Wisconsin’s Kelly Sheffield Secures 400th Career Win Over Maryland

In Wisconsin’s recent victory over Maryland, the Badger’s head coach, Kelly Sheffield, crossed off 400 career matches won off his list. The Badgers dominated over the Terrapins to bring in Sheffield’s 400th win, where he was awaited with praise from former player, Lauren Carlini.

What's better? 400 wins or this Levain Bakery cookie? Close call I know. Congrats @KellyPSheffield and let's get 400 more W's ok? Cool. pic.twitter.com/5kT5X0hsDH

— Lauren Carlini (@laurencarlini) October 19, 2017

Sweep the ? to secure @KellyPSheffield's 4⃣0⃣0⃣th career win: ✔️ pic.twitter.com/F11kqIeQlA

— Wisconsin Volleyball (@BadgerVB) October 19, 2017

Sheffield has been a prominent component in the NCAA Division I sphere since 1997 when he started off his career as an assistant with Houston. From there he bounced to Virginia from 1998-99 and Clemson in 2000, both as an assistant coach. Following his season with Clemson, Sheffield nabbed his first head coaching gig with Albany, where he was located from 2001-07. From there he took over the Dayton spot before finally landing himself at Wisconsin in 2013.

In his career, Sheffield has only had one losing season, his first at Albany where the team went 4-20. The next year he barely broke over .500 before his squads began taking off in a winning direction.

Sheffield’s Coaching Records

• Albany (2001-07, seven seasons) – 142-79 (.643 winning percentage)
• Dayton (2008-12, five seasons) – 131-33 (.799 winning percentage)
• Wisconsin (2013-present) – 113-25 (.819 winning percentage) *note this record is from 2013-16

Leading up to the 2017 season, Sheffield had a 286-137 overall record with a .738 winning percentage. This season, the team has posted a 14-4 record to bring Sheffield to his 400 win milestone.

In each of his year’s with Wisconsin, he has brought the team to, at least, the Sweet 16 or further. Sheffield’s first year with the Badgers brought them a NCAA runner-up mark in 2013 and reached the Elite Eight the following year. 2015 saw Wisconsin to the Sweet 16 and 2016 to the Elite Eight once again. Prior to Wisconsin, Sheffield took Dayton to the NCAA Tournament in each of his five seasons, reaching the second round twice, along with three appearances at Albany.

This year, the Badgers will once again be a NCAA Tournament hopefully, but their fate is unknown until conference season is complete at the end of November. The team has shown some weaknesses in their youth but have a solid backbone to push themselves fair into the tournament.