HERMOSA BEACH, California — Dana Rettke loathes the query.
It’s not that it’s an unfair one, or perhaps a dangerous query in any respect. It’s simply that, when she’s requested — and she or he is at all times requested this query, by some media outlet at some occasion — who her volleyball position mannequin was rising up, she doesn’t have a solution.
“I hate the query: ‘Who’s your volleyball idol? Who do you need to be like?’ ” Rettke stated on SANDCAST: Seashore Volleyball with Tri Bourne and Travis Mewhirter. “I didn’t have one. That sounds dangerous. I don’t need to have that reply. Ladies’s volleyball — the NCAA Championship was on, however that was your one sport.”
She will recall watching one volleyball match as a child: The 2013 NCAA Championship. Penn State vs. Wisconsin.
That’s it.
That was the match.
How may she have picked a task mannequin from a single match performed by two faculties outdoors of her state, in a Nationwide Championship that happened in Seattle?
Eleven years later, take into consideration that query, after which take into consideration its a whole bunch, maybe 1000’s, of doable candidates. In exactly a decade, the game has entered a wholly new stratosphere. Volleyball is now the most well-liked sport for ladies in the US. The Huge Ten Community televises regular-season matches. ESPN too. Volleyball TV streams each skilled indoor leagues and NCAA. Nebraska offered out a soccer stadium, 92,000 individuals coming to look at a blowout. Wisconsin sells out each time the Badgers are at residence. NIL cash is pouring in. Three skilled volleyball leagues at the moment are in the US, with LOVB starting this January.
“It’s been loopy. I had a dialog with my dad about that, that faculty volleyball is getting all this publicity and he stated you guys sort of pioneered that, you had been on the forefront of that,” Rettke stated. “We didn’t get the entire advantages by way of NIL and stuff like that, however my complete class at Wisconsin these 5 years was part of that. Now trying again and reflecting and seeing how far it’s all come, volleyball is getting the popularity it deserves, and we have to go a bit of bit additional. It’s such an untapped market by way of media and sponsorships. You’ll be able to inform by the rankings of the NCAA tournaments, by the professional leagues beginning up, by the viewership on TV. It’s simply been actually superior to see that.
“I’m making an attempt to create these alternatives and to ensure I do them as a result of it’s so essential for me to present again to my outdated membership, my highschool, to be round younger athletes is one thing I’m keen about.”
For younger ladies answering the query about their volleyball position mannequin, there are few higher to decide on than Rettke.
The 6-foot-8 center from the Chicago suburb of Riverside, Illinois, has each cause to be the very image of athletic vanity. Success — immense success — has met her at each step of her profession. As a senior at Riverside-Brookfield Excessive Faculty, she set the varsity file for kills and blocks in a single season. She was named the 2016 Illinois State Participant of the 12 months. Recruited and dedicated to Wisconsin earlier than she may drive a automotive.
And but there’s Rettke, 6 ft, 8 inches of aw-shucks humility that’s as real as she is tall.
“From a really younger age, doesn’t matter if it was basketball, dance, something I used to be closely concerned in, I used to be at all times with an older age group,” Rettke stated. “I bear in mind being fairly intimidated by that and simply considering you gotta do it. I at all times had this angle from a really younger age of labor your approach up. Blue collar, put your head down, and work your approach up, and that was laborious.
“Whilst an 8-year-old being in a 10-year-old dance class, that’s intimidating. However I bear in mind considering I will probably be pretty much as good as these older ladies finally, I simply have to get higher. Once I switched to volleyball, ‘OK, put your head down and work.’ Once I went to Wisconsin, put your head down and work. I needed to earn my stripes, I needed to work my approach up and nothing was assured, nothing was given to me, I needed to earn that. That has in all probability been the most important reward I’ve had. I don’t anticipate something. I do know nothing will probably be given to me and I need to earn every part that I do.”
She’s earned it, all proper. All of it. Earned the beginning spot as a freshman at Wisconsin, the place she began all 32 matches, was named the Huge 10 Freshman of the 12 months, AVCA Freshman of the 12 months, and first-team All-American. Earned 4 extra first-team All-American nods, the one volleyball participant in historical past to take action. Earned Huge 10 Feminine Athlete of the 12 months and a pair of finalist nominations for the Honda Award.
It could be straightforward to dismiss a lot of this acclaim to the 6-foot-8 body that’s not possible to overlook. However that might be, at finest, a lazy clarification for Rettke’s large success at each step alongside her profession. Her mother and father, Kathy and John, by no means as soon as pigeon-holed their towering daughter into roles meant principally for taller people. Neither, bless their hearts, did her coaches throughout the varied sports activities she performed. Her youth basketball coach had the middle doing level guard drills, dribbling via cones. Dance stored her ft nimble, actions coordinated and easy.
“I bear in mind being in faucet class, first 12 months taking faucet, standing in entrance of a mirror, and the trainer begins saying issues and everybody begins to do it, and I don’t know what I’m doing, I simply begin shifting my ft, making noise,” Rettke stated with fun. “Then in the direction of the top of the 12 months, I knew every part. You’re in all probability going to be embarrassed and make errors, however how are you going to return again from that? Am I going to go residence and inform my mother I need to give up? No I went again and did it once more though it was laborious.”
This utilized all over the place from faucet class to Wisconsin. Was Rettke ever going to be an outdoor? Not going. But Kelly Sheffield nonetheless put her in passing drills to make her the perfect all-around participant she might be.
The outcomes converse for themselves.
“I at all times inform children, don’t simply be a center, don’t simply be an outdoor, don’t simply be an reverse,” Rettke stated. “You by no means know what’s going to return your approach.”
What has come Rettke’s approach since Wisconsin is 2 years with Monza within the Italian League, thought of by many as the very best skilled degree on the earth. A name from Karch Kiraly to journey with the USA to the Paris Olympic Video games. A future with boundless potential for the 25-year-old whose blue-collar work ethic applies all over the place from a faucet room in a Chicago suburb to a health club in Italy to the brilliant lights of the Olympic Video games.
“We are able to do some superb issues this match,” Rettke stated. “The probabilities are infinite.”
Extra essential than any medal, there’s the chance — extra possible an inevitability — that, this fall, an NCAA participant will probably be requested about their volleyball idol, the participant they watch, the participant they need to be. This will probably be a query they like to reply, as a result of it isn’t troublesome to consider a reputation: Dana Rettke.
