Milwaukee Volleyball Club

The North Shore Milwaukee Volleyball Club (NSMVC) was founded in 1990 by Mike Fried and Jim Plaisted. Mike and Jim were varsity and JV coaches (respectively) at Nicolet at the time and their desire in founding NSMVC was to get their players more playing experience and exposure to better competition. According to Fried, “in founding North Shore and taking over the reins of the old Wisconsin Volleyball club our goal was twofold; we wanted to carry on the tradition John Simon had put in place of gathering the best players from the Milwaukee and outlying area for competition outside of high school, and we wanted to set a base for developing talent in Wisconsin.”

The name North Shore Milwaukee was originally meant to conjure up feelings of the North Shore of Hawaii or California and to give west coast people the geographical challenge of wondering just what shore they were talking about. Truly the name was meant to give us some "street cred" in the volleyball world as if they were from the beaches of some coastal land known for volleyball. It just so happened that our first several teams were comprised of mostly "North Shore" of Milwaukee players.

Mike played on the original WI Volleyball Club team and his fondest memories besides his teammates, was the fact John Simon had them sleep out in tents, with no chaperons, and really no one understanding what to expect in attending this AAU tournament in Lisle, IL. Club volleyball was such a mystery to people in the mid-80’s. Mike loved that John had various special guest stars come in and scrimmage us and immersed him and his teammates in the best adult players in Milwaukee.

Mike’s personal philosophy for NSMVC was to establish a culture of winning and one that would be sustained by the presence of former players, whether it would be as coaches or as those that would come around to visit.  North Shore was always intended to be a club where the commitment to winning and doing things the right way would be enforced not only by the coaches but by the experience and expectations of former players.  This came out of Mike’s Ball State career as a men’s volleyball player. He knew it was not only expected to play in a final four, but to be accepted into the legacy of the program, Mike had to play in a final four. He ended up playing in three final fours.

 Mike recruited Jim as JV coach as he was “the best high school volleyball player he had ever seen” and knew Jim’s passion for sports (he was recruited to play baseball at the University of Arizona). He encouraged to Jim to “try” coaching and (exact words), “Follow me around for a month, you’ll pick it up”. Granted, the last time Mike had seen Jim was as a freshman at Madison and Mike’s face pressed up against the glass at Rocky Rococo’s on State Street where Jim was cutting pizza.  Many of Mike’s friends then worked with Jim at the Brathouse, and eventually he found a way to connect with him upon his graduation and return to Milwaukee.  

They formed two teams that first year; 18-Under and 16-Under.  Mike’s alma mater, Ball State in Indiana, hosted a Memorial Day tournament and a fledgling boys volleyball club in Minneapolis (Team ‘Sota) hosted an early April tourney. Our first teams formed in that initial year included two future club directors, Erik Olson (now and MVC coach with two sons in the program) and Rick Wagner (Jim’s first setter at Nicolet). Also, that year they had their first assistant coach and a future club director as well, Mike Chartier, who came on board after graduating from the University of WI-Milwaukee.

They went to the AAU Championships for two more years (winning the 19-Under championship in 1991 featuring future Olympian Jeff Nygaard). In the third season, a fateful conversation happened in the halls of Nicolet before a club practice. Senior Rick Wagner came up to Jim and said, “The guys have been talking and we want to go to USA Volleyball Junior Championships this year (Albuquerque, NM).” After some discussion with the guys, parents, and a big gulp from Mike and Jim, NSMVC made its USAV Nationals debut. Another famous alum on that year’s team was past Marquette High School head coach, Erik Sullivan.

The club grew throughout the 90’s as more and more boys wanted to play club volleyball and girls teams were added in 1994. When Illinois added boys volleyball as a high school sport in 1992, more opportunities to play grew as the Chicago area started several boys clubs. Suddenly, the seven month club season was born (ugh!).  

NSMVC was also at the forefront of forming the Badger Region Volleyball Association in 1994. Jim, Mike, Joel Ehrendreich, and Karl Talcott were all part of a core founding group that split Wisconsin off from the Chicago-centered Great Lakes Region. Jim Plaisted served as commissioner for the Region from 1998 to 2000 and former NSMVC player Chris Haworth was commissioner from 2003-2008.

Jim and Mike ran the club until 1998 when due to family and career choices they both decided it was time to move on. Their final season highlights included Jim's 16-Under team winning the So Cal Classic tournament on the first trip out there for NSMVC and a 5th place finish at Nationals that same season (highest finish up to that time).

Erik Olson and Kevin Gemignani took over to keep the tradition strong for the next two years culminating in our first USA Volleyball National Championship in 2000 at the 14 Under level. That team was coached by the next set of directors, Mike Chartier and Rick Wagner. Erik moved on to the coach in college at the University of Miami as an assistant before landing the head coaching job at Central Michigan University (2004 to 2014). Kevin, after starting as a coach on our girl’s side in the mid 90’s, went on to become one of Wisconsin’s most successful boys high school coaches of all time at Shorewood High School (17 years). 

Jim and Mike formed a great team with complementary skills for success of the club. Mike said in relation to his co-director, “I could not have found someone better who both shared in my goals, but also was able to bring the same passion and commitment to the idea.  I honestly do not know how we made it work in the early days, but you could tell Jim was bright, organized and could focus on completing tasks and moving the club forward.  Without him, North Shore would have stayed a two -team operation and would never have enjoyed the huge success to follow from our initial years”.

 Jim said that Mike, “came crashing into my world, literally out of thin air (Wanna coach?) and changed it forever. He was the club’s coaching guru, our competitive fire, our connection to the national volleyball community, and all around volleyball muse. Many don’t realize it but his effects on the club are still there today. You couldn’t help but be infected by the volleyball bug coaching with him. Our experiences together running the club will never be forgotten. Insert a thousand stories here.”

 Mike and Jim both believe their greatest achievement of forming the club is seeing it still standing, stronger than ever, after all these years (32to be exact). The legacies of playing for NSMVC are here, there, and everywhere across the nation. Former players are coaching high school and club, playing or having played in college, playing in adult leagues, kids now playing club (hat tip Aaron and Ben Plaisted) and STILL enjoying the friendships started at North Shore. 

In 2010, the torch was passed to Jake Nowak and Brad Kuehl, two former NSMVC players from the 90's. Jake and Brad took the club to the next level in the subsequent 10 years, growing into what we know as MVC. From the renting of State Fair Park for our practice home, to our record level of teams that we host each year, and building what is truly an incredible coaching staff (second to none in the region and Midwest), Brad and Jake deserve a ton of credit for our continued success.

Last but not least, our current Co-Director Brian Rushmer, replaced Jake in 2021 and alongside Brad, keeps MVC as one of the top boys clubs in the USA.