Coming off his program’s most successful season yet, Ryan Schopf returns for his sixth year as the head women’s volleyball coach at Lakeland.
The Muskies posted their best season in nearly a decade in 2018, finishing with a 22-11 record and tying for third in the Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference with a 9-3 mark. Lakeland opened with four straight wins in its home tournament over Labor Day weekend, reached the semifinals of the NACC Tournament, and its 22 wins were the most for the program since 2009.
Schopf has led the Muskies women’s team to five consecutive solid seasons in the NACC while also playing challenging non-conference schedules. Lakeland has finished in the top five in the 12-team NACC and qualified for the conference tournament all five years.
The Muskies finished with 15 wins overall in both the 2016 and 2017 seasons, finishing 7-4 in the NACC both years and falling in the conference tournament first round. In 2015, Lakeland finished 17-15 overall and placed fourth in the NACC with an 8-3 mark. The Muskies advanced to the conference tournament semifinals before losing to top seed Edgewood.
In his first year, Schopf led the Muskies to a 17-17 record that included a 7-4 mark in the NACC. Lakeland tied for fourth in the conference and qualified for the NACC Tournament, losing a tough five-set match to No. 4 seed Aurora in the quarterfinals.
Schopf also served also serves as Lakeland’s head men’s volleyball coach from 2016-19, leading the team to 52 wins before stepping down at the end of the 2019 season to concentrate on coaching the women’s program.
Schopf is a native of Sturgeon Bay, Wis., and St. Norbert College graduate. He came to Lakeland in 2014 after spending the previous two years as an assistant coach at Jacksonville State University, an NCAA Division I school in Jacksonville, Ala. He followed former University of Wisconsin-Green Bay assistant coach Joseph Goodson to Jacksonville State in 2011 when Goodson was named head coach. Schopf was the offensive coordinator for the Gamecocks and worked with the team’s setters. His other duties included practice planning, travel preparations, scouting and recruiting.
Prior to Jacksonville State, Schopf was the head girls volleyball coach at Luxemburg-Casco High School from 2008-11. He led the Spartans to a 128-29 record over four years, including a Bay Conference Championship, two Bay Conference Tournament titles and three WIAA regional titles.
While at Jacksonville State, Schopf also received his master’s in sports management. He received his bachelor’s degree in elementary education in May 2004 from St. Norbert College, where he also was a member of the men’s golf team.
Schopf comes from a family that has been involved in volleyball in the state for years. His mother Roxanne Schopf has coached volleyball for more than 30 years at Sevastopol High School.
Schopf is married to the former Jena Bushman, who is also a native of Sturgeon Bay, and the couple welcomed their first child in May 2016, son Liam.
| Ryan Schopf Lakeland WVB Coaching Record |
|
| Year |
Overall Record |
Conf. Record |
|
| 2014 |
17-17 |
7-4 |
|
|
|
| 2015 |
17-15 |
8-3 |
|
| 2016 |
15-17 |
7-4 |
|
| 2017 |
15-18 |
7-4 |
|
| 2018 |
22-11 |
8-3 |
|
| Career |
86-78 |
37-18 |
