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BY MIKE LUCAS
UWBadgers.com Senior Writer
MADISON, Wis. — Always on the lookout for a new recipe, Dana Rettke settled on a chicken piccata dish for a dinner party at her apartment. Turns out Rettke is just as comfortable around the kitchen as the three-time All-American and 2019 Big Ten Conference Female Athlete of the Year is around the net.
"Dana is a great cook, she actually cooks pretty much everything for me," attested Sydney Hilley, a roommate and teammate on the Wisconsin volleyball team. "As soon as they (the UW freshmen) got on campus, Dana was like, 'All right, let's have them over. I'm cooking dinner.'"
On so many layers, Rettke felt that it was the right thing to do for the freshmen — MJ Hammill, Jade Demps and Devyn Robinson, who was here in the spring — especially given the challenging landscape due to the coronavirus pandemic and the subsequent postponement of the 2020 fall season.
"I just wanted to let them know that my apartment was a place where they're always welcomed," Rettke said. "In the beginning, we definitely reassured them that this is not normal, and we're growing and learning with them as we go. None of us really know how to navigate a pandemic.
"The times are so uncertain, and I think just making sure we are there for them — giving them a little bit of hope whenever we can — has kind of been how we've handled that."
Accenting the accountability and closeness of the seniors, she also conceded, "We all know that this is such a crazy time and we're all going to be in the midst of some unknowns."
From players talking amongst themselves, Rettke has listened to concerns — "Hey, this is hard, this is frustrating, I don't really know what to do, can you help me out?" — leading her to stress "Having a really good base for communication right now is really important. We're really all in this together."
Hilley has been impressed with the adaptability of the newcomers.
"It was definitely a different transition for the freshmen coming in — they met the whole team online through Zoom meetings," she said. "That can be a really difficult place to find your voice. But as soon as we got on campus and started playing together, it honestly felt like they weren't even freshmen.
"They fit in so well just with their mindset and willingness to learn. In our time in open gym without the coaches, they really took advantage of it, asking many questions just to learn how do things. They've caught on really quickly. I'm excited for their future. Playing with them has been a blast."
Dining with them has been a timely icebreaker.
"It's so important that we know each other and we care about each other more than just teammates and it just started the bonding as soon as we could, which was really great," said Hilley, an athletic and academic All-American, a team captain and the 2019 Big Ten Setter of the Year.
"The entire team is really, really close. That's one of the things that makes this team so special. But especially the seniors. We have a really strong bond even with the people who just came in, Giorgia (Civita) and Deahna (Kraft) are part of that now, it's really a fun group to be a part of."
Civita is a grad transfer from Wichita State and Kraft from the Pepperdine beach program.
"A good portion of our players are wanting to play pro and have professional aspirations," said UW head coach Kelly Sheffield. "But I haven't heard from anybody that they're in a hurry to get to that. They're absolutely enjoying doing what they're doing with the people that they're next to."
To this end, Rettke has been inspired by her Badger teammates.
Inspired, she said, "because I'm not alone and none of them are alone in any of this."
That connection is part of the Wisconsin volleyball brand.
"The days that are hard, the days that are frustrating, I talk to them (my teammates) and they're going through the same exact things," Rettke said. "Just knowing you're side-by-side with someone who's in the same situation that you're in is really comforting.
"They've definitely helped me become a better person. I've really leaned on them a lot more recently than before. It doesn't matter how old you are. Or how long you've been in the program. We're all in the same boat right now."
Through choppy waters, Sheffield has watched them all row in the same direction.
"I'm absolutely inspired by our players and their families," he said. "Nobody is going rogue. It's just good people. I left town for a few days and when I came back and walked into the gym, there were a handful of players working out on their own. It has been like that just about every day.
"Their hunger inspires me.
"And the fact that the older ones are helping the newcomers, that inspires me, too."
Asked about the impact of the seniors, eight strong, Sheffield gushes, "Oh, my goodness."
This topic is clearly in his wheelhouse.
"Part of it is because they're just really conscientious, responsible people — they've got big goals and big dreams," he said. "The other part of it is just the sheer force of numbers. We've got a lot of people who have seen the court a lot. They've been around the block.
"The senior class just keeps blowing me away. They blow me away by their maturity and their drive and their focus. They blow me away with their enthusiasm to be in this for the long haul for each other. And they're blowing me away that there's an understanding of delayed gratification or whatever.
"It comes back to what coaches always say, 'You've got to earn the right — the right to achieve great things when things are easy and going your way.' At this time, when there's a lot of uncertainty and challenges, I've been impressed that they're earning the right by how they're approaching this."
Sheffield doesn't need to be prodded to talk about the selflessness of the group.
"It's a player like Lauren Barnes," he pointed out. "We got a late commitment from a transfer, Giorgia, who plays her exact same position and has been very successful (Civita was the 2018 Libero of the Year in the American Athletic Conference).
"After we announced her commitment (in mid-July), the first text that I got was from Lauren Barnes who wrote, 'I'm fired up. Let's go.' She was that excited to hear about it (Civita's addition), where maybe a less confident player would sit there and feel threatened by that."
Barnes is one of the captains, along with Hilley and Molly Haggerty, a fifth-year senior.
"It's her first year as a captain and she's just doing a great job taking charge and leading," Hilley said of Haggerty who was a second-team All-American and the MVP of the 2019 regional. "It's been awesome to see her grow into a leadership role."
Added Sheffield, "Molly is a volleyball junkie. I don't think there's a place in the world that she enjoys being in more than in the gym. I think if you ask Molly, she feels better that the season was postponed because there's a greater chance of us playing without interruptions.
"And continuing down that path …"
• • • •
Many believed that path might lead Wisconsin to its first national championship.
In 2019, after splitting their first eight matches, the Badgers got on a roll and won 12 straight to dramatically turn around their season. Overall, they went 27-7 after that slow start highlighted by a Big Ten title and a NCAA national championship match appearance where they lost to Stanford in the finals.
The returning cornerstones are four players who gained national recognition:
Rettke, Hilley, Haggerty and Grace Loberg, an honorable mention All-American.
But everything was put on hold this season when the Big Ten postponed the fall sports season on Aug. 11.
"I got into the college game about 23 years ago," said Sheffield, who's entering his eighth season at Wisconsin. "There's a rhythm to the year. Right now, it's all out of whack, not only out of whack, but you don't know where it's all heading. There's a lot of brainstorming, a lot of spit-balling."
There's also a lot of support, he volunteered, from the UW administration in a time of need.
"I'm inspired by our administration," Sheffield reiterated. "There's an unwavering commitment to the student-athletes and our staff. That has been front and center. They back things up."
Having a veteran staff has been invaluable to Sheffield in managing the situation.
"We've all been around each other for a long time, so there's trust," he said. "Although everyone is working from home, everyone knows what they need to do. We're not teaching people how to do their jobs or how we're going to operate. It's an unbelievable staff, they've been unreal."
The messaging has come through loud and clear to the players.
"They've been so awesome," Hilley said of Sheffield and his assistants. "They've done a really good job telling us what we need to know and treating us like adults. But they've also been there for us because they know this is really a hard time and they've been so supportive."
Noted Rettke, "They're in a tough spot too because they also don't know how to navigate through a pandemic. We were at home for a long time (during quarantine) and I don't think I saw the coaches face-to-face for a good four to five months.
"It was really an interesting spot for all of us and all of them to be in. But we stayed connected by doing team Zoom meetings. We did book clubs and documentary clubs. And the coaches have been great. I think I've grown more with them over the past six months than I have in a while."
A spring season is obviously not guaranteed. In this light, what is the fall going to look like?
"We have a responsibility to get better, we can't just sit on our hands and pout," Sheffield said emphatically. "We got knocked down to the mat when the fall season was postponed. And it's our responsibility to get up, dust ourselves off, move forward and be an active participate in our own rescue.
"There's a clear vision of what we've got to do this fall. We've got to get better; we've got to grow individually and as a group. We're going to get in the gym and we're going to train the heck out of them. We'll be training five days a week. Then once the spring gets here, I don't know?
"But our job as a team, as a staff, is to control what we can control. And the one thing that we can control is whether we're getting better right now. Starting next week when we get our entire team in the gym, that's going to be our single focus."
That was echoed by Rettke who said, "We're going to be lifting and practicing and it's going to be what a normal spring would be. There's a huge benefit to having this time — a whole semester essentially to train before a season — to get better and more comfortable with each other."
Something else will be driving the Badgers during the fall semester.
Hope.
"My biggest inspiration is knowing that the season will come eventually and it's going to be the same team because the seniors are staying," Hilley said. "Just knowing we will still get another shot at a national championship is what inspires us to work every day and be ready whenever the time comes."
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Lucas: 'We're really all in this together' - University of Wisconsin Badgers
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