11th article at the Independent

SMSU VOLLEYBALL: ‘We’re trying to not skip a beat’ Mustangs prepare for new leadership with familiar face at the helm

CHRIS DRUMMOND

cdrummond@marshallindependent.com

MARSHALL — Growing up in a family full of volleyball players in New Ulm, it didn’t take Tyler Boddy long to fall in love with the sport. He has maintained that passion for volleyball, which has led him on a path to becoming the newest head coach of the Southwest Minnesota State University volleyball program in mid-December.

Before making his way to Marshall, Boddy would go on to become a Graduate Assistant coach at Ripon College for a year in 2009 and then transitioned to an assistant coach at Wisconsin-Oshkosh for two seasons in 2010-2011 while obtaining a bachelor’s degree at the University and being a player for them as well in the men’s program. For the past 10 years he has been an assistant coach at SMSU learning under the tutelage of Terry Culhane, who stepped down as head coach after the 2021 season. Boddy talked about what he learned as an assistant that he now can apply as a head coach. “What I’ve always appreciated is in being a GA (graduate assistant) or assistant coach is that Terry has always been inclusive to our staff, we’re all involved in the coaching aspect,” Boddy said. “Learning from those two (Culhane and Paul Soupir) has helped shaped my philosophy in coaching, taking things from Terry and Paul and making it my own.” The Mustangs are coming off a 21-8 season and are bringing back three senior All-Americans: Alisa Bengen, Rachel Fink and Meg Schmidt. SMSU will also have a lot of young talent on the team with seven incoming players, four of whom are from the Southwest Minnesota area. When talking about expectations for next season, coach Boddy was optimistic but also weary because of the talent within the conference.

“We’re trying to not skip a beat, we always plan to compete with the best teams in our league,” Boddy said. “Our conference is so incredibly competitive, we know that going in so that’s not a surprise to us.”

Coach Boddy also recently hired Julia Peniata as an assistant coach on the volleyball team. He would also advocate about the hire.

“We’re really excited about her,” Boddy said. “Just having her to connect with our kids in the best way and she’s very excited about the opportunity.”