Wyss named to lead Hodag volleyball

The last 12 years have been a tough stretch for the Rhinelander High School volleyball program and that’s putting it mildly. Since the Hodags’ first and only conference title in 2012, the team has not once gotten back to .500 and has had more head coaches (six) than seasons with double-digits wins (five). 

Rhinelander is looking for more than luck with coach No. 7 in that time span. The Hodags are turning to a head coach who has already had success building a program. 

Jayme Wyss has officially been named the head coach of the program, RHS activities director Brian Paulson confirmed to the River News late last week.

Wyss returns to Rhinelander after serving as a JV coach with the team two years ago. That followed an eight-year stint in Three Lakes where the Bluejays developed into one of the top programs in the Northern Lakes Conference. She and her family return to the area after she served as assistant coach at Marshfield Columbus in both volleyball and track this past school year. 

“We coached in Three Lakes, but Rhinelander is actually where we lived. Rhinelander’s been home for a decade and I feel like we’re ready to come home,” Wyss told the River News during a phone interview Monday.

Wyss knows a thing or two about turning a program around. According to season-by-season records on WisSports.net, she compiled a 167-89-1 record (.627 winning percentage) as the head coach at Three Lakes. She guided the Bluejays to Northern Lakes Conference titles in 2019, 2020 and 2021, snapping a 22-year title drought for the program. In 2020, the Bluejays reached the Division 4 sectional finals before falling in a five-set match against Prentice with a trip to the WIAA state tournament on the line.

“We’re extremely grateful to have somebody with this type of resume,” Paulson said. “I think she brings in, with the background and success she’s had where she’s been has been quite incredible.”

Wyss said rebuilding the Hodag program will be a process — one that will be focus on shifting the culture.

“It’s a change in dynamics on how a team functions. I feel like that’s the root of the difference between a losing program and a winning program,” she said. “I feel like a lot of it’s really going to start with the cultural shift, really focusing on changing that. We use sports as an avenue to make a positive impact on kids’ lives. I’m a varsity coach. I’m super, super competitive. I do not like losing but, at the end of the day, if you have not made a positive impact on the team that you’re working with, what are you really doing?”

Wyss said her year in Rhinelander in 2022 was beneficial as she and Chris Ferge led the JV squad under then head coach Dan Wolter. She said that experience helped her acclimate to coaching at a larger school. What’s more, she said that her transition to head coach has been made easier by the fact that a number of the players she coached two years ago are now among those who will be competing for spots in the varsity lineup.

“Walking into a program that I’ve been a part of I feel is going to be a quicker, smoother, easier transition because I feel like there’s already a certain level of buy-in from at least some families and players,” she said. “There’s at least that buy-in from the girls that had me. All the girls that had me can reflect back and say, ‘We know that what she does, works.’”

From a cultural standpoint, Wyss said she’s looking for improvement day by day and match by match. Moreover, she said improvement will come from playing as one cohesive unit on the court. 

“One of the other things I preach a lot is playing as one, not as six. When you’re out on the court, yep, there’s six individuals, but you don’t play like six. You play like one team,” she said. “The teams that you see play as six are the losing teams. Let’s just be very real. It’s very distinct, how they played, how they communicated, how they moved.”

Paulson said, in Wyss, the Hodags picked up a coach with a strong, technical background who is ready to elevate the volleyball program.

“What Jayme’s going to bring is the ability to teach the skills of the game — the swing, all the mechanics, the proper technique,” he said. “Another thing she’ll bring is all the energy, the drive and the time she has is going to be incredible that she’s going to put forth toward the program. She’s super passionate about it. She’ll be able to bring kids to the next level in the sport of volleyball.”

Wyss credits her ability as a technician to her track and field background. She competed collegiately at Concordia (Minn.) University in St. Paul, where she set program records in the pole vault and was a provisional qualifier for the NCAA Division II indoor and outdoor national championship meets. After college, Wyss became an accomplished triathlete. She twice won the Green Bay and Wausau Triathlons in 2013 and 2014 and competed for Team USA at the Triathlon Age Group World Championships in 2015 and 2016.

“It’s not just the training, it’s the little things. You have to focus on doing the little things right,” she said on how track and volleyball parallel each other. “It’s all the little nuances that can make a team that’s mediocre and elevate them to the next level. It’s really playing attention to the little things and the technical things.”

Wyss takes over for Wolter, who got the team heading back in the right direction in his three seasons at the helm prior to announcing his resignation in December. The Hodags won 26 matches in his stint as head coach after winning only two in the previous three seasons combined. Rhinelander also snapped a 62-match Great Northern Conference losing streak last September with a straight-set victory at home over Northland Pines. While Wyss concedes Rhinelander might not turn into GNC-championship contenders overnight, striving to get there starts this year. 

“You look at conference, there’s room there. We could move in and be competitive. I’m not saying we’re going to go in and win conference. I’m saying we can go in and we can work our way up, I think, at a fairly quick rate,” she said.

    Rhinelander’s Libbey Buchmann swings away during a volleyball open gym at the Jim Miazga Community Gymnasium Wednesday, June 5. In addition to open gyms available for players three times per week, new RHS volleyball coach Jayme Wyss said the summer program will consist of league play in Merrill on Monday nights and a four-day camp in late July. (Bob Mainhardt for the River News)
  

The timing of Wyss’s hire has afforded the Hodags a bit of an offseason program. The team will compete in the summer league on Monday nights in Merrill and have open gym opportunities three times per week. Wyss will also hold a four-day camp for her team the week of July 22.

“By the end of summer, hopefully it’s prepared them in a lot of ways to be able to come in and play more competitively from the beginning,” she said.

Practice for the fall will officially begin Aug. 19 and the team will once again open the season at home during the Hodag Quad at the Jim Miazga Community Gymnasium Aug. 27.

Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].