Five Questions with Mike Chartier

Mike Chartier, co-director of the North Shore Milwaukee Volleyball Club, graciously agreed to be the second subject of our "Five Questions" feature. With these posts, we find individuals closely tied to Wisconsin volleyball and ask them, you guessed it, five questions about "the state of the sport in the state of Wisconsin."

Mike has been involved with boys volleyball in Wisconsin for decades. He's coached at North Shore for 16 plus years, a stint that includes a national championship in 2000 with his NSMVC Boys 14 team. He has also served as head boys volleyball coach at both Nicolet and Pius XI. And in 2005, he won the Junior Olympic Outstanding Program Director Award.

Obviously, with a resume like that, he has some thoughts about boys volleyball in Wisconsin. So let's get right to our five questions and Mike's five responses.

Q1: What changes have you seen in Wisconsin boys' high school and club volleyball over the years?

Mike: The growth in the number of players and the quality has been significant. The grade schools are offering the sport as an organized activity so players are starting at an earlier age and that has boosted the quality of play at the high school and club level. This has been more noticeable at the private grade schools. The private grade schools have a nice fall season with league play and tournaments. Teams are small so each player is getting more playing time and repetitions. The public grade schools are hit or miss. Their season, as far as I know, is more of a short, intramural-type experience than a competitive one.

Q2: What excites you most when you look at the future of boys' volleyball in Wisconsin and, conversely, what are some challenges that lie ahead?

Mike: Two things excite me about the future. One, I think there is still momentum and pressure for schools to add boys’ volleyball. I am excited to see the Fox Valley area continue to grow and produce quality high school teams and players. More programs in high school mean more players interested in club volleyball. Having more boys involved in club volleyball is exciting. In the Badger Region we are trying to help growth in areas outside of southeastern Wisconsin. I think we can do this if we continue to add events to the club schedule that allow areas like Madison and the Fox Valley to send club teams without having to travel out of state.

The second exciting aspect is how we have been able to produce teams that can compete with the best in the country. The top talent in Wisconsin has been able compete and win against the best teams across the country. While we may not have as many elite teams as other states like California and Illinois, our elite teams are as good as any coming from those states. That was not the case 9-10 years ago. Ten years ago, if you looked at the top eight teams in an age group, you might have seven from California or Puerto Rico and maybe one at most from the rest of the country. Now, you might get four from California, maybe one from Puerto Rico and 2-3 from the Midwest of East Coast. Each year and each age group will be different, but over the years, there has been a slow shift in this direction. This shift makes Nationals for club more exciting each year.

Q3: What can the average fan do to build the sport on the boys' and men's side?

Mike: We need to continue to develop programs and opportunities at the younger ages. This early support helps build programs at the grade school levels and then high schools. When you get to adding volleyball as a boy’s/men’s sport in schools, you need to deal with funding issues. So many school districts are facing budget issues it's very difficult to add anything. You need to get enough people in a district to push for the addition to gain any traction.

Q4: Who are some of the top high school teams and players to watch this fall?

Mike: I’m not as familiar with the high school teams. In the past, the high schools with a lot of club players have been the stronger high school teams. That is the general pattern. I expect Marquette, Pius and Catholic Memorial to be strong next year. Nicolet is returning several quality players. Shorewood will be improved from last year. New Berlin should be a strong team this year now that they have a few years of growth behind them. At least one team from the Fox Valley conference can be counted on as a top 10 team. That has been Appleton North the past few years, but it could be Kaukauna this year. I don’t know much about the Madison area schools.

Q5: We've been tracking the end of Daniel Mathews' career at Ohio State? What other North Shore alum are out there accomplishing great things?

This past season Ethan Pheister (Ball State, Shorewood HS) and Mike Hutz (Loyola, Marquette HS) had strong seasons. They finished first and second respectively in assists for the season in the MIVA conference. Dan Mathews (Ohio State, Shorewood HS) was fourth in assists while capping an excellent season. Alex Vigansky of Lewis led the league in hitting percentage, while Ian Anderson of Loyola was third in kills and Drew Pickering second in aces for Lewis. It’s nice to see these North Shore and Wisconsin state alumni doing well.

Copyright 2008, Cheese & Volleyball


You may reproduce this post electronically or in a printed form provided you do not alter the wording in any way. Any web postings should provide a link back to this original document. The views expressed in this and future "Five Questions" posts are not necessarily those of Cheese & Volleyball.

Programming Note: "Five Questions" Volume Two on the Way

These sectional previews are seriously hampering our ability to do quick posts about this and that. Our bad.

Before we start working our way through girls division three later tonight, however, we wanted to let you know that we have another "Five Questions" interview in the works. And it's with someone who will share some thoughts about boys volleyball in Wisconsin. You can expect it to hit the blog later this week or early next.

Five Questions with Matt Houk

Matt Houk, the new head coach at St. Norbert in De Pere and chair of the Badger Region High Performance program, graciously agreed to be the first subject of our new "Five Questions" feature. With this and similar future posts, we plan to find individuals closely tied to Wisconsin volleyball and ask them, you guessed it, five questions about "the state of the sport in the state of Wisconsin." If you'd like to suggest a future interviewee, e-mail vbuberalles@gmail.com and we'll consider it. So that's the plan. And here, without further ado, are our five questions and Matt's five responses.

1. Matt, what excites you most about the opportunity at St. Norbert?

First of all, and probably the most obvious, I am excited to be a head coach at the college level. Ever since I was a student assistant at UW-Milwaukee, I have been looking forward to the day when I would get the opportunity to run my own program. I am also extremely excited to help lead this team to the next level. I think St. Norbert has been right there for a few years, but just hasn't been able to get over the hump. I don't think there is any reason why this program can't compete with the best D3 schools in our state and eventually in the country. I hope to use the knowledge I have acquired over the years by working under such great coaches like Kathy Litzau, Susie Johnson, and Debbie Kirch to train and recruit at a very high level.

2. Since you've been involved with club volleyball in one way or another over the years, what are your overall impressions about its past, present and future in Wisconsin?

I loved being involved with club volleyball back when I was the program director for Milwaukee Sting. Not only did I really enjoy coaching the kids on my three 18 Gold teams, I just loved being around other teams and coaches. It was an extremely hard decision to leave for the college game full-time. It was an exciting time to be part of the scene. It was growing in numbers and we were competing at a very high level. I am a little frustrated about the present and about what the future might bring. There are so many positives that come with the growth of the sport, but there are also a few negatives. Because of the growth, I think we are coming across some of the problems Little League baseball and softball have faced in the past. The sport sometimes becomes political with a sense of entitlement from parents and players that I didn't see just five years ago. When I was a youth athlete, if I wasn't happy with a situation, my parents asked me if I was doing everything my coach was asking of me. They then told me to talk to my coach about what I could do differently to improve and change my role. They never got involved with a coach's decision. I don't want to see this sport become like Little League baseball, where parents stand behind the backstop, screaming at coaches, players and umpires. Our sport has been so close-knit and family friendly. I hope we can get that back and maintain it in the future.

3. What's your vision for the state's high performance program?

I have very lofty goals for the HP program. My first goal is to find a way to get the best kids in the state involved. At our younger age levels, I think we are coming close to getting that, but I don't think we are quite there yet with the older age level. But we are getting close. I understand that older players need to get to summer college camps, and just need a break sometimes, so that is why I think we are missing out on some. The positive side is that it gives some players who might not normally make the camp an opportunity to train at a very high level for three days and to be around other really good players. We started implementing some scouting at tourneys this club season to try and seek out individuals who might fit what we are looking for and invite them to tryouts. I hope we can keep doing things like that and implementing other ideas that will help us attract Wisconsin's bright young volleyball players.

4. What's the number one thing the average fan can do to help build the sport in Wisconsin?

That is a great question. I do believe volleyball is growing, but still has not caught up with basketball yet, but the numbers, at least in our region, keep growing. I think the thing fans can do is attend matches. Attend high school, college, and club events. When our sport starts to show it can earn revenue, it will catch the eye of administrators and then hopefully they will be willing to put more money back into the sport. More money into our sport gives us the opportunity to attract more players into the sport. The reason the women's D1 Final Four is going back to Omaha is because it proved it can fill up the venue. Then when ESPN2 televises it, it puts on a quality front. There are fans in the stands, and it looks similar to a men's basketball tournament game. I could ramble on more, but I will quit while I still have a leg to stand on.

5. Who's going to finish first in the Midwest Conference this fall?

Well, I know very little about the other teams and players in our conference right now, although I have watched some of the matches on film from last season. So, I am going to go with the safe bet on this one, and pick last year's champ, Carroll College.

We'd like to thank Matt once again for the thoughtfulness with which he answered our five questions.


Copyright 2008, Cheese & Volleyball

You may reproduce this post electronically or in a printed form provided you do not alter the wording in any way. Any web postings should provide a link back to this original document.

The views expressed in this and future "Five Questions" posts are not necessarily those of Cheese & Volleyball.

New "Five Questions" Feature Coming Tomorrow

Tomorrow, we're going to start a brand new feature in which we ask five questions of individuals who are closely connected with Wisconsin volleyball in various ways. Our first of these interviews will be with Matt Houk, new head coach at St. Norbert. Look for it in the morning.