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Post by bruinsgold on May 29, 2019 11:00:34 GMT -5
Should be a great test for these young Boilers with Nebraska, Minnesota, and Michigan twice. Only getting Wisconsin (arguably going to be a Top 10 team all season) once early in the season is going to be interesting. The Badgers/Boilermakers games are always good back and forth fun.
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Post by redcard on Jun 27, 2019 15:08:05 GMT -5
Happened to come across this by accident when I ended up on a webzine called Rollshot.com. Fun article albeit a bit long for VT..
Dave Shondell: The Magic Touch
Muncie, IN (3/28/02) -- In the summer of 1989, Dave Shondell was stuck.
He just resigned from his coaching post at Daleville High School near Muncie, Indiana to take a similar post at Ben Davis High School in Indianapolis. He was commuting between his home in Muncie and Indianapolis, and he and his family were in the process of moving closer to Ben Davis.
This was a step up, he told himself. Ben Davis was one of the largest high schools in the area, which is in stark contrast to where he used to work -- Daleville High School, one of the smaller schools in the state. All of a sudden…things changed. Some promises that were made to Shondell prior to taking the position could not be fulfilled, for a variety of reasons. The conditions at the school changed. The job offer changed. He was there for only two months and now, the job fell through. It was back to Muncie...
How could they treat him like this? This was Dave Shondell…son of the legendary Don Shondell and the famous Shondell volleyball family.
Didn't he turn Daleville High School around to unprecedented levels? Beginning in 1981, Shondell transformed tiny Daleville High School from perennial losers into sectional champs within a few years. Daleville had so few students (approx. 170-200 students) that the talent base was almost non-existent. Nevertheless, Shondell worked his magic and produced a 12-6 record in his first season even though Daleville had not won 12 matches in the past 6 years combined before Shondell's arrival! In his final 3 years, Shondell guided Daleville to records of 33-5 (1986), 35-3 (1987), and 35-3 (1988) and were sectional champions for each of those years, which is quite an accomplishment given Daleville never had a winning season.
Didn't Shondell prove his ability to turn a program around in a hurry? Didn't Ben Davis know what (and who) they were getting?
Resigned to this otherwise bleak situation, Shondell decided to take a step back and took a job with the Muncie Central Middle School as a Health and Physical Education teacher and coach of the 8th grade girls' volleyball team. No promises were made about the Muncie Central High School girls' volleyball coaching job, since Don Wafer was coaching that team.
For the time being, Shondell was just the coach of the 8th grade volleyball team. "I knew it was a transition period for me," Shondell said. He knew he would coach at a higher level someday. But when and where?
Then…a miracle happened.
Well, two miracles happened that facilitated Dave Shondell's second ascent. The first miracle occurred in 1988. The second miracle happened two years later in 1990.
Prior to 1988, Muncie had three public high schools - Muncie Northside, Muncie Central, and Muncie Southside. (Muncie folks are very creative with their school names)
In 1988, Muncie Northside High School shut down due to declining enrollment, leaving the kids scrambling for new schools. Fortunately, the area that Northside served had families (and lots of daughters) from the upper socio-economic ladder. (Translation: lots of rich girls who had the money to participate in club volleyball)
Instead of fleeing to private school Muncie Burris, many students (especially the girls) moved over to Muncie Central High School. In time, this would help out Dave Shondell's situation greatly.
Now, back to 1989…
Shondell worked diligently as the volleyball coach of the 8th grade team, but he had no other options of moving up. All he could do was work hard and train his 8th grade girls to be better volleyball players.
Then…a miracle happened. (this is the second of two miracles mentioned above)
In 1990, Muncie Central High School, in their infinite wisdom, decided to offer boys' soccer. The girls' volleyball coach, Don Wafer, decided to switch to soccer! All of a sudden, the girls' volleyball coaching job was up for grabs!
"That opened the door for me to take the coaching job," said Shondell, who knows a miracle when he sees one.
During the job interview (yes…he did have to interview for the position), the school administrators asked him how long it would take for him to field a competitive enough team to beat the likes of Delta, Yorktown, Wapahani, and Anderson Highland, even though Muncie Central had not beaten these schools before under the previous coaching regime. In addition, Muncie Central were consistent losers for a long time, and the last three years before Shondell arrived, Central's records were 0-21, 6-17, and 7-18. Beating Delta, Yorktown, Wapahani, and Anderson Highland was the least of his goals.
In August 1990, Shondell got the job. Unfortunately, school was about to start and volleyball practices were under way. He took the job so late in the process that he was running both the JV and varsity practices…alone. He didn't have an assistant. Two weeks into fall practices, he finally found his assistant -- Alicia Bullock, a Ball State student who used to play for him at Daleville High School.
To make sure his program was designed properly and stayed on the right track, he looked no further than his own backyard for a proper role model -- Muncie Burris, the semi-private school whose girls' volleyball team was a national powerhouse and was coached by his older brother Steve Shondell.
"I used them as a measuring stick," he said. "They were only 3 miles from Muncie Central and my brother Steve was there, so I knew how much time was needed to be successful."
When it came down to the nuts and bolts of running the program, Shondell immediately realized it was an uphill battle. "We had to convince the team, the school administrators, the parents, and the kids what it was going to take to win," he recalled. "On the court, we had to work harder than everybody else with good ball control and team defense, because other teams had more talent and offensive firepower. Off the court, we needed more money to run a higher class program."
He enlisted the help of Polly Orrick, a parent of one of his players (Brooke), who ran a booster club to raise money for the volleyball program through concessions, raffles, selling candies and other merchandise, and the like. With her dedication and effort, Shondell was able to build his volleyball program without having to constantly approach his school athletic department for funds and other items. He was able to buy his team better team uniforms, charter a nice bus instead of riding those dilapidated old yellow school buses, provide better food for his team, and otherwise upgrade various aspects of his program.
"What really made the difference was that the parents and the kids were on board with what I was trying to accomplish, which was a successful winning program," said Shondell. "It was not easy at first because we had not won before. But when we started winning right away, they started believing."
What allowed them to win right away was the improved training and skills development. Having spent the previous year with his 8th grade volleyball team, Shondell was able to upgrade the skill levels of many players. In 1990, these 8th graders moved up and were freshmen on his very first varsity team at Central.
Starters included freshmen Rachel Cool (5'4" setter) and Kara Vasalakis (5'6" outside hitter), sophomores Brooke Orrick (5'7" outside hitter) and Clarisse Chinbanda (5'4" middle blocker), and juniors Debbie Peresie (5'10" middle blocker) and Stacy Hunt (5'6" opposite hitter). Another freshman Jennifer Schaefer also played a pivotal role for the team even though she did not start.
"I knew they would play for me," said Shondell. "In high school, girls are mature enough that if you train them well, they'll play well for you."
In the opening match of the season, Muncie Central played Marion, a team they had not beaten in the past. Muncie Central beat them and his players were thinking "hey, maybe we're going to be better than we thought!"
In an early tournament, Muncie Central played national powerhouse Mother McAuley (Chicago, Illinois) and although they were pasted in the first game, they battled competitively in the second game before losing 14-16.
"That was a milestone for us," recalled Shondell. "Even though we didn't win, we played them tough. I remember thinking, we're not too bad."
That first year, Muncie Central finished 17-8, losing to local rival Muncie Burris in the sectionals, and was ranked 17th in the state. But Muncie Central tied for the conference championship and Shondell's first group of girls was only the third team ever in the history of Muncie Central to post a winning record.
"I thought everything fell into place quite well," said Shondell.
The following year, Shondell scheduled tougher matches and signed up for better tournaments. With essentially the same roster, Muncie Central beat Mother McAuley, a team that was ranked third in the nation at the time. Central finished 28-7 and was ranked 5th in the state. In two short years, Shondell accomplished what no one dreamed was possible at Muncie Central.
In 1993, Muncie Central beat Burris for the first time. "That was a big point in our program," Shondell said. "It was our crowning achievement. They beat us many many times in the first 6 years I was at Central, but they were the program we were emulating and to beat them was special. At that point in time, Burris was better than Mother McAuley."
Returning to the first miracle mentioned above (the shut down of Muncie Northside), Shondell noted that Muncie Central benefited from the emergence of those students from the northside of Muncie. These students were from higher socio-economic backgrounds and their respective families had the financial resources to pay for club volleyball. Skills development was inevitable.
"I knew that these girls would play club volleyball and improve their skills," he recalled. "I also knew that, over time, they would want to play for Central because Central was a good place to play volleyball."
As Shondell got more and more skilled players, his success skyrocketed. Beginning in 1993, he won at least 30 matches and lost no more than 6 matches every season. Central's ranking steadily moved up from 5th in 1991 to 1st in 1995, and thereafter, Central's ranking was no worse than 3rd in the state. Central also won the State Championship in 1997, 1998, and 1999.
His ability to turn a high school program around is unquestioned, having accomplished this twice with Daleville and Muncie Central. College coaching may be next.
"There's a part of me that wants to look into coaching in college," he said. "But I've got a great situation at Muncie Central now with the great kids. We're lucky to be in a state where volleyball is very strong and popular, especially in east central Indiana, which is a great pocket for volleyball. Per capita, nothing compares to Delaware County for volleyball support."
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Post by bmg3 on Jun 28, 2019 10:28:58 GMT -5
Shondell definitely turned Purdue around. Im sure he desperately wants to take the program to the next level with a trip to the National Semis. They have been SO CLOSE a couple of times - I remember the regional final against texas when Hart went down - that was such a heartbreaker to have your senior setter go down like that. Who knows if they could have kept the momentum up but they did take down the #1 team Florida quite easily just before that.
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Post by bruinsgold on Jul 5, 2019 20:56:37 GMT -5
http://instagram.com/p/BzjXOkZANfj Don't forget D. Cuttino will be competing in the Pan American Cup, starting tomorrow. And Annie Drews is still lighting it up from the right side on the US National Team in the VNL semi-finals, tomorrow as well. Super exciting to see these two Purdue grads making an impact on the international scene. Both games will be available via FloVolleyball.
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Post by bruinsgold on Jul 5, 2019 20:58:04 GMT -5
Love this. Our back row is definitely going to be solid with Hornung and Otec this upcoming season. No matter which one wears the libero jersey, they'll both be making a big impact defensively and passing.
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Post by volleyl0ver on Jul 5, 2019 21:12:04 GMT -5
Sorry but how was Brooke Peters the starting L over these two?! ^^^^ Seniority?
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Post by bruinsgold on Jul 5, 2019 21:37:36 GMT -5
Sorry but how was Brooke Peters the starting L over these two?! ^^^^ Seniority? Experience, yes. Peters was the starting libero the season before. Hornung was a shoe-in to eventually get the libero jersey but she hadn't played college volleyball yet. Otec was still a lingering solution for the left side in emergencies as Newton hadn't solidified herself and we were converting Cleveland from MB to OH. Peters actually started off 2018 strong. Double digit digs in pretty much every match; a solid server. Otec and definitely Hornung made serious gains as the year progressed, though.
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Post by bmg3 on Jul 21, 2019 9:36:04 GMT -5
Now that media day is over - hopefully we will see an updated roster. That definitely signals that the season is almost here!
All we can do now is speculate about lineups and wait and see. This years team is interesting for sure for a number of reasons:
- Replacing first team all American Atkinson will obviously be done by committee. I have always been impressed by the development of players at Purdue, she was no exception. Seeing her become the goto player was amazing and certainly wish her the best in her pro career. With Joiner transferring out, I expect either Cleveland or one of the freshmen to take this spot.
- 3rd team AA Mohler obviously is a lock, and 3 middles look to fill the void for the other spot (Cleveland, Cuttino, Johnson). With Cleveland being an option at opposite it looks like Cuttino and Johnson will again competing for playing time. Cuttino has always been a steady eddy, and Johnson has impressed me. She came in not as highly ranked (relatively speaking) and made an immediate impact at middle.
- with three OHs coming in, this is the first time in a while Purdue has depth at the OH position. Unfortunately, only 1 (Newton) has more than a year playing at this level in this position. Based on spring matches they may try her playing all 6 rotations. The other spot will be a battle - but I expect this other position to be filled by a freshman, with Cleveland moving to opposite.
- Bush obviously is a lock for a starting spot, but Renner could come in and immediately challenge for PT. A highly ranked recruit, she adds height but obviously will need time to adjust.
- I am liking our options at libero - with the obvious battle being between Otec and Hornung. Both are capable and experienced and will be interesting to see how this unfolds. From watching matches from 2018 both seemed to be neck and neck in ball control - anyone feel otherwise?
- with 3 OHs coming in do we expect any redshirting? Ellis is the highest ranked recruit and apparently has good ball control from what I’ve read. However the other recruits are no slouches either - will be interesting.
With literally no new information coming out - I’m left with just posting nothing but jibberish. Good day.
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Post by bruinsgold on Jul 21, 2019 22:50:40 GMT -5
There are literally only two spots I'm certain of: Newton as one of the starting OHs and Mohler in the middle. Everyone else is a toss up in the best possible way.
I can't even call who the best DS option will be for whomever plays OPP. And that's only if Newton plays all the way around.
Calling the libero position is the hardest for me. My gut says Hornung but Otec came on strong defensively toward the end of last season. She got shaky in serve receive but that's because she was probably served 80% of the time she was on the court. Teams went after her.
All in all, this'll definitely be an exciting season. A learning one? Yep. But a fun one nonetheless.
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Post by notpriddy (COIF) on Jul 22, 2019 15:52:14 GMT -5
I saw Purdue at Penn State last season. Awesome match to watch. Purdue will miss Atkinson. She really got better each season. Purdue never gets much pre-season hype, but always scares the crap out of the big boys. Who develops this season to become the next Drews, Cuttino, Atkinson? I agree with this post. I like to refer to Purdue's volleyball team as being blue collar. I think their coach is blue collar as well. How many coaches go from high school/club coach to head coach in the B1G, and perform so successfully. Dave Shondell did spend one season in 1980-81 as Ball State's men's assistant coach. From there he moved on to high school coaching, and club coaching in Indiana. To answer the question who will be this year's "designated star player" to fill the shoes of past Boiler greats Turner, Drews, Cuttino, Atkinson...it looked to me in the spring matches vs. Illinois that it will be 6'3" MB/OH Grace Cleveland. Cleveland will enter her sophomore season next fall, and performed quite well this spring. And, to make it even more galling for me is that Cleveland hails from Bloomington, Illinois (Normal Community High School) just about 50 miles down highway 74 from Champaign. Brings back painful Illini memories of another Purdue player from the twin cities of Normal/Bloomington, Val Nichols. Nichols was a setter/hitter all-star who always seemed to devastate the Illini when she played for the Boilers.
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Post by redcard on Jul 22, 2019 18:14:31 GMT -5
I saw Purdue at Penn State last season. Awesome match to watch. Purdue will miss Atkinson. She really got better each season. Purdue never gets much pre-season hype, but always scares the crap out of the big boys. Who develops this season to become the next Drews, Cuttino, Atkinson? I’m not sure anyone on the roster is really even close to the level of these three. I do believe Mohler and Cleveland are keys to success. Purdue will be very good with their first and second touches.
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Post by bruinsgold on Aug 7, 2019 19:29:12 GMT -5
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Post by bmg3 on Aug 7, 2019 19:39:17 GMT -5
Ouch - Reisinger was a key serving sub.
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Post by spoilerboilermakers on Aug 13, 2019 20:03:26 GMT -5
The Freshmen coming must be very good then. There are only 5 listed DS players. Is that slim number for a roster or is that plenty?
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Post by bmg3 on Aug 13, 2019 20:10:09 GMT -5
It’s a good number - realistically only 2/3 get any significant playing time and it’s good to have them if Otec/Hornung get injured.
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