For Bullis family, competitiveness a given but respect comes first
By Daniel Schoettler
Correspondent
On an October day in 1996, Kathy Bullis was coaching a volleyball game in Durand. That’s not surprising, but the fact that she knew prior to the game she was going into labor may surprise some. Shortly thereafter, she gave birth to her second son, Joe. That’s just one example of a given about the Bullis family – sports runs through their veins.
Kevin Bullis is entering his second season as the head football coach at the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater. His wife, Kathy, is the head girls volleyball coach at Whitewater High School. Their three children – Jack, Joe, and Emme – have all participated in sports at some point during their lives.
“In the sense of organized sports, they all started in youth sports,” Kevin said of his children. “They’ve been really involved in sports since.”
Both Kevin and Kathy have shown support for their children throughout their athletic careers. Kevin said he feels it has been a benefit for their children and one of the advantages of being a coach is that he and Kathy have the perspective of how sports fit into life.
Sports can be taken incredibly seriously in communities, it is a uniting force with so many people supporting and loving it, from college-level all the way to the big leagues. This paves the way for observers to place bets on their favorites to win, with websites like fun 88, as well as others, being frequented by those who are avid watchers. Who knows, maybe one day Joe and Jack will be someone’s choice during a season.
“As parents, we prided ourselves on most importantly fostering our children’s love of sport and not pushing them into sport or into anything,” Kevin said. “Whatever it may be, activities they have… as young kids is really the opportunity to experience different things.”
Both of their sons – Jack, 22, who will be going into his senior year and Joe, 19, heading into his sophomore year –– run on the track and field team at UW-Whitewater. Their daughter Emme is 13. All three of have had the opportunity to have their parents to lean on during their athletic careers.
“I think it was big advantage for us,” Jack said. “Probably the biggest thing that they taught us was to respect your coach no matter what.”
Jack said he feels that’s a great lesson because not too many children have parents who are coaches.
“Especially when I played football in high school,” Jack said. “I could tell my dad if he could help coach or give pointers, but he would hold back because he respected the coaches so much.”
Joe said he felt the same way about his parents being coaches when he was growing up.
“It’s really helped,” Joe said. “When we were in sports, we had our coaches on our team and they were great, but coming home after practices and having two other coaches in the house and helping us improve and giving us words of wisdom has really helped as well.”
All three of the Bullis kids have also had the unique chance to be around college athletics throughout their lives because their dad has coached college football. In fact, during the 2010 Stagg Bowl, Jack and Joe were ball boys for the game.
“It has really helped,” Joe said. “My brother, sister and I were all raised in this culture of athletics and college athletics, so really transitioning from high school to college wasn’t that big of a leap.”
Joe also said it has been a part of their entire lives and it feels comfortable competing at the college level and being in college.
Another passion for the members of the Bullis family is how much they are involved with sports together outside of competing on the field. In those instances, they are competitive with each other.
“My mom is actually super competitive and you think it would be the other way around,” Jack said. “My dad is respectful, but my mom gets super intense whenever you compete against her because she always wants to win and my dad is pretty laid back about it.”
Jack said since he and his brother are two years apart, they are naturally competitive as well.
“We’d always get into arguments when we’d play games,” Jack said. “Even if it was as simple as a board game like Monopoly, Joe would start crying and throwing fits if I’d get Park Place or another big property.”
Sibling rivalry aside, the Bullis children have grown up with parents who are coaches, something Joe and Jack view as an advantage. Along the way they’ve grown to have great respect for sports and for the coaches they’ve had throughout the years… lessons that will likely be an advantage throughout their lives.
