Volleyball Head Coach
MidAmerica Nazarene University
About the Coach
Family: Husband - Kevin
Collegiate Playing Career:
University of Central Oklahoma—1991-95
Collegiate Coaching Career:
Redlands Community College (OK) —1997-2009
MidAmerica Nazarene University (KS) —2010-Present
“For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” – Jeremiah 29:11 (NIV)
FCA: After a successful playing career, was coaching the next natural step?
KS: Honestly, coaching was not the direction I thought my life would go. But when I was offered the head coaching position of a completely new volleyball program at Redlands Community College in Oklahoma in 1997, I accepted and have been a coach ever since. It was difficult getting started because coaching was something brand new to me. I thought there was only one way to do everything—the way I had been taught. It took me a couple years before I was able to branch out into my own ideas of how the game should be taught and how a team should be run.
FCA: How did you draw on your faith during those years?
KS: When I started at Redlands—which is a public school—I said I was a Christian, but I wasn’t walking with the Lord. My athletic director began talking to me about having a relationship with Christ and the responsibility of being a Christ-following coach. Through those conversations I developed that relationship, and in turn the rigidness of my coaching faded away. I was able to lean on the Lord and understand that nobody is perfect, and I don't have to be. I can present myself to my team as an imperfect human who relies on her faith.
FCA: You’ve experienced success in the NAIA ranks in your few years at MNU. What has that success meant to you?
KS: It’s meant that my kids have worked really hard. I know there have been difficult times. They’ve had to get used to me and my system, and sometimes that’s been met with resistance, but I know that we’ve had a goal to raise the program to places it’s never been. I give all the credit to the kids for making that happen.
FCA: What do you feel is your ultimate responsibility as a coach?
KS: First and foremost, I want my girls to become Christ-followers and to deepen their relationship with Him. But I also want them to live grounded, honest lives, to be selfless servants, and to know that it’s better to give than to receive. As coaches, we have a great responsibility to mentor the kids who are entrusted to us—to be the hands and feet of Christ. To me, that’s being real with people just as Christ was with His disciples and being transparent with one another, knowing that we are living in His grace.
FCA: Given your experience with FCA, why do you feel it is important to have it on campuses today?
KS: FCA puts the saving message of Christ into a language that every athlete can understand, regardless of where they are on their faith journey. Kids who haven’t been raised in the church can be overwhelmed when they are faced with Christianity and what it means to be a Christ-follower. But FCA is an incredible way for athletes to get to know one another and to be able to open up about what’s truly important.
Photos courtesy of MidAmerica Nazarene University and Sam Soliday