If there were one overqualified assistant coach in the game of volleyball, Rod Wilde would be it. Reading through his bio alone makes him overqualified on paper, but watching him on the court proves just how knowledgeable and passionate he is about the game.

The UW women’s volleyball program is lucky to have such a prominent name in volleyball history helping to teach what it takes to win. Wilde has had his share of victories throughout his career. In fact, since the first time he played volleyball, he has brought nothing but victories wherever he goes.

Growing up in Fort Dodge, Iowa, Wilde was saturated with volleyball. Having a mother and father who coached both at the high-school and YMCA level, there was no way he could avoid it.

“The Wilde bunch all played volleyball together, and early on I decided I wanted to see how far I could go in the sport,” Wilde said. “Volleyball wasn’t big in Iowa for boys, so I started out at the recreational level at the YMCA playing for my dad’s team.”

Wilde next became a setter on his mother’s volleyball team. Referring to himself as “peanut,” setting was the only position that would allow him a spot on the court. He didn’t have the height, but he had the competitive drive inherited from his father to take on the leadership role of setter.

Wilde attended college at Pepperdine University in California on a volleyball scholarship when men’s volleyball was more popular than men’s basketball. Each year he started, and each year the Waves went to the NCAA tournament. He was a three-time All-American, and in 1978, his senior year, he sent the Waves to the NCAA championship. Until Wilde came to Pepperdine, the Waves had never gone to the final four.

After college Wilde knew that he wanted to keep on playing.

“The opportunity came to play for a professional team called the IVA (International Volleyball Association), and they had a bunch of teams that focused primarily in the West Coast,” Wilde said. “I played two years for the Tuscan Sky, and we won the championship my rookie year.”

After dominating both in college and on the professional level, Wilde took the next step and went to try out for the 1984 men’s Olympic volleyball team. Six weeks after making the final cut, he broke his leg in Russia. The Olympics were in nine weeks, and it wasn’t enough time for his leg to heal.

The ’84 Olympics marked the first time men’s volleyball won a gold medal, and it was a huge breakthrough for the sport.

“I didn’t actually get to play in the ’84 Olympics, and we won the gold medal,” Wilde said. “All the big names that you hear in men’s volleyball were on that team, and after the Olympics they stayed together, and I started to move toward coaching. Since I was around the game so much growing up it helped me decide where I wanted to go with the sport, and I found that I wanted to go into coaching.”

Coach Wilde has coached just about every team in the world of volleyball. He returned to Pepperdine as the men’s head coach from 1985 to 1987, and in 1986 he led his team to the NCAA championship. After achieving that goal he moved to UC-San Diego to be the men’s coach from 1991 to 1993. He made his move into women’s volleyball in 1985 when he coached at Drake University. Now as an assistant for the Badgers, he intends to stay settled and lead this team to a championship.

“I have won a national championship as a player and as a men’s coach at Pepperdine, and now I want to win a national championship with women, and I would be the only person to have done each of these categories,” Wilde said.

Wilde thought Wisconsin would be the perfect place to accomplish this goal due to the fact that the Badgers’ program was growing strong and that he also knew people on the staff that he would enjoy working with. Head coach Pete Waite, the other assistant coach Christy Johnson and Wilde complement each other, and all have different coaching roles. Wilde would compare his role to that of a firecracker.

“I have red hair, and it comes through on the court. I am very intense and competitive, and I think I balance out the other coaches,” Wilde said. “Christy takes on the motherly role, and Pete takes on the head coaching role, and I am there to fill in what the team needs.”

The players would agree that coach Wilde brings a fiery personality to the team and teaches them more about the game.

“He is very knowledgeable about the game, so after everything you do he can say something, whether it is a body movement or thinking about something a different way,” senior setter Morgan Shields said.