The following story is from the Fall 2023 edition of the "Roar Report" that came out October 4. It is authored by Gary D'Amato, the former longtime sportswriter and columnist for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, who joined the staff as the feature writer for the Roar Report in the Fall of 2018.

FAMILY MATTERS
 
Susie Johnson played every sport under the sun as a kid. From her mother, Kathryn Berkley, she inherited a competitive itch that had to be scratched, whether it was on the basketball court, the volleyball court or the softball diamond … anywhere there was a ball to be dribbled, spiked or smashed into center field.
 
Johnson excelled in basketball at Racine Case High School and could have played in college, but she wasn't cut out for throwing — and receiving — elbows in the paint.
 
"I just didn't think it was suited for me," she said. "Too much contact, probably. Getting fouled, I don't know, I always got irritated by it."
 
Instead, she played NCAA Division I women's volleyball at Idaho State. Her experience there led to a highly successful coaching career and influenced her younger sisters in a blended family.
 
Johnson is in her 17th season as head women's volleyball coach at Milwaukee and on Sept. 19 became the program's all-time Division I leader in victories with 272. Her daughter, Josie, is a sophomore setter on the team.
 
"She understands the game because she grew up with it," Johnson said. "Not just with me, but with our entire family."
 
Yes, when Johnson, her sisters and their daughters get together, volleyball is certain to be a topic of conversation.
 
Amanda Berkley, 15 years younger than Johnson, walked on to the women's volleyball team at the University of Wisconsin, played in one of the nation's top programs and now is in her sixth season as head women's volleyball coach at Loyola University Chicago.
 
Another sister, Kari Adams, also played volleyball in high school, though she excelled in softball. One of her daughters, Katie Adams, is a women's volleyball assistant coach at Green Bay. Another daughter, Ellie Adams, is director of volleyball operations at Marquette University.
 
Finally, another sister, Annie Sireno, played volleyball at UW-Whitewater and coached at Union Grove High School.
 
Just call them the "First Family of Volleyball in Wisconsin."
 
"That might not be an exaggeration," Johnson said.
 
As a setter at Idaho State, Johnson was the 1990 Big Sky Conference MVP, a three-time all-Big Sky selection and earned all-Northwest Region honors. She was inducted into the Idaho State Sports Hall of Fame in 2003.
 
"I had a great experience in Idaho," Johnson said. "The town of Pocatello is very enthralled with their athletics. We were the best team they had on campus, so we were embraced. I had a really good coach. He embraced the fact that I was an athlete and just taught me the game at a very high level."
 
At 23 and just out of school, Johnson was named head coach of the women's volleyball team at Division II UW-Parkside. Talk about on-the-job training.
 
"I was the same age as two of my players," she said with a laugh. "I was a pretty good player so I understood the game and I could teach it, but when it came down to recruiting, I was trying to figure it out. It was an interesting job, but I thought, 'I need to learn more before I can go back to being a head coach.'"
 
Johnson took a job as an assistant coach at Indiana State, where she learned the recruiting ropes. After two years, she accepted a job as assistant coach at Milwaukee, where Kathy Litzau was in charge of a highly successful program and on her way to the Bud K. Haidet Hall of Fame.
 
"We were a really good fit," Johnson said of working with Litzau, now the senior associate director of athletics at Milwaukee.
 
When Litzau moved into administration, Johnson had been her assistant for 10 years and was the logical choice to succeed her. She was named head coach in May 2007.
 
The rest is history. Johnson has led the Panthers to six regular-season Horizon League titles, four league tournament titles and four NCAA Tournament berths. She has been named Horizon League Coach of the year five times.
 
When Milwaukee beat Chicago State, 3-2, for Johnson's 272nd career victory on Sept. 19, she not only surpassed Litzau to become the program's all-time leader in victories but also became the all-time leader in victories for any women's team at Milwaukee since the program moved to NCAA Division I in 1990.
 
Best of all, Johnson achieved the record with her daughter on the team (her son, Ty, is a redshirt sophomore wide receiver at Winona State).
 
"When Josie was born, it was the end of May and we were starting our season in August, so I just brought her to work," Johnson said. "She had a very interesting upbringing the first six months of her life. It's kind of cool that it's come full circle."
 
Josie was coached by her mother in club volleyball starting at age 10. There was no chance she was going to play college volleyball anywhere else. The two are easily able to separate mother-daughter from coach-player.
 
"I think she just understands how I react, because she's been coaching me for so long," Josie said. "And then, I don't know, we just get along really well. It's pretty easy to play for her."
 
Said Johnson, "I don't find it hard (coaching Josie) because we have such a history of me coaching her. So, we didn't have to adapt and learn that. She's very much treated like another player on the team. She just happens to be my daughter."
 
As for Berkley, she started going to her older sister's games as a toddler and has modeled her own career after Johnson's.
 
"She's someone I look up to with everything that I do, and I bounce a lot of ideas off of her because she's been so successful for so long," Berkley said. "I definitely look up to her. What she's been able to accomplish at UWM has been amazing. She's just a really talented coach and someone who keeps growing and learning."
 
Don't look for Milwaukee and Loyola University to play each other in a non-conference game, though. That's a line the sisters won't cross.
 
"We know so much about each other's teams," Johnson said. "I mean, intricately. We talk multiple times a day. We're very close and we're so competitive that leaving that off the table makes it easier. Because otherwise, how could you share as much? We're both trying to win for our jobs, too."
 
Now in her 27th year at Milwaukee, Johnson said her level of energy and enthusiasm for coaching hasn't waned.
 
"I think it's innate in me to be competitive," she said. "I definitely think that I may be unique because I've been doing this a long time and I still want to figure out how I can be the best coach I can be with whatever group it is."
 
Josie wants to follow in her mother's coaching footsteps someday, and there may be more volleyball players in the family down the line: Johnson's brother, Tim, married one of her former players.
 
"I set them up her senior year," Johnson said. "Tim was right out of college. That's a whole 'nother twist to the story."