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Over 10,000 athletes from all over the world made their way to Paris on July 26 to contend for gold medals in 329 events. Two of those athletes honed their athletic skills at Loyola. And on August 9, they helped the U.S. Men’s National Team earn its third bronze medal in Olympic history.
Thomas Jaeschke (BBA ’22) and Jeff Jendryk (BBA ’18) competed on the United States men’s national volleyball team. The American team defeated Italy 3-0 at South Paris Arena.
“It feels great right now,” Jendryk told the Chicago Tribune after the match. “We worked so hard and just having the opportunity to get a medal is so, so incredible.”
Jaeschke, an outside hitter, is a veteran player. This was his third Olympic Games. Jendryk, a middle blocker, made his Olympic debut.
Before earning their bronze medal, Jendryk and Jaeschke shared their excitement about heading to Paris.
Jendryk, for his part, is elated to go to the Summer Games for the first time. He says he felt like his whole career has led up to this moment.
“Thankfully I made the team, which is awesome,” Jendryk says. “It’s been a whole journey of always improving, always wanting to get better, and at the end of the day, play my best volleyball so I can try to make the Olympic roster.”
Team USA head coach John Speraw, who also brought teams to the Olympics in both 2016 and 2020, said this team’s level of experience makes it stand out to him compared to years past.
“In a really true, genuine way, I think they’re all really supportive of one another to achieve the ultimate goal that we’re all striving for,” Speraw says.
What makes the appearance of two former Ramblers at the Olympics so compelling is not just their Loyola affiliation, but also their values and dedication to the sport, Director of Athletics Steve Watson says.
“I think more than anything else, they’re just really good people,” Watson says. “And when you talk about Thomas and Jeff … they’re the kind of people you want to root for. You want them to have success.”
The competitive success that we've had in this modern era of Loyola Athletics, it really started with men's volleyball.
— Steve Watson, director of Athletics
Becoming Ramblers
Before they became Olympic athletes, Jaeschke and Jendryk intersected for just one year at Loyola in 2015. They played for the same volleyball club as teens, but they didn’t get to know each other well until they joined the Ramblers.
At the time, Jaeschke was a seasoned player and team captain, while the freshman Jendryk was “kind of a goofball,” Jaeschke says.
Now, the two are good friends. “We’re hanging out a ton right now. When we travel, we love playing Super Smash Brothers,” Jendryk says.
In both 2014 and 2015, the year that they both played for Loyola, the Ramblers won the NCAA men’s volleyball championship, which was a major accomplishment for the program.
“The competitive success that we’ve had in this modern era of Loyola Athletics, it really started with men’s volleyball,” Watson says. “Following that success in 2014-15 you see all these other sports programs have winning conference championships representing our league and representing the school at the NCAA tournaments.”
Jendryk says his Loyola Athletics experience taught him time management skills and a strong work ethic.
“I’m really thankful for the opportunity that I was able to play at Loyola,” Jendryk says. “Mark Hulse was one of my head coaches, and he was a middle blocker, so he was able to teach me a lot on what I needed to do to improve my game to get to Team USA.”
Jaeschke said the program gave him a chance to develop his leadership skills.
“The coaching staff gave me a lot of freedom to play and lead how I thought was best,” Jaeschke says. “Going to Loyola, I was able to grow quite a bit as a player — kind of grow into myself.”
Overcoming challenges
With the potential to play professional volleyball and make the 2016 Olympic roster on the table, Jaeschke ended his time at Loyola after his junior year in 2015 to focus on his volleyball career. He played for three professional teams in Poland and Italy between 2015 and 2022. At this point, he felt frustrated with his career trajectory and decided to make a change.
“I felt like I was grinding, grinding, grinding, and I was 28, and I was like, ‘Man, when is the fruit of all this work going to hit me?’” Jaeschke says. “I thought about stopping volleyball.”
In 2022, he came back to Loyola to finish the last few classes he needed for his finance degree. Up until that point, all of his biggest accomplishments were related to volleyball, so Jaeschke said that earning his degree felt like he was doing something for himself.
“Oddly enough, I got far better grades than I did when I was 21 years old, sitting in the back of the class watching volleyball videos the whole time,” Jaeschke says.
Jaeschke also helped coach the Ramblers men’s volleyball team that summer and trained alongside them, which he said was helpful for him both physically and mentally. And after that, his situation improved.
“That security allowed me to try something else and take a chance on a different contract, which ended up panning out,” Jaeschke says.
Speraw has known Jaeschke since around 2014 when Jaeschke began training with the national team and has watched Jaeschke’s career progress.
“The best part of coaching Team USA is that when you start coaching these players, it doesn’t just have to be for four years,” Speraw says. “[Jaeschke’s] trajectory and career have been phenomenal. He’s had to battle injuries throughout the course of it, but each time he’s bounced back and continued to be fixture on the team.”
The coaching staff gave me a lot of freedom to play and lead how I thought was best. Going to Loyola, I was able to grow quite a bit as a player — kind of grow into myself.”
— Thomas Jaeschke (BA ’22)
The U.S. national men’s volleyball team takes just 12 players to the Olympics. Jendryk had high hopes to join the roster for the 2020 Games, but he didn’t make the cut.
“I was really bummed out,” Jendryk says. “After I had some months to think about it, to rest, to recuperate, I just wanted to work hard and make that next Olympic roster.”
That makes representing the U.S. in Paris this year is all the more meaningful for Jendryk, who says his entire career has been leading up to this accomplishment.
“For me, it was eight years of hard work, so it meant a lot when I found out I made the team, and now I’m ready to just go ball down and have fun,” Jendryk says.
Watson says the future is bright for Loyola Athletics to continue setting athletes on a path to the Olympics with men’s volleyball Head Coach John Hawks.
“He’s done a really nice job recruiting high-level players, and you see the success we’ve had these last two years, how he’s building it with some younger players that have had success at the national level,” Watson says. “We’re super excited about where the program is headed.”
