HERMOSA BEACH, California — Dana Rettke loathes the query.
It’s not that it’s an unfair one, or perhaps a unhealthy query in any respect. It’s simply that, when she’s requested — and he or she is all the time requested this query, by some media outlet at some occasion — who her volleyball function mannequin was rising up, she doesn’t have a solution.
“I hate the query: ‘Who’s your volleyball idol? Who do you wish to be like?’ ” Rettke stated on SANDCAST: Seaside Volleyball with Tri Bourne and Travis Mewhirter. “I didn’t have one. That sounds unhealthy. I don’t wish to have that reply. Girls’s volleyball — the NCAA Championship was on, however that was your one recreation.”
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 might she have picked a job mannequin from a single match performed by two colleges outdoors of her state, in a Nationwide Championship that occurred in Seattle?
Eleven years later, take into consideration that query, after which take into consideration its a whole bunch, maybe hundreds, of potential candidates. In only a decade, the game has entered a wholly new stratosphere. Volleyball is now the most well-liked sport for women in the US. The Massive Ten Community televises regular-season matches. ESPN too. Volleyball TV streams each skilled indoor leagues and NCAA. Nebraska bought out a soccer stadium, 92,000 folks coming to observe a blowout. Wisconsin sells out each time the Badgers are at house. 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 school volleyball is getting all this publicity and he stated you guys sort of pioneered that, you have been on the forefront of that,” Rettke stated. “We didn’t get the entire advantages when it comes to NIL and stuff like that, however my entire class at Wisconsin these 5 years was part of that. Now wanting 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 when it comes to media and sponsorships. You’ll be able to inform by the scores 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 necessary for me to present again to my previous membership, my highschool, to be round younger athletes is one thing I’m keen about.”
For younger ladies answering the query about their volleyball function 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 conceitedness. Success — immense success — has met her at each step of her profession. As a senior at Riverside-Brookfield Excessive College, she set the college document for kills and blocks in a single season. She was named the 2016 Illinois State Participant of the Yr. Recruited and dedicated to Wisconsin earlier than she might drive a automotive.
And but there may be Rettke, 6 toes, 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 all the time with an older age group,” Rettke stated. “I keep in mind being fairly intimidated by that and simply considering you gotta do it. I all the time had this perspective from a really younger age of labor your means up. Blue collar, put your head down, and work your means up, and that was arduous.
“At the same time as an 8-year-old being in a 10-year-old dance class, that’s intimidating. However I keep in mind considering I shall be nearly as good as these older ladies ultimately, I simply must get higher. After I switched to volleyball, ‘OK, put your head down and work.’ After I went to Wisconsin, put your head down and work. I needed to earn my stripes, I needed to work my means up and nothing was assured, nothing was given to me, I needed to earn that. That has most likely been the most important present I’ve had. I don’t anticipate something. I do know nothing shall be given to me and I wish to earn every little thing 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 Massive 10 Freshman of the Yr, AVCA Freshman of the Yr, and first-team All-American. Earned 4 extra first-team All-American nods, the one volleyball participant in historical past to take action. Earned Massive 10 Feminine Athlete of the Yr and a pair of finalist nominations for the Honda Award.
It might be simple to dismiss a lot of this acclaim to the 6-foot-8 body that’s unattainable to overlook. However that will be, at finest, a lazy rationalization 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 largely for taller people. Neither, bless their hearts, did her coaches throughout the assorted sports activities she performed. Her youth basketball coach had the middle doing level guard drills, dribbling by way of cones. Dance saved her toes nimble, actions coordinated and clean.
“I keep in mind being in faucet class, first yr 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 transferring my toes, making noise,” Rettke stated with fun. “Then in the direction of the top of the yr, I knew every little thing. You’re most likely going to be embarrassed and make errors, however how are you going to return again from that? Am I going to go house and inform my mother I wish to stop? No I went again and did it once more despite the fact that it was arduous.”
This utilized all over the place from faucet class to Wisconsin. Was Rettke ever going to be an out of doors? Not going. But Kelly Sheffield nonetheless put her in passing drills to make her one of the best all-around participant she may very well be.
The outcomes communicate for themselves.
“I all the time inform children, don’t simply be a center, don’t simply be an out of doors, don’t simply be an reverse,” Rettke stated. “You by no means know what’s going to return your means.”
What has come Rettke’s means since Wisconsin is 2 years with Monza within the Italian League, thought-about by many as the best skilled stage on this planet. 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 intense lights of the Olympic Video games.
“We are able to do some superb issues this match,” Rettke stated. “The probabilities are countless.”
Extra necessary than any medal, there may be the chance — extra probably an inevitability — that, this fall, an NCAA participant shall be requested about their volleyball idol, the participant they watch, the participant they wish to be. This shall be a query they like to reply, as a result of it isn’t tough to consider a reputation: Dana Rettke.
