Plainfield Central coach Ryan Wilhelmi brings military experience to badminton court

Ryan Wilhelmi is a Marine veteran, a current officer in the U.S. Coast Guard Reserves and a former football coach, but these days you can find him in what many would consider an unlikely place.

On the badminton court.

Wilhelmi is the junior varsity badminton head coach, as well as a special education teacher at Plainfield Central High School.

“People definitely do have that reaction that it’s a surprising sport for me to be coaching,” Wilhelmi said. “Badminton is like a chess match on the court. There’s so much more strategy to it that people don’t necessarily realize. I enjoy the tactical strategy along with the athleticism in it.”

Wilhelmi enjoys getting to coach with a different attitude and mindset than he took on the football field.

“Coaching boys in football versus girls in badminton, it’s a completely different experience,” he said. “A lot of the girls who play badminton are some of the best students in the school. They’re AP, honors students. You have to talk to them differently. The approach is different, but they can still be pushed.”

Wilhelmi joined the Marine Corps Reserves in 2010 when he was 24 years old. He began teaching and coaching at Plainfield Central in 2011, but being in the military remained important to him.

“It was something I always wanted to do,” Wilhelmi said. “My parents wanted me to go to college, so I did that. Once I graduated from college, I was single and living at home and this was something I always wanted to do, I wanted to do the hardest branch, so I joined the Marine Corps.”

Wilhelmi was in the Marines for six years and was deployed to Djibouti in Africa during the 2014-15 school year as part of Operation Enduring Freedom.

“One of the coolest things I got to do was I got to be a bodyguard for a Navy Chaplin, a Catholic priest,” Wilhelmi said. “I got to the rank of sergeant. I was in the Marine Corps for six years and it was an amazing experience that I’m really proud of.”

Plainfield Central junior Jenny Oceguera, who had Wilhelmi as a badminton coach the past two years, said she can see his military experience reflected in the way he coaches and teaches.

“When times are tough, you want to give up,” Oceguera said. “He doesn’t do that. He keeps going and that’s what he encourages us all to do in badminton and in the classroom.”

Wilhelmi has been out of the Marines for seven years, but he recently had the itch to get back involved in the military.

“It’s really the best job I’ve ever had,” he said. “I love teaching and coaching, don’t get me wrong. But the people in the military are a special breed of people who are very unselfish, very hard-working. They get it. It’s hard to put into words how it feels to be surrounded by these kind of people. Being able to lead younger people in the Coast Guard now that I have some more life experience is really enjoyable.

“I’m the faculty adviser for the Armed Forces Club at school, so I routinely talk to kids about the military and I can talk military all day.”

Over the summer, Wilhelmi graduated from officer candidacy school and became an officer in the Coast Guard Reserves.

“I truly could not have done it without the unwavering love and support of my wife, Melissa and son, Isaac,” he said. “My plan is to stay for at least 14 years so I can get my 20 years of service and get retirement, but I’ll probably end up staying in until they kick me out of the Coast Guard, because I personally love the military.”

Wilhelmi coached freshmen football for nine years and has been coaching badminton for seven.

While he sometimes sees new badminton players intimidated to be coached by a big, tough, military guy, he said he is able to connect and make that go away quickly.

“I do make them run, make them sweat,” he said. “But I try to also smile, talk to them one-on-one to build those relationships. I am demanding to them, though. They do need to be pushed. They warm up to me and we have some great conversations. They start to see the strategy involved and why we want to do certain things.”

Junior Victoria Devaldivielso, who was Oceguera’s doubles partner, said Wilhelmi made them better.

“Me and my doubles partner were slacking off a bit and he kind of demoted us to push us to go further,” she said. “It actually did work. We were more motivated. We were a little upset with him, but we realized he had good intentions.

“He’s such an amazing coach. He likes to push us a lot and motivate us to go further and be the best we can be.”