Ludlow High School volleyball coach Jodi Schmidt hit a pretty big milestone in Wednesday night’s victory over Gallatin County.
It was win No. 400.
The first thing that came to mind was her father.
“He passed away in 2020 and had been to all of our volleyball games,” Schmidt said. “I was pretty emotional.”
Then Schmidt thought about how fortunate she was to be doing this for so long, 24 years to be exact and all the help she’s received along the way.
“All the players and assistants for all they’ve put into the program,” Schmidt said. I’ve been very blessed during my tenure to have amazing assistants. They’ve been huge and instrumental in developing players from the middle school program on up.”
When Schmidt first arrived, they had a varsity and junior varsity team. The program at Ludlow has expanded, on top of Varsity and JV, they have a freshman team, multiple middle school teams and recently added a fourth and fifth grade team.
Schmidt got her start in coaching as an assistant at Bishop Brossart under Jen Woolf when she was going through college and getting her degree. Then the opportunity at Ludlow opened up.
“When I first set out for a teaching position, this is where I had my heart set out on coming,” Schmidt said. “People talked about the school and community. They had a volleyball opening and it was just meant to be. I wouldn’t trade these kids or position for anything. It’s been a great experience.”
The growth in the program is what keeps Schmidt motivated to coach, the Panthers currently at 1-2 on the season as they head into the weekend for their annual tournament, the Ludlow Classic. With Ludlow’s gym under construction, they’ve moved the classic to St. Henry High School and their Athletic Center, where 13 teams will participate on Saturday.
Ludlow’s win on Wednesday happened at Dayton, taking on Gallatin County in pool play for the weekend tournament.
“Barbie Lukens (Dayton’s coach) is one of my very best friends and it was neat that she was there to see it,” Schmidt said.
The Panthers are a bit of an inexperienced team this season, dealing with the loss of five seniors graduating from last season’s team that went 14-18. Half of the roster has zero varsity experience. But with the youth in the program, it help keeps the fire and passion in coaching for Schmidt.
“It’s exciting, they work incredibly hard,” Schmidt said. “There’s not a lot that play in the offseason, so the main experience is through our program. I love seeing the kids master a skill they couldn’t do before and seeing them re-energized keeps me going.”