File photo by Travis Rosenau New Ulm Cathedral volleyball head coach Becky Wilfahrt stands with her clipboard and observes Tuesday’s match between her Greyhounds and Cedar Mountain as her daughter, Shay Wilfahrt (9), readies herself on the court at Cathedral High School.

NEW ULM — Since her first varsity game coached in 1998, New Ulm Cathedral Greyhounds volleyball head coach Becky Wilfahrt has shared in her players’ many victories and milestones.

This past Saturday during a tournament at Waterville-Elysian-Morristown, however, the players got a little time to share in one big victory and milestone for their coach as Wilfahrt picked up her 300th career varsity win.

Heading into the tournament, nobody outside of Wilfahrt’s husband, Dave, and Cathedral High School Activities Director Alan Woitas knew exactly how close her upcoming milestone was.

“Nobody knew, I didn’t tell anybody,” Wilfahrt said. “My husband knew and that was really it. Even the parents were kind of wondering why he was filming me and taking all these pictures of me and not the girls. So, afterward, he explained to people and he’s the one, because Alan must have asked him how many I had to go, which I didn’t know.

“So, I didn’t really publicize it or anything. It was a nice milestone to reach, but it’s about wanting to win the tournament, it’s about the girls. The focus was on them.”

Even with the focus on the team, Greyhounds players were a little upset they weren’t more aware of the milestone in advance.

“They were kind of disappointed [laughs],” Wilfahrt said. “They were, like, ‘Why didn’t you tell us? We could have had banners, we would have had posters made.’ I said, ‘It’s OK, we can celebrate Tuesday at home.’ We had two games left in the tournament at the time, so I said, ‘When we hit 303, then we can celebrate.'”

The Greyhounds ended up going 2-2 in the WEM tournament and defeated Cedar Mountain at home on Tuesday, moving Wilfahrt’s coaching record to 301-193-5.

OVER THE YEARS

After her varsity volleyball playing career at Sleepy Eye St. Mary’s under head coach Bill Tschida came to a close, the 1993 St. Mary’s grad attended college for her teaching degree and coaching minor at Minnesota State University, Mankato — then Mankato State University — and St. Mary’s University of Minnesota. After teaching for a year at Cathedral, Wilfahrt’s varsity coaching career began in a familiar spot at St. Mary’s in 1998 as she took over for Tschida.

“I coached at St. Mary’s for four years, I actually got to coach my younger sister [Emily Schroepfer] and we had some really great players there and we went to the subsection finals three times,” Wilfahrt said. “We went to the section finals two times in the four years that I was there. And then I actually was at New Ulm Public as an assistant for a couple years.”

After taking a couple of years off following her time with New Ulm, Wilfahrt taught and coached at St. Clair High School, the school that Wilfahrt picked up her first varsity coaching win over in 1998. During her four years as the volleyball head coach at St. Clair, Wilfahrt helped the Cyclones reach their first subsection championship. Wilfahrt said she took some time off after leaving St. Clair to focus on her children before returning to Cathedral to coach volleyball in 2014.

ALL IN THE FAMILY

Wilfahrt might be one of a very select few varsity volleyball coaches to have coached their sister, and later their own daughter, but it’s a fact for Wilfahrt. She coached her sister, Emily, on the Knights, and is now coaching her daughter, Shay, on the Greyhounds.

Some of Wilfahrt’s fondest coaching memories involve her early years at St. Mary’s with her sister and a group of players she formed friendships with.

“The first year that we won the subsection really stuck out to me, so that would have been my second year coaching because my sister was a starter then,” Wilfahrt said. “It’s really memorable to me because one of my players who I remained good friends with for a long time [Nicole Steffl Fuchs], who ended up passing away from cancer a couple of years ago, so those couple seasons really are near and dear to my heart because I got to spend time with that group and they were just so unbelievably talented and so I am really fond of that particular season.”

Getting her first varsity win while coaching her sister and now getting win No. 300 while coaching her daughter, Wilfahrt’s coaching journey so far has been something very unique.

“It’s been a really cool experience,” Wilfahrt said. “I’m really trying to slow down time because with this being Shay’s last year, and when I think back, it feels like I just started coaching my sister when she was a freshman, and they remind me a lot of each other at times, so that’s been kind of a unique and interesting experience.

“You look at it and think of how lucky you are to be able to work with your family, coach a sibling or coach your child and it’s not always the easiest thing to do, and [Shay] will probably tell you the same thing, but she told me two years ago when she knew I was getting close to 300 that she really wanted to be a part of the team that got me that 300th win, so that was kind of cool that she could do that during her senior year as well.”

COUNTING BLESSINGS

Wilfahrt’s 300th win came during a 2-0 tourney win over Waterville-Elysian-Morristown.

With more than two decades of coaching under her belt and in her 12th season as head coach of the Greyhounds, Wilfahrt has seen herself become a steady presence of sorts in girls athletics. With the amount of time, effort and responsibilities going into coaching, she has let her love of the game continue to drive her.

“We had our coaches association meeting and they were telling us how the numbers of returning coaches in girls sports are as low as 12% in some sports,” Wilfahrt said. “So, when I think about it, I just honestly reflect on it and think I’ve been really blessed. I’ve been blessed to be in some really good school systems.

“I’ve had really great athletes and great kids to work with. I’ve had some wonderful assistant coaches over the years and friends that I’ve made that are coaches that I’ve learned so much from and still kind of lean on for a lot of things. Supportive parents and great people to work with and that’s really the biggest thing when you look back on it is just how blessed I am to be doing something I love here as long as I’ve been able to.”

WHAT’S NEXT?

With her daughter, Shay, graduating Cathedral in 2026 and coaches reaching out to get Shay to continue her volleyball career in college, Wilfahrt has been asked by many what’s in her own future when it comes to coaching.

Her answer is always the same.

“What I have told everybody is, ‘As long as I am still enjoying this, I’m going to keep doing it,'” she said. “I don’t foresee any time, I don’t have an end date, but when I’m not finding joy in it anymore, I will step away, because I feel like you have to love what you’re doing in order to keep coaching.”