Marquette wasted no time in announcing the hiring of the new head volleyball coach less than a week after the departure of Bond Shymansky.
Ryan Theis, a Madison native who attended the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, was named the fifth head coach in Marquette volleyball history Friday. Theis spent the last six years as the head coach of Ohio University, where he led the Bobcats to four NCAA Tournament appearances. He won the Mid-American Coach of the Year twice, and compiled an overall record of 144-54, including 79-17 in conference.
Prior to Ohio, Theis held the top assistant job at the University of Florida and also coached at Northwestern, Indiana and Eastern Illinois.
Theis said his decision to pursue and ultimately accept the Marquette position was easy.
“The decision process was not difficult,” Theis said. “I really liked my team at Ohio a lot and it was a bittersweet departure from there, but Marquette was a place I always wanted to be.”
His family ties to Milwaukee and the state of Wisconsin played a major role in Theis’ choice to take on a new coaching challenge.
“Friends and family always play a role in our world, and I think that was huge,” Theis said. “I know to be close to family was a big draw for my wife, and she’s really excited to be coming back to the state.”
As for the job itself, Theis feels fortunate to be inheriting so much talent within the program, but acknowledges the difficulty of maintaining the level of success Marquette had in recent years.
“Nine out of 10 coaches will tell you the toughest (job) is keeping a winner good,” Theis said. “If you ask coaches, ‘Is it easier to get good or stay good,’ a lot of them are probably going to say ‘stay good.’ It’ll be challenging, but at the same time, I love the wealth of talent that we have.”
Theis spoke frankly about the conference upgrade from the MAC to the Big East.
“Instead of riding buses, we’re flying in planes, right?” Theis said.
Based on his early interactions with the team, Theis pinpointed redshirt freshman middle hitter Meghan Niemann as a vocal leader. Niemann said Theis’ energy and enthusiasm for the position immediately jumped out at her.
“Already he’s so excited,” she said. “As soon as he got the job, by 9 a.m. Friday morning, we had all had a call from him and talked to him on the phone literally within an hour after he was hired.”
Niemann compared Theis’ enthusiasm to that of her old coach Shymansky’s sideline demeanor.
“Both of their passion is something that you don’t see often,” Niemann said. “You could see it on Bond’s face during matches and you can already see it in Coach Theis’ eyes when he’s here. It’s very encouraging to us.”
As for the roster, Niemann isn’t worried about losing members of the team because of the coaching change.
“Originally, when you hear ‘coach turnover,’ you think of problems and stuff that’s going to with that,” she said. “We haven’t had much of that. Our team is staying together as a cohesive unit.”
That cohesion will be the primary goal for Theis as he takes over this week. He must keep a proven winner locked into its successful mindset.
“They’re a really good group,” Theis said. “They’re talented. They’re good kids. They do well in the classroom. They do well in the community. Right now I want to keep that together.”
