Behrendt, Germantown aim for title
GERMANTOWN – Growing up, Bryce Behrendt was the classic little brother.
He took his lumps competing with his older brothers, Tyler, who is junior in college, and Zach, a college sophomore. You name it, the two made sure the baby of the family knew his place.
They did such a good job that today Behrendt almost sounds grateful.
“I kept working hard, trying to get as good as them because I
wanted to be like my brothers,” he said. “They’re my role models.”
If you want to know what makes one the state’s top volleyball players tick, take him back to those childhood battles. The great players have a competitive drive, and Behrendt didn’t have to go far to find a source of inspiration.
Now a high school senior, the 6foot-4 outside hitter hopes his will to win takes him and Germantown to heights it has never reached before. In the program’s 12-year existence, it has emerged as one of the area’s best. In the past seven years, the Warhawks have picked up steam, reaching five state tournaments and finishing second in 2013.
This could be the year the team take a back seat to no opponent.
“Everybody looks super-good,” Behrendt said. “We just don’t have one player or two players. Our whole team is good. … For this year I think we have pretty high expectations.”
When Germantown opens the season Wednesday in Middleton, it will do so as the area’s No. 1 ranked team, a distinction the Warhawks earned by returning three all-state players.
After Behrendt, senior middle Luke Taylor and opposite hitter Carter Schmidt are the two others. Add junior outside Ben Schultz, and the team returns four all-Greater Metro picks from a team that reached the state semifinals last season.
Behrendt is the only first-team allstate selection back.
“Mom played outside (hitter) at UWM. His dad was a bodybuilder, so between the two of them there is some athleticism in the family,” Germantown coach Brian Rushmer said.
While Behrendt gained his competitive spirit from his brothers, it was his mother, Marla, who introduced him to the game.
She coached, and while she ran his older brothers’ youth team practices Bryce would grab a ball and entertain himself off to the side.
The sport turned out to be his thing. While Tyler and Zach gravitated toward basketball – Tyler is a walk-on at UWMilwaukee – Bryce felt in love with volleyball.
“The thing I like about volleyball is that you’ve always got to be engaged,” said Behrendt, who played during the offseason with Milwaukee Volleyball Club. “If you take a point or a play off then you’re team loses the point. I like it because you can get a kill. It’s like throwing an alley-oop every play and throwing it down, just getting a monster dunk every play. There’s energy throughout the whole game.”
Like most top boys players, Behrendt is a big hitter, but he is also a strong passer and last season ranked No. 2 in digs behind the team’s libero, senior Jack Leininger. They’re nuances of the game Behrendt credits his mother for helping him win.
“She respects what the coaches say, but she’ll always give me pointers on the sideline,” he said. “Even at state last year, I could hear her in the stands telling me little things like ‘Bryce, stay low on defense’ and ‘Bryce, stop you feet,’ I always hear my mom. It’s kind of a family thing. She grew up with six sisters, so it was a loud household.”
Behrendt took those lessons and turned them into a well-rounded junior year.
He led the team with 449 kills in 1,024 chances, was second in digs (252), tops in aces (53) and fourth in blocks (47).
His first-team all-state honor was a first for a Germantown junior. Sometime this school year, he’ll also have a chance to be the school’s first Division I recruit.
First, however, there is matter of taking care of the most important first for the school: a state championship.
“We’re definitely hoping to go to state,” he said. “We have the talent to, but if your team isn’t linked together and they don’t love each other and have each other’s back, you’re not going to make it that far.”