 60 percent student athletes. We have some very strong majors in the fields of health sciences, educations, accounting and business. We have connections to the medical college and to Froedtert being that they are right across the street. There are a lot of opportunities if the sciences is what you are looking for. It is close knit, Christian environment with the best dorms in the state. Brand new dorms, some look like apartments with granite countertops and all that stuff. There’s always stuff going on on campus. We have great relationships with the neighborhood. It’s really neat environment.
Question: Would Wisconsin Lutheran ever want the WIAA boys state championship back?
Answer: Absolutely. Without a doubt. There’s no question in my mind. We are always open to that opportunity on campus. It’s something the university has loved eve before we started our program. From my perspective it’s also a great recruiting tool to have.
Question: What has been the best part of the new gig?
Answer: In my previous job, it was a lot less human interaction. My only outlet to interact with people was the coaching I did at the junior level – either high school or club. I felt myself wanting that opportunity to help teach and mentor and make good connections with individuals and help them grow. The more I worked on the coaching side, the more I was drawn to it.
