Schoeneman retiring with exactly 400 wins

By JASON JUNO

sports@yourdailyglobe.com

MERCER, Wis. - When basketball games end, most kids in most places grab a basketball and shoot. In Mercer, many grab a volleyball and pass.

"It's always one of those things that makes me smile," Mercer coach Robyn Schoeneman said. "They developed a love of the game, and I really do, I hope that continues."

That's part of what Schoeneman leaves behind as she retires. She also goes with a legacy that includes still-running streaks of nine straight regional championships and six consecutive conference titles, plus three trips to the sectional final.

Despite being one of the smallest, if not the smallest, school in the state, Mercer found a way to compete and win while she was here.

She's stepping away with exactly 400 career wins, with No. 400 tallied in the regional final victory at the end of October. She told the seniors who led the Tigers to that win back when they were in eighth grade that this would probably be her last season coaching.

There isn't just one reason.

Her daughter Eiley is planning on competing in volleyball and track-and-field at Carthage College, like her sister Aubrey, who Robyn didn't get to see play a lot because she was coaching. "I don't want to miss anything," she said.

She's also having knee replacement surgery this summer.

"It was a perfect time to transition because I always said if I couldn't give 100 percent it was time to step away," Robyn said. "At this point physically and mentally, I just need a break.

"I will miss the kids first and foremost. I'm in a situation where I'm in a school that's pretty small and I can still hopefully be part of their lives. I'll miss the thrill of game day. That was what drove me a lot of the time, just seeing how we fared against other people and other teams."

Usually quite well.

"She really believed in what she was doing. She really believed in the kids at Mercer," her longtime assistant, and Dad, Bob Schenk said. "She adapted her coaching methods to the team she had at that time. And a lot of coaches don't do that. They have one way to do things."

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Volleyball has been a strong point in Mercer. They won state in 1988 and 1992 while also making it there in 1981 and 2001. (That's where Robyn got her start in volleyball at Mercer, sleeping in the bleachers when Bob was coaching in the early '80s).

That was a positive when she started in 2008, but the momentum was gone by the time she started coaching. So she started with the middle school kids, helping them love the sport and building confidence in themselves.

Success came in stages.

The Tigers advanced to regional finals several times but always ran into Washburn, another powerhouse, there. Washburn moved up a division in 2016, and at the same time, the Tigers had some of their best talent, from setter Caitlyn Hiller to hitters Sydney Thompson and exchange student Reby Spagnuolo. They not only won the regional, they went all the way to the sectional final.

"That opened the door and it showed schools our size could be just as successful as schools a little bit bigger than us," Schoeneman said. "It really pushed the younger players because they saw what they could do, they saw what was possible."

That was a good team.

"That was a fun group," Schoeneman said. "When Reby walked into the gym that year and started playing, I was like, 'What is happening right now?' Where did this kid come from? It was so unexpected. But we were good before she came into the picture. They had been playing together, that group, since they were in sixth grade. And that's what it takes, longevity and people being able to understand what the other person is doing. They had chemistry."

The next year they were able to finally beat Washburn and the atmosphere in the gym that night was tournament-like even though it was the regular season. It also allowed Mercer to win her first conference championship.

"There were tears flowing. That was one game I wanted," Robyn said. "They were always the one. They were the one that kept us from conference, they were the ones that kept us from moving on and making our season last. We scouted them like crazy and it happened. It happened."

The winning continued from there. They won the regional again that season and haven't lost one since.

In 2016, a powerhouse Clayton team kept them from getting to state. They made it back to the sectional final in 2021 and 2022 with five-set wins over Prentice in the sectional semifinal both times. They ran into Chippewa Falls McDonell Central in those finals.

Those Mercer teams were led by hitter KD Knipp, who was league Player of the Year twice, with exchange student Marta Company, another strong hitter, a big help on the 2022 team.

"We had several girls that could finish," Schoeneman said. "They could put the ball away. That team was defensively very, very solid. April Klopatek was phenomenal on defense."

The league Player of the Year has come from Mercer every year since 2018.

The first was Aubrey Schoeneman, who may have been the strongest of a great group of hitters. Current seniors Eiley Schoeneman, a hitter, and setter Jenny Klopatek have both won it as the elite duo kept Mercer's success going most recently while also helping the 21 and 22 teams to the sectional final. Setter Ella Torkelson and Ava Barton, who Schoeneman said was probably their best defensive player over the years, also won the award.

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Being consistent in such a small school was no easy task - schools a lot bigger than Mercer struggle with that. Foreign exchange students helped, but only two of them were standouts.

"We just always found a way to make it work," Schoeneman said. "There were times we would put people in certain spots and certain times and it would be a little unorthodox, but we had to do what we had to do."

Former athletic director Adam Miller was impressed with how well run her practices always were. She doesn't just run scrimmages like some coaches he had seen elsewhere previously, she used so many drills to help players improve.

"When you walk into one of her practices," Miller said, "people are working extremely hard, it's upbeat for sure, the girls are always having fun. She's such a good coach. She really gets the girls to buy in and they have good attitudes, they respect and respond to her so well."

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Schoeneman often coached with her dad Bob Schenk, an accomplished coach himself and a Mercer Hall of Famer, by her side. She played for him at Adlai E. Stevenson High School, in suburban Chicago, the largest school in Illinois and they made it to the state tournament twice. She also played for him for three years at Carthage, where she's now in the Hall of Fame for her volleyball and track-and-field performances.

"I would say that was probably one of the most rewarding and special times of my life was being able to have him on my side for so much," Schoeneman said. "It was super special to be able to share that with him. He's always been a big part of my life, especially in the volleyball and track world. If he hadn't been here, it would have been weird.

"I felt the same thing about coaching next to Kelly Kohegyi all these years. She stood with me through thick and thin. Those two people just made everything complete. Shawn and Amber Thompson started these kids off super young. There was no one person that did this. It definitely takes a village to raise a child and it takes a village to make a volleyball program."

Especially one this good.