Eric Poppelman enters his second season as head men’s and women’s volleyball coach. He has compiled a 26-26 overall record (11-16 women, 15-8 men). His women’s team made the conference tournament for the second year in a row. His men’s team finished the year ranked 8th in the nation and was ranked as high as 7th.
“We are very excited in the direction both programs are going," he said. "We return top performers from both teams and look for contributions from younger players this season. We have increased our level of competition for both teams to keep our expectations high. I’ve seen a lot of progress thus far and a desire to improve day by day.”
Prior to taking over the reins of the Stritch Wolves program, Poppelman most recently coached with the Milwaukee Sting Volleyball Club. Other stints include assisting with the University of Illinois-Chicago program, the First Alliance club program in Chicago, and the South Florida Volleyball Club. He has extensive camp experience, working with University of Minnesota, University of Wisconsin, Marquette University, and the University of Nebraska programs.
Hailing from Racine, Wis., where he was an all-conference and all-county performer at Washington Park High School, Poppelman went on to play for the University of Wisconsin club program. He graduated from the University of Wisconsin in 1998 with a bachelor of science in elementary education degree with PK-3rd grade teaching certification.
Poppelman taught elementary school for the past six years, most recently in Milwaukee as a first grade lead teacher at the Milwaukee Urban League Academy of Business and Economics.
He resides in Milwaukee with his wife, Alixandra Crepeau, who is a third-year resident in OB-GYN at Aurora Sinai, and their son, Emmett.
Assistant Coach Morgan Shields is in her second season as assistant coach for the women’s volleyball program at Stritch and brings a wealth of playing and coaching experience to the Wolves.
Shields played collegiate ball at the University of Wisconsin for four years and was a two-time All-Big Ten selection, an American Volleyball Coaches Association (AVCA) All-Midwest Region selection, and AVCA 3rd Team All-American. A team captain at UW, Shields was voted Big Ten Player of the Week twice.
She was a four-time Academic All-Big Ten award winner and finished third all-time at UW for career assists. She received the highest honor an athlete could receive at UW when she was the recipient of the Medal of Honor which was given to one male and one female athlete at each Big Ten university based upon academic and athletic accomplishment.
The Badgers won two Big Ten Champions (2000 and 2001) and were national championship runners up in 2000.
After graduating in 2003 with a bachelor of science in psychology and history, Morgan played professionally in 2004 Sweden for Katrineholms V.C (and also was the head coach) and in 2005 in Portugal for Academico Voleibol Clube.
Hailing from Watertown, Wis., she prepped at the local high school was the voted the 1999 Gatorade State Volleyball Player of the Year in Wisconsin, an honor awarded annually in each state to the high school volleyball athlete who exhibits merits in athletics, academics, and community service.