Northern Heat was started by Rick Kuehlwein in 1986 as Woodbury Volleyball Club. The name was shortly changed to Academics & Athletics for the NCAA. In 1994, Kuehlwein changed its name again to Northern Heat Amateur Volleyball Club and made it a nonprofit 6 years later. Rick Kuehlwein was the varsity volleyball coach for Cretin-Derham Hall for 18 years before retiring in 2016.
In 2017, Northern Heat became an LLC under the new ownership and directorship of Ellen Schafer. Schafer was a player for Rick Kuehlwein at Northern Heat and Cretin-Derham Hall for 4 years. Schafer transitioned to a Northern Heat coach after her senior season in 2010. Ellen Schafer has coached every age at the JO level in local, regional, and national tournaments. Schafer was also the head varsity volleyball coach for Cretin-Derham Hall High School for the 2017-2019 seasons.
Northern Heat Volleyball practices out of Cretin-Derham Hall. 90% of our players end up attending Cretin-Derham Hall for high school, but we do accept players that attend other schools.
“Northern Heat Volleyball believes that volleyball is a sport that can teach the proper lifetime lessons to student athletes. Competition, dedication, perseverance and plain hard work learned from the game of volleyball will be transferred to the home, the classroom, and the community.
Northern Heat Volleyball was founded to give all student athletes the best opportunity to play and enjoy volleyball. Northern Heat encourages our student athletes to be multi-sport athletes with priority given to school activities.”
