Pave your own way: Find your own path and you’ll enjoy volleyball more in your life
Saturday, June 27th, 2020
By Brian Rushmer ~ Badger Region Board Member
I LOVE volleyball. That is something that is simple for us all to say as volleyball coaches and players. For me, volleyball is something well beyond a game and a competition. It is something that for me has provided avenues for travel, relationships and amazing life experiences that I wouldn’t trade for anything in the world.
The catch, I never set out to plan a career in volleyball. It just sort of happened. My path within volleyball is a perfect example of the different routes that can be taken toward creating a career out of a passion; after all my dad preached to me my entire life: “find something you love, and make it your career.”
Just play
Like most suburban Milwaukee kids, I grew up with exposure to numerous sports. Having played soccer, baseball, track, hockey, tennis, golf, snowboarding and skateboarding I was able to create an idea of what I enjoyed in my youth. It wasn’t until high school that I began to really play volleyball. Growing up with neighbors who had played at Tosa East it was easy for me to see how enjoyable volleyball could be, plus at the time I wasn’t a huge fan of the running we endured through soccer practice.
When I got to high school I quickly learned how much fun volleyball could be. It wasn’t just the sport itself but the competitive aspect overall, the family atmosphere created by John Simon at Tosa East and the level of competition within the program got me hooked.
By the end of my sophomore season in high school, club volleyball had been an afterthought to me. Then as the season finished and our varsity team lost in the state tournament the speech given by John Simon resonated with us all: “PLAY VOLLEYBALL, play club, play outdoors, play in leagues but whatever you do, play.”
Those that know John I’m sure can easily imagine the inflection within his voice through that sentence alone. It was inspiring. This drove my dad and I to ultimately make the decision to start Raider VBC at the time. This helped create an opportunity for our JV team to stay together and continue to play volleyball with a low cost, a minimal low time commitment scenario while still competing as multi-sport athletes. This without me knowing it would be where I started my career. The following season we added a second team for my cousins’ age group. I was able to start to coach with my uncle and would stick with that age group for the remainder of their high school careers.
College and beyond
This led me to college. It was 2005 at the time, the collegiate volleyball scene on the men’s side was extremely different to what it is now. There wasn’t a ton of opportunity at the DI, DII, DIII or NAIA level. While the DI DII scene has grown, the DIII and NAIA scene has boomed since then. I decided I wanted to stay close to home and explore my options at UW-Milwaukee even though they did not have an NCAA men’s volleyball program (it was cut in the 90s and never added back). While at UWM, I wanted to continue to be around volleyball and very much enjoyed my time coaching club and wondered what the high school scene could be like from a coaching side rather than a playing side.
As my freshman year of college came to an end, I was working my summer at Blackstone Creek Golf Club in Germantown when I heard they were possibly looking to add a program. It was then I knew I had to give it a shot. I reached out to my former English teacher and JV golf coach Joel Farren who was an associate principal at the time to clarify if they were truly interested in adding it. He said yes and helped connect me with the Athletic Director at the time. Going in, I was energetic, YOUNG (only 2 years removed from high school) and felt like I could tackle anything. Well, the win loss record as we started wasn’t the most favorable but we found guys that shared the same passion for competing and for learning the game that I did. Without the foundation at the beginning at Germantown I don’t know that I’d be writing this today.
While at Germantown now a close friend and colleague of mine, Brad Kuehl approached me about coaching club. I had missed the club game and always admired what North Shore Milwaukee Volleyball Club stood for. The opportunity to join that staff was a dream come true to me. With the support of guys like Brad, Jake Nowak, Jim Plaisted and countless other coaches I was able to learn a ton through the club scene. The life experiences provided for me through the last 10+ years with now, Milwaukee Volleyball Club have laid the foundation for me to explore volleyball as a career.
In 2015, I was approached by a close friend of mine named Tyler Frings about assisting him in starting a new program at Marian University in Fond du Lac. Tyler and I had coached both club and high school together and through the travel and competition associated with both we had grown very close. I jumped at the opportunity to continue to push my volleyball career. I to this day am extremely grateful for the opportunity that Tyler gave me to get involved with collegiate volleyball.
After four years with Tyler, I felt that if there was an opportunity for me to continue my growth as a coach and hopefully impact more future coaches and players that it might be done so by pursuing a head coaching position. In the summer of 2019, I interviewed for the men’s volleyball position at Lakeland University. When I arrived for my on campus interview I immediately fell in love with the campus. It was a gorgeous 70-degree June day. Perfect for a tour of what I would later deam my home. I ultimately accepted the position then and have loved every minute of the university, it’s campus, staff and students. The new opportunity to push my passion to another level has been something I never would’ve dreamed of.
Taking a chance
This may seem like a strange story or one giant run on article about one person but it’s honestly not meant to be that. Throughout this article, I’ve wanted to describe my experiences portray this (and could have used 10-20x the amount of space/words to do so) in order to show just one of the many different paths coaches can take. I never dreamed of coaching volleyball as a career when I was 15, 18, even 23. I simply took a chance pursuing different opportunities much like others did so in hiring me.
Volleyball has become my family and my life in many different forms. The opportunity to pass along the same passion that I have for volleyball while creating life experiences helps drive me to pursue more. If you put passion and persistence into something you love you will find that it gives back to you. There is no one route that a coach has to take in order to create a career out of it. Some people go to school specifically with a coaching degree or career in mind. That is a great option but not the only one. You CAN start small. You CAN build up slowly. You CAN pursue a passion. You CAN make a difference. You CAN make your own path.
Email Brian Rushmer at brushmer@gmail.com.
This column appeared in the June 18, 2020, Badger Beacon.
