 Coach Shandel, thank you for joining us on This Is Purdue. We're so happy to have you. Well, thank you for inviting me. It's an honor to be here with some of the guests that you've had on the show already. Oh, thank you. Yes, we're excited to talk to you. So, you're coming up on your 19th anniversary at Purdue. What does that mean to you? Well, it just means I've been very blessed that Morgan Burke took a chance on me many years ago, a high school coach out of Muncie, Indiana to come in here and run a Big 10 program, and that I've been fortunate to have so many good people help our program, whether they be the athletes, our assistant coaches, support staff, the fans. It's just been a great situation. And so I guess it's just been a blessing that I was given the opportunity and then it's gone very, very well. So excited about that. Yeah. And how was you when you look back, you know, your first 10 years coaching versus these last nine, I'm sure soon to be 10, how is your coaching changed or how is the team changed throughout all those years? Well, I think what people need to understand is that every team is different. So even though, like last year, we had so many returning players, but their roles weren't the same. They were a year older. The expectations were different. The cohesion piece is always really, really important. Coaches and the staff and the players have to work really hard to make everything work, accept your role for the time being, but continue to work for something bigger and better. So I wouldn't say that any year has been the same. And I wouldn't say the first 10 in the past nine have been significantly different. You start every season and you have goals and expectations and you try to practice every day and train every day with purpose. But yet you have to generate this camaraderie that runs throughout the entire program. And if you can do that, then you have a chance, you know, to meet some of your goals and objectives. I think our name brand has improved dramatically. And I don't mean just volleyball. Certainly it has in volleyball. When we got here in 2003, Purdue would finish last in the big 10, two years in a row. So people weren't jumping at the chance to come play at Purdue. And it took some time to turn that corner. I think one of the reasons that I was hired was because I had a lot of connections in high school and club volleyball, certainly in Indiana and the Midwest. But what's funny, Kate, is that the further away you get sometimes from Purdue, the more respect people have for the university. That name brand is really impressive further away. I think that here in the state, there's some animosity between other schools and other places, you know, and sometimes that brings down who you really are. But it's such a great place. And I just feel like right now, the university, I give Mitch Daniels a lot of credit for, I think, being aggressive and being assertive in how he operates. I think Mike Bobinsky, Morgan Burke did a phenomenal job in so many ways. But Mike was the right guy at the right time to come in and take us to a new level. And I hope that people across the state and across America in the world see us a little bit differently now than they might have 10, 15 years ago. Oh, I agree. Absolutely. When you talk about turning the corner and when you got here, the team finished last in the big 10, was there a moment that you really felt like, wow, this program has elevated its game? We were fortunate in our first year to have some success. The former coach Jeff Halsmeyer, who was an outstanding coach, had recruited some pretty good players here. They just had it learn how to win. They didn't believe they could win. And so we had to bring that mindset in here. And in every program I've gone to before that, which were all high school and club programs, I tried to generate that. I feel like that's a strength. I have confidence that I can make you believe that you can do your job at a higher level than maybe you do. And I think that's what's really important. But early in that first season, we beat Minnesota, who went to the final four the year before, and went to the final four that year. We beat Michigan State, who was ranked in the top 15. We went to Ohio State and beat Ohio State, which they hadn't done in St. John Arena in 15 years. So those are some big important things. And I think when a coach takes over a program, if you don't get some things done early, you're facing an uphill battle for a long time. And luckily we had the talent. I hired some really good coaches, and the support here was unbelievable. And we were able to put a few notches in our belt early. And all of a sudden that got the attention of people, including recruits. And things got a little bit easier. Yeah, when we talk about recruiting, how do you find the right young women that fit the Boilermaker culture? Sometimes you have to fit their culture. I know what you're saying. I mean, but I think this program is for everybody that wants to become great and wants to be a great teammate and be committed to doing what we're doing here. But we have all different kinds of characters. If I lined up, we had 21 players on our team last year. If you lined them up online, they're all different. They all come from different homes and different environments. And the way they operate is different. Their strengths and weaknesses are all different. So it's not that you go to these club tournaments, you walk to these convention centers where there's 125 courts. And in one or two days, you can figure out who's going to fit your culture. Sometimes it's just guesswork. Sometimes it's often it's confidence that our program can help them believe in themselves and that they will adapt to whatever the goals for that team might be. So it really isn't about our culture, our program, it's about that team and how they've been able to adjust to that team and to work together to do something special, something superior to circumstances here at Purdue. Sure. And when we talk about, you know, you've had two elite appearances the past two years, that's super exciting. What makes this team different, I guess, than previous teams? What's that like special sauce? No special sauce. I don't think it was a special sauce. There's a lot of hard work that goes into it. In the case of the last couple of years, some great competitors. That's the one. If there's a special sauce, it's how do you find young women that want to compete like crazy and want to commit themselves to a cause. And they haven't all grown up that way. Some have some come from programs where that's been ingrained. Others come from programs where they've never even won. They've never been asked to work very hard. They've been such great athletes, they can do whatever they want to do. And then they come to the Big 10, which is the best conference for college women in the world for volleyball. And they can't be that same way. Okay. Even if they even if they came from a great program and they've learned how to work their tail off and be committed and dedicated and put the time in, it has to be better now. Because, you know, when you're competing against Nebraska, Wisconsin, Penn State, Minnesota on down the line, you have, you have to do more. If you're Purdue, you've got to do more. That's kind of been the theory. You know, you go back to Joe Tiller, to Gene Katie, all the way back. That's what they discovered when they were here. They had to do it differently and they had to do it better and they had to do more to get where they wanted to go. I love that. That's great insight. So you're in, you're an Indiana native. Your dad grew up in Fort Wayne. What does it mean to you to be coaching in your home state and, you know, staying in Indiana and elevating your career Well, number one, it's an honor that I was selected to come here and coach that somebody had enough belief in who I was and what I could do to take this job. And in another way, it's a dream come true. Even though I was a high school and club coach in a high school, middle school teacher for 20, I think 22 years, my dream was always to coach division one volleyball. I thought that my attributes, my skill set was designed well for this. But when you're teaching and coaching and helping run a club, and I was also broadcasting lots of basketball games on the radio for WLBC out of Muncie, you're making a certain amount of money. Usually, if you're going to go into the college game from high school, you're going to go be an assistant coach somewhere. That wasn't a possibility for me. My wife wasn't going to probably allow me to make less money to go do this with a race and a family like we were with four kids. But I had checked into this job four years prior when there was a coaching change, and it just wasn't the right time for me or maybe even for Purdue. I didn't apply for it, but I checked into it. Four years later in 2002, I called and they said they would look forward to talking to me. And so Roger Blalock, who has passed away since, a former basketball player here and was a sport administrator, met with me in New Orleans to discuss the job. And he told me at that point in time, and I forgot what your question was, but at that point in time, he said, you're going to have to convince us why we're going to hire a high school coach to come here and take over the job at Purdue. And so I did a lot of things that the normal coach trying to get this job didn't think about doing because I had to, and it worked. And I remember what the question was. So it is a dream come true to be here at Purdue, to be from this state. And our family and so many of the friends that I have in the sport of volleyball have worked so hard to create something special in this state. And for Purdue at that point in time to not be putting a great product on the floor didn't make any sense. And so we came here, my brother and Kathy Jewel and myself came here with the idea we were going to change that and we're going to put Purdue where it belongs and where a school in this state where I'm from really needs to be. And with the help of a lot of high school coaches and club coaches in this state and the surrounding states, we've been able to do pretty well. Yeah, I would say so. And you're from this volleyball you know dynasty family really. What was it like growing up immersed in volleyball? Did you always kind of know I'm going to follow my dad's footsteps? Your brother, your son is involved in volleyball? No, I don't think I didn't give a lot of thought to it. When I grew up I was in the moment whatever I was doing. And my dad was a physical education teacher and volleyball coach. He was a professor of physical education. He was a guy's doctorate degree in physical education at IU of all places. But he was big at making sure we grew up doing everything tennis, track and field, baseball, basketball, football, you name it fishing, camping. We did all those things and he never ever put pressure on us to pick one over the other. He wanted us to work hard and develop the skills that athletics can bring to you. But the fact that he was the head coach at Ball State, which was one of the UCLA and Ball State, the first two men's volleyball programs in the country. And he started that program at Ball State. So I was around that program from the time I could walk. He'd throw me into those vans or they used to drive these big limousines, not like what you think of a limousine, but just these big, big, long cars. And the players would never like to see my brother and I coming because it meant less room for them. But we'd travel all over the country in those places because my dad felt like it was important that we be there with him. So I certainly learned a lot about family from my dad, but also a lot about sports and in this case volleyball. And your brother is an assistant coach. What's that like? Is there any discrepancies at Sunday to family dinners? Well, you know, I have two brothers. My older brother is the winningest coach in the history of Indiana High School sports, all sports together. Okay. He won 22 state championships at Muncie Burris High School. So he really, between my dad and the three guys, including now my son and fourth, and I have a daughter that also does a lot of coaching, but my brother, Steve's the most successful coach in our family. And so I, he was an older brother three years older than me. And so I was able to watch him operate and have that kind of a role model growing up has been really, really important for me. My younger brother, John, and I, neither one of my two brothers and I are a lot alike. John, who coaches with me here at Purdue is very quiet, doesn't like to be out there in the public. He'd rather just be in this gym, training our team. He has two daughters that are going to be great players. He loves to train them. And, but we compliment each other very, very well. I'm a little more outgoing. I like all the team concepts of playing where he's really good at breaking things down and working with individual skill work. He spends more time in this gym so that I can be focusing on our program and recruiting and things like that. And so it's been a great connection. We don't always agree. I don't always like the way he operates. He doesn't always like the way I operate, but we both know we're in a great situation here at Purdue. We're proud of what we have done with, with Kathy Joule as well. And we don't feel like we've gotten there yet. And I think we always feel like we're chasing something. You know, you mentioned we've been to the elite eight the last couple of years, four times in the last 11 seasons, haven't been to the final four. We haven't won a big 10 championship. We haven't won a national championship. And so we're always chasing that. I think when you wake up with that kind of purpose every day, it can drive you. And when you're around a bunch of people that are waking up the same way, then you walk in and you get things done. And, you know, we're not there yet. I don't think winning a national championship or winning a big 10 championship is why I'm here, but it certainly is a big focal point, a big motivator for us to keep getting better and better all the time. What did your dad say when you got this role? I think he was happy because he knew I wanted this role. The funny story is that that spring I got hired in, I think, February, maybe middle of February. And you have a spring season in volleyball, where you're trained and you play four different dates during the during the spring, just to see how you're coming along. They don't count on your record. And the first event we had was in Indianapolis. And we were playing teams like IUPUI, University of Indianapolis, Southern Illinois, teams that are not on the who's who list in the sport of volleyball. And we had kind of a makeshift group. There were some injuries and we actually had to pick up somebody off campus just to train them so we could put a team together. And we went down to this tournament. We played six games and we won two and we lost. We played eight games. We went two and six. And it was very humbling experience. And my dad was there as he came and watched us all the time. Every chance he could be watching his kids, he was always there. He was there and he came up to me afterwards and he said, Dave, just so you know, they haven't hired a new coach yet at Muncie Central. So if you want to go back and take that job, you can. So he wasn't too impressed with what he had seen at that point. But he was, of course, joking, you know, at that point in time, it's water over the dam. You're not going back. It's just how are you going to move forward. But we didn't play any more matches that spring because we didn't feel like I was going to help us get better. And we just came in here and worked and changed attitudes and tried to develop more of a winning mentality. And then that helped us. We got into that following fall where we actually won more matches than they had won in a long time. That's amazing. And then your son, Kyle, is in Fort Wayne at Indiana Tech. How do you feel that he followed in your footsteps and is also coaching, you know, collegiate volleyball? Yeah, Kyle's a little bit more like me than my two brothers are. He's a pretty good talker. He has become a great recruiter. Indiana Tech just started their program. He got hired and then a year later they're going to have their first team and their first season. So we spent a whole year out recruiting, even when across the world to get some players. And Indiana Tech is not at NCAA school. It's an NAIA school, but there's lots of men's volleyball in the NAIA level in that division. And in a short amount of time, he went from no program at all, okay, to being going to the national championship two years in a row, being named the national coach of the year for NAIA volleyball. And so I'm really proud of him and how far he's come. And it's a hard situation for him to have a grandfather who was the kind of coach he was known across the world and have three brothers that have been pretty successful. And now what are you going to do? And so it's been really relieving. And I'm very proud of the fact that he's doing so well now at Indiana Tech. Yeah, absolutely. So Annie Drew recently is a Olympic gold medalist. How did you feel as a former coach of hers watching her on that Olympic stage? It was one of the greatest moments of my life. You know, you work so hard to build a program that people can be proud of and respect. And then to see the United States win their first gold medal in the sport of volleyball for women and to have the player that led them to that championship, to that gold medal, be a person that trained in this gym. It was pretty special. Did she give you a call after? We talked, yeah. Annie's an interesting cat and really grew up and matured. Wasn't extremely highly recruited out of Elkhart, Indiana. Her dad was a friend of mine that we both coached together at Muncie Center. We both went to Ball State at the same time. Our wives knew each other as far as Mike's wife. And so we knew Annie, but and she was 6'3", 6'3 and a half. And we started to recruit her. She had a lot to learn. She was a dancer and a cheerleader growing up. But she got here and eventually understood what it was going to take to get better. And then when she went to the USA team to train with Karts Karai, she had a great relationship with him as well and continued that development. And now she's one of the greatest names in the sport of volleyball across the world. So yeah, it was it was a pretty good moment this past summer to watch that and watch her have that kind of success. Yeah, that's so special. When you look at Holloway, it's pretty small, right? Yeah. But it's such a special place. Why do you think that the fans and the Boilermakers spirit thrives in here? Well, it's a little bigger than you think. It does hold about 2,500. We're not in Indianapolis. We're not even in Fort Wayne, your hometown, or you can draw a lot of people from your community. Our community does a great job. And our average attendance is about 2,400. And that's usually the top 10 or 12 in the country. So we're getting a great crowd here. But because we don't have the ability to have this huge population in this community to draw more, it gives us that incredible feel. And we always have about 400 students down at that end. And I think athletes at the college level love to play in front of their peers. And we have the best student crowd in the country. I can promise you that it's unbelievable feel in here. And they make a lot of noise. And it's great. But the community has also come out. We sold out every single match last year. So now to get an opportunity to see this team play, you pretty much have to buy a season ticket. And we have ideas of playing some, used to play some matches in Mackie Arena. We haven't done it for a while. COVID had a little bit to do with that. But we hope to be able to go back there some. But our players and our coaching staff loves to be in this gym. There's no better home court advantage in the Big 10 than Holloway Gym. And when we talk about the Boilermaker spirit too, I know you're really active on Twitter and you're always kind of giving the other teams and coaches love and players. What does that mean to you between Coach Painter, Coach Gerald, Coach Brom? What does that athletics community mean to you? When you coach at the college level, you don't get a chance to spend a lot of time with those other coaches. I mean, everybody is going 100 miles a minute. And seasons sometimes are at the same time. And Jeff Brom's office is somewhere else. Dan Ross's office is somewhere else. Devin Brouse's office is somewhere else. So we don't run into each other a lot. And so sometimes the way that we can show appreciation for who they are and what they're doing is through social media. And coaching is tough. You know, even when you're winning, it's tough because then the expectations get higher. So I think it's important to show support, not just for the coaches, but the athletes, the administrators, the fans, everybody. And there are some people that say I'm on social media too much. But it's in the sport of volleyball because the media doesn't quite understand the game yet. It's coming. I mean, it's right now volleyball is the fastest growing sport in this country. So that's a real positive. So certainly some media, like yourself, are getting on board. But social media is a way for our team to promote ourselves for our athletic department, to promote ourselves without relying on anybody else. And it's a skill that I think that I've developed fairly well. And so if you can do something well, and it's going to help your program and help get fans interested to encourage other programs as well, why not do it? If you can do it the right way, but you have to be really careful on social media because one mistake can burn you for a long time. Yeah. And it's kind of a double-edged sword, right? Because I'm sure when you started coaching, you know, social media wasn't as big. Have you seen your players impacted? Is that an implication that I've been coaching a long time or that I'm old? Almost sounds like it is. No, no, not at all. But have you seen your players impacted by some of the positively and negatively? Yes. Okay. And that's why we almost need, and we do, you know, we have, every college athletic department has a sports psychologist department. We have some great ones here. But what we're finding out is that we don't have enough because social media, I think, is the main culprit that everyone's trying to compare themselves to somebody else. And as opposed to just, you know, do the best they can. Do what's right. But social media is a big deal. And I think that it's positive because it does give kids a lot of recognition and put some out there, which in this world, I guess, is important. It helps us build our sport to build this team. But I think that it's also really tough on kids and whether in athletics or anything else, you know, just, you know, what they look like seems to be a lot more important now than it used to be. And I think that it's important that as a coach, we talk to them about that, that their teammates talk to each other about that. And just our society in general gets over that a little bit. Yeah, it's nice to see you having that positivity shine on Twitter. Yeah, well, I try my best. And when you have a job like this, it's easy. I mean, like I said, when you're living the dream, you know, I'm not going anywhere. The minute I got hired here, everybody knew I wasn't going anywhere else. This was my this was the job that I wanted to retire from. And sometime down the road five, six, seven years, that might happen. Right. But it's just it's just a tremendous place. And when you're happy with yourself, it's easy to to try to encourage other people. And you know, the fans are packed in here, you said they're sold out games. What does that boiler maker spirit feel like, you know, to you and to the team? You know, I haven't been in a lot of different colleges. You know, I watch them and I hear stories about things. I just can't believe there are more loyal fans than what we have at Purdue. That doesn't mean there aren't some nasty fans out there. Okay, that that feel like they need to tell Coach Painter or myself or Coach Brahm how they're supposed to be doing their job. Or they're unhappy because, you know, somebody gets beat in a game that they didn't want them to get beat. Who knows how much that has to do with gambling. Okay. But what was your question? I said, what is the boiler maker spirit? It's a it's a it sets a loyal group. And an integrity is written all over this university. And that's that's what I like. Okay, we're not nobody cheats at Purdue. Okay, and now you now you get in this world where it's okay to cheat with, you know, the portal and the NIL and and how can we get these people more and more money without them having to do anything, you know, that college athletics is changing. And, you know, we have to deal with it. But with integrity and do it right because that's who Purdue is. We're not going to be I don't think you're going to see Purdue give anybody $500,000 just to come out here and play basketball or play volleyball or football. Okay, if we're going to give them $500,000, they're going to earn it, you know, by doing what the whole NIL is designed to. It's not just to pass out money. So, I mean, we're going to see what that's going to go the next couple of years right now. Nobody knows. But what I like about Purdue is that people will will support the program if it's done the right way. If the programs are being run the right way. And the athletes are representing the university the way that our proud alumni base and our fans want them to do it, they're going to support it. I mean, they're going to be all in to support your program. And I feel like that's what's been great about us. Our attendance grows every year. The people who know a lot a lot about our team, you see them all out the community now. Nobody used to know anything about this program. And so I think our fans are just unique in that how loyal they are, and that they continue to want to see things done the right way. There'll be an outlier that thinks, oh, we should be doing things differently. But I don't think that will ever be the Purdue way. Is there a certain match that sticks out to you? Yeah, there are several. I'll just narrow it down to one. In 2010, we are really building this program. We had some great athletes and some wonderful young women who are committed themselves to doing something really, really special. We got in the sweet 16, maybe five or six times, but we hadn't gotten beyond that. And we had a good team, and we hosted the first and second rounds here. And we won those to go to Austin, Texas, and Gregory Jim to play the number one ranked team in the country, the University of Florida. Florida was under, I think they may have lost one match. Good team, but we felt like they might have been a little bit overrated. And from the very beginning, we told our team, if we get the 16 overall seed, Florida's going to have the number one overall seed. And if we take care of business in that sub-regional, we're going to see them in the sweet round of the sweet 16. Well, that happened. And we went down and played a really great match, beat Florida 3-0. Match lasted about 70 minutes. That's a short match. We just put on a clinic. And it was one of those times, you know, sometimes you want something so bad, pressure prevents you from playing at your level. This group found a way to put it all together and just put on a show. And so at University of Texas, we beat Florida advanced to lead eight the first time. That was the good news. The bad news was the next night we're playing Texas. And we may be the hottest team in the country. And our star setter and all American, Jacqueline Hart tore the hamstring off her bone in the first set. We were ahead 21 to 13 at the time. We won that set. We had to put a freshman setter in, Rachel Davis, who had not played hardly at all all season. She performed marvelously. But we still lost those last three games very, very close. But I think we'd have gone to the final four that year had Jacqueline Hart not torn her hamstring because we were the hottest team in the country. Wow. Was Florida just totally caught off guard? I don't know. I mean, they knew they were playing a big 10 team. They're coached by Mary Wise, who was an alumni of Purdue University. One of the great players at Purdue, the winningest coach in the history of women's volleyball, winnings women's coach in women's volleyball is Mary Wise. And I believe she needs to be in this Hall of Fame at Purdue. Right now, she's not. I think she should be the next person put into the Hall of Fame at Purdue. Because, I mean, you look at the winningest coaches in any sport, I got a feeling they're probably in their Hall of Fame. And maybe she's in Florida's Hall of Fame, but I think she needs to be in this Hall of Fame. But I don't think we caught them off guard. I think that they probably thought they were going to win. And they had a lead in the first game and we stormed back to win that one. And then we just took care of business the rest of the night. When you talk about, you know, and you guys ended up losing, how does the team bounce back from those losses? I'm sure it's obviously a tough pill to swallow. Well, that kind of a loss is different because it's the last match of the season. So, you know, you've got a lot of time in between matches and you're having a different team. That match, I think, motivated the group that was returning, okay, to continue to move forward. I think when you lose a match during the season, I think it's very comparable to life when something goes wrong in your life. The key to success is going to be, what's your response? How are you going to respond to that? How long is it going to take you to get over it and move on and figure out that that's just part of life and that bad things are going to happen? And, you know, using an example, we lost to Michigan State. One of the weaker teams in the league this past year in our conference and they played out their minds against us and they beat us by two points in the fifth game on this court. And at the end of the day, that probably prevented us from hosting a regional round here because everything else was pretty good besides that. But we had to respond to that upset loss. And if you've got high character people and you've got committed athletes and you've got kids that believe in what they're doing, it's not hard to do. It's a motivation. But it's not as easy as you think because once you lose a match or two in the Big Ten, you're not sure you're going to beat anybody else because the league is that good. There's somebody else really good right around the corner waiting on you. So you've got to develop all year long with your team. You've got to develop confidence and belief. And I think in my years of coaching both men and women, I think men have an easier time bouncing back. That's just sometimes whether it be society or whatever it might be, I'm not going to try to get into the science of it. But I know that with women, we feel it's important to constantly build them up. Sometimes they don't think we're doing that, but we're trying to. I think it's really important that they understand we believe in them and that we know that they can do whatever we ask them to do. And you touched on this a little bit about how volleyball still kind of an up and coming sport, at least in the media. Why do you think it's important for the media to start covering volleyball more and especially women's volleyball and just women's sports in general? Well, I think it's about education. Women's sports, I think Title IX and gender equity really helped initially. Now I think that there's lots of ways people are trying to figure out how do you get around this gender equity thing, even though women's sports in general at the college level is really blowing up and fans are coming out to watch, not as much at the pro level. And I think sometimes our female athletes themselves have to figure out they need to support these programs. If you want women's athletics and women's sports at the pro level to succeed, you got to go out and support it. And I still think that men watch more sports on TV, men go to more events than women. Again, that's our society. There's lots of reasons why. But we can't sit around and complain that we're not getting good enough crowds or advertising or TV if our women aren't supporting those programs. I think this is a time you're starting to see that turn. But I think the biggest reason we need to get on TV and the biggest reason we need media to be involved is to educate. I mean, people don't know enough about this sport. Once they do, they're hooked. And probably the same can be said for soccer or hockey or now women's wrestling or anything else. I mean, I think that there's not a lot of difference between the game. Matter of fact, I believe women's volleyball is a little more entertaining than men's volleyball because their rallies are longer, like in tennis. People would rather see the rallies go on longer than to see a jump serve for a point or a jump serve in the net, which you see a little bit too much in men's volleyball. But men's volleyball, as I mentioned, is the fastest growing sport for boys in this country. And Indiana just sanctioned, well, it's an emerging sport. The idea will be sanctioned very, very soon. That was a huge step for the sport of volleyball in our state. I know Katie Gerald said that she used to come watch when she was a student here in Holloway. And it's great to see the women's basketball team kind of, you know, there's like this energy around them and same with the women's volleyball team with you leading them. So that's exciting to see that produce. Katie Gerald's is the right person to turn this thing around. And it's not that the program, you know, went to hell in a hand basket. Okay, it just got to where they couldn't get as high as what I think the fans wanted for whatever reason. And I think Katie was a great choice for this job. And, you know, she gets frustrated because it's not happening fast enough, or, you know, that she's dealing with some adversity. And I just told her, I said, that's just what you're going to have. And you'll feel that much better when you get there because of what you had to go through, you know, to get those wins and to win those championships. But I think Purdue's administration is going to provide our coaches with whatever they need to be successful. And we have the fan base to get on board, you know, to blow other teams, even our own league out of the water, because they just love this university. But Katie will make it happen. I guarantee that. Why do you think Purdue is unique? Well, it's unique in a lot of ways in comparison to a lot of the Big Ten schools. There aren't many Big Ten schools that don't have a state name. I think state name brings instant credibility, instant identification to a university. If you're Purdue or Northwestern or Rutgers, which I think are the three in our league that don't have a state name, first of all, you have to let people know where you are. And I think once they understand that, it's different. I think when we recruit players to Purdue, the one thing that is so impressive is, number one, our facilities are great here. But more impressive than that are the people. And so when we recruit people, we want them to meet as many people as they can on this campus because it's different. When I got here in 2003, I've been here for about three or four months, and you may be too young for this. I thought I was in Mayberry, okay? And Mayberry for some of you youngsters out there is where the Andy Griffith show was filmed and everybody was just incredibly nice all the time. It was so laid back. And I just felt like that's where I was. And I loved that culture from where I was before, you know, raising a family and three or four different jobs, running all over the place and trying to be the best when I could all those things. I came to a place where I had one job and that was to build this program and everybody was trying the best they could to help that happen. And there was just this feeling around here, let's do whatever we can to help each other. And so I think that's also really unique. Like you mentioned, Jeff Brom cares about what goes on. He comes to these matches. Matt Painter comes to these matches. Katie Gerald comes to these matches. Dan Ross comes to these matches. And we go watch their teams. I think that happens in other places. But I think that that's what's unique. The people are what make Purdue different. And that's why I want to show them our recruits as many people as possible and let them talk to the people here at Purdue. That's definitely a theme we hear on the show. That's good to know. I'm not all by myself. No. So as we head into next season, what are you most looking forward to? What can fans expect from the women's volleyball team at Purdue? Every year I'm as excited as ever. And what I'm most excited about with this next season is we have a lot of players that have been waiting for their shot. We graduated two super seniors. I mean, I guess they already graduated, but two super seniors, Otec and Newton, great players that played five years. Then we had five seniors that played a lot of volleyball. So between those seven, there weren't a lot of room on the court, but we've had these great players with great talent and great energy that are just waiting to get their chance to play. A great example is Meg Renner. Meg's a six-foot-one-inch setter out of Iowa. That was a top 25 recruit in the country. And she's waited for three years behind Haley Bush to step on the floor and play. She's going to be really good. We have three outside hitters, pin hitters as we call them, Maddie Chin, Maddie Cook and Emma Ellis. For three years, they're going to be seniors. For three years, they've shared one spot on the floor. And that was just across the front row. And that's been a challenge for them. It's been a challenge for our coaching staff to continue to make them feel how valuable they are when they're not playing, because Caitlyn Newton was filling the other spot and Newton was a bona fide All-American. Now, they're going to get their chance to really play and really shine. Maddie Skimmerhorn, who's played two rotations out of six in the last couple of seasons, most likely will be our libero. I mean, she's on the floor all six rotations. So I'm excited that we're going to show people that we still have a volleyball program at Purdue after losing all these great players that we're still going to be really hard to beat. And how good we become will be determined by how these guys come in every day in practice and what they're going to do all summer long to get ready for the toughest conference in the country. What's the lesson that you've learned throughout your many years of coaching, you know, High School Club now at this elite level? That you have to stay positive. You can't focus on the negative. There's always going to be negative. It may not be something that happened out of nowhere. It's just there's going to be problems. And it's going to get, I think, even get more of that as college athletics moves forward. How are you going to manage your team? But to me, this job is all about managing your team. That's what this job is, is taking care of your players, doing the right thing. When I come into practice every day, I like to go around and chat with every player. I don't want to be involved in the first couple of drills. I want to be able to see how they're doing. And you already know that maybe somebody is not having a good day or a good week or something's happened in their life. So you have to be there for them. I used to be, I was kind of the dad. Now I'm kind of the grandfather. But I think that they believe I'm there for them. And so they're going to have bad days. You remember what it was like in college. You're worried about everything. You're trying to be everything. And you can't. We like this to be kind of an oasis. They come in here, they can forget about all that stuff and just come in here and compete and play hard and try to try to get rid of some of the things that are bothering them. But I just think that as a coach, you're set in the example every day. And if you're going to come in here and be moody, you're setting that tone for your team. So sometimes you better check that door just like you want them to check in the door. And you have to come in and have energy and be positive. And I think the best thing you do as a coach is you get everybody to be on the same page and believe in what is your purpose. What are we trying to accomplish this year? And so every time we come in here, we have a reason for why we're here. We're not just going to class for three hours and coming in here, going to practice and go home, see our boyfriend, call tonight. That can't be that way. You have to remind them every day why we're here. And then all of a sudden they understand why we're here. And there is something to culture. Culture is how you respond every day, how you behave every day in this gym and what you're doing outside the gym that has something to do with volleyball. So it's really important, I think, that the coaching staff be very positive. There are coaching staffs that have been successful in the past that are not super positive. But I think in the world we're living in today, and especially in women's college volleyball, it's really important that they know you believe in them and that you're there for them. And whether it's a problem, big problem or small problem, they can come to you and you're going to try to help them get through that. Yeah, because you're so easy to talk to. I could just see you starting the practice, kind of just chatting and like how it's going. I chat too much. Yeah, some of my coaches are forgiving this when I get started, because we've got some stuff to do. But I think those things are really important. I really believe those things are important. I compare a lot of our drills to things that are going on in life. I compare where we are during the week compared to things that are going on in life. And again, we'd love to win a national championship. How great it would be to have a national championship man hanging up in this gym. That would be awesome. It's not going to change my life. It's just not, okay? What's important is that when the 17 players we have that are going to be on our roster next year, when they get done with their time here at Purdue, they're as well prepared to go out in life as they can be. That's why we're here. Do you have any stories? I'm sure you keep in contact with many of your players with, I can tell with your relationships with them. Do you have any stories where someone calls you up and was like, Coach, I just want to say, you know, you mean so much to me. You know, I wouldn't even want to share those if they happen, but I do. And that's good. You know, I was a college athlete. I recognize that when you're in college, you don't know anything. And you don't know all the things that are being given to you as a college athlete until down the road. And then you look back and you think, I can't believe it. Purdue provided all those things for me. And that maybe this is what the coach was really thinking about when he made us do this. So we went to his house for this or we had that one meeting or whatever it might be. And so sometimes it takes a while for them to comprehend what they actually experienced while they were a college athlete. That makes sense. Is there anything else you want to say to our audience? No, just that, you know, that myself, our staff, my family, we're all so happy that we're here at Purdue. I think you probably sense that by now. And we're looking forward to several more great seasons. And this year is going to be a lot of fun. I mean, everybody's kind of like us. They graduated a lot of people in our league because of the COVID rule allowing people to stick around. So it's going to be an opportunity for the team that can put it together the quickest. And again, I go back to the word cohesiveness to be successful. And we appreciate our fans for doing what they do for us. And they won't be disappointed with this team this fall. Well, we can't thank you enough for your time. It was a blast. Thank you very much.