In her 21st season as the Yellowjackets volleyball head coach, Lynne Deadrick has amassed 300 total career wins for the UW-Superior volleyball program. However, her coaching and athletic careers go even further back.
Deadrick hit the 300-win mark last month on Sept. 22 with a sweep over the Crown College Polars.
At Vermillion, Deadrick was a four-sport athlete, playing basketball, track, softball and of course volleyball. In her second year on the volleyball team Vermillion made it into the national tournament.
Then Deadrick transferred to the College of Saint Scholastica (CSS).
Deadrick’s move to CSS wasn’t the only big decision that she made as she made the decision to focus on one sport for the Saints. Coming off the national tournament appearance in volleyball it was a fairly easy decision.
Deadrick made an instant impact on the Saints and helped them claim the 1984 Little College Athletic Association national championship.
A year later, she would transfer again, this time to UMD where she continued playing volleyball while earning her bachelor’s degree and her Minnesota Coaching Certificate.
After all this time spent being an athlete, Deadrick decided to stay in athletics but move to the sideline. “I think coaching became a part of things that I liked to do, because I was so involved in athletics.”
In 1996, Deadrick earned her master’s in instruction at UWS. Coaching would then “take over” Deadrick’s life, “I also took on the head coaching role in softball at the college level for thirteen seasons and became the head high school girls basketball coach (15 years) as well, so coaching kind of took over throughout my career,” said Deadrick.
This was during her time as the head volleyball coach for Vermilion Community College where totaled 127-192-2 12 seasons.
In 2003, Deadrick made the decision to begin her Yellowjacket coaching career. Deadrick said, “Coming to UWS was really a blessing, at the time I really felt like I had the opportunity to make a difference here at the University and make a difference in a lot of young women’s lives.”
Junior Jenna Anderson chose to play for Deadrick in 2021 because of her caring demeanor but has seen Deadrick’s knowledge of the game help her and her teammates.
“Playing with a coach with a lot of knowledge and experience has been super rewarding and helps us as athletes understand the game and to have more depth in decision making,” said Anderson. “Coach Deadrick was a huge part of my decision to come to UWS, I felt since day one that coach truly cared about me.”
Deadrick became UWS’s all-time winningest volleyball coach in 2010 when she broke Marcia Engebretson’s 104-win mark. With her current total of 309 wins Deadrick will hold the record for many years and even decades to come.
“I think it tells you that here’s a coach that has invested some time into the university and made that commitment to make things happen,” Deadrick later added. “I just think it’s been a lot of fun, when you have young players who are passionate about the game itself too.”
Deadrick pointed to the talented players she has had through the years to help her on the 21-year journey. She also noted a major aspect of Yellowjacket volleyball is the family culture which is something Anderson has always noticed from her coach.
“It’s just a blessing to have a coach that’s so caring about my life outside of being an athlete. She’s believed in me since my first year, has pushed me to be a better athlete than I used to be, and has inspired me to reach goals I never thought were possible,” said Anderson.
This season, Deadrick and the Yellowjackets finished third in the UMAC standings with an 18-10 (10-4 in the UMAC) season UMAC tournament which begins on Wednesday Nov. 8.
