'The soul of the game': Remembering the life, legacy of volleyball legend Don Shondell

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MUNCIE, Ind. — Volleyball lost a legend and perhaps the most influential pioneer in the sport last week.

Don Shondell died Tuesday, Nov. 23, at 10:05 p.m. at IU Health Ball Memorial Hospital, just blocks away from the campus he put at the epicenter of the volleyball coaching world. He was 92.

It's hard to fathom the impact Shondell had as a coach, family member, educator and friend. Either directly or indirectly, Shondell has affected tens of thousands, perhaps hundreds of thousands of people throughout the volleyball world.

He helped bring men's volleyball to Ball State and the Midwest, becoming the first president of the Midwestern Intercollegiate Volleyball Association, a league the Cardinals' men's volleyball team plays in to this day.

Don Shondell: Muncie, Ball State volleyball coaching legend dies at 92

'A legend in every regard': Volleyball community mourns death of coaching great Don Shondell

It's funny that, like most of his disciples, volleyball was never originally on the radar for Shondell, who would become a Ball State Athletics and International Volleyball Hall of Fame member. Once he was introduced to the sport, however, Shondell made it his mission to learn, grow and teach the game however he could.

The volleyball landscape wouldn't be what it is today without Don Shondell's efforts. But those closest to him won't remember the legendary coach by the time he spent on the sideline.

For those who knew him best, Shondell will be remembered as a legend in another right.

He'll be remembered as a man who cared so deeply about his family, players and fellow coaches. A man who didn't care as much about winning as he did wanting, and expecting, the best out of those around him. A man who put a small city in East Central Indiana on the map and whose love for Muncie and its people kept him here until his final day.

Don Shondell is no longer here, but his memory and legacy live on.

From a factory worker to a coaching legend

Accidental exposure was the way Don Shondell and many of his future disciples were introduced to the sport.

Back in the 1950s, Don Shondell described volleyball as a "picnic sport," according to his son, Dave. It existed, but not at an organized or competitive level.

After high school, Don Shondell was working in a General Electric plant in Fort Wayne. He would've stayed there, too, if one of his closest friends hadn't lost several fingers on a machine. Shondell then decided to save up and attend what was then known as Ball State Teacher's College.

Shondell was introduced to volleyball, playing on the club team until he graduated in 1952. The club team was disbanded years after Shondell left but — after spending some time in the military — Shondell came back to Muncie when Ball State athletic director Bob McCall offered him a job as the intramural director.

Back at Ball State, Shondell restarted the men's club volleyball team in 1960 and spent four years fighting to get men's volleyball varsity status. In 1964, the Cardinals were granted varsity status by a single vote.

The Ball State University men's volleyball team celebrates with coach Don Shondell after their win at the Midwestern Intercollegiate Volleyball Association playoff game 1988 in Irving Gymnasium.
The Ball State University men's volleyball team celebrates with coach Don Shondell after their win at the Midwestern Intercollegiate Volleyball Association playoff game 1988 in Irving Gymnasium.

Shondell boasted a career 769-280-6 record in 34 seasons at Ball State, the second-most coaching wins in NCAA men's volleyball history and the most by a Ball State coach in any sport. He won 19 regular season MIVA titles, 12 MIVA tournament titles and led the Cardinals to 13 NCAA Men's Volleyball Championship tournament berths.

But bringing the Cardinals to national prominence wasn't Shondell's biggest focus.

“It wasn’t like things were handed to Don, he had to have a vision and execute that vision," said former Ball State men's volleyball coach Joel Walton. "... He also had to bring people along with him. For his entire career, he was doing everything that he could to grow boys and men’s volleyball through the state of Indiana, throughout the entire country.

"Anything that he could do to increase the number of collegiate programs, he was doing. He was trying to be an ambassador of the sport and he knew just having a program at Ball State wasn't going to be good enough."

Through his efforts as a coach and ambassador, men's volleyball grew throughout the country.

Shondell was the first president of the United States Volleyball Association (1979-80), founded the MIVA and ran coaching clinics to introduce others to the game. He, along with Hall of Fame UCLA coach Al Scates, helped make men's volleyball an NCAA-sanctioned sport in 1970.

One of Shondell's first varsity players was Mick Haley, the former USA Volleyball, Texas and USC coach. After seeing how baseball got up at 4:30 a.m. for practices, Haley decided to give volleyball a shot.

The Ball State University men's volleyball team celebrates with coach Don Shondell after their win at the 1988 MIVA playoff game in Irving Gymnasium.
The Ball State University men's volleyball team celebrates with coach Don Shondell after their win at the 1988 MIVA playoff game in Irving Gymnasium.

Haley was one of Shondell's first disciples who went on to have an illustrious coaching career. There were so many others — too many to list — who came to Ball State Teachers College, became enthralled with the sport and decided to follow the same path as the passionate coach.

Muncie, Indiana, became a cradle of volleyball coaches.

“I think he’s impacted more volleyball coaches at all levels than any person in the entire country, which is why they call Ball State the volleyball capital of the nation," said Steve Shondell, one of Don's four children. "It’s not because we won 19 national championships like UCLA did, it’s because we produced more coaches throughout the country by far than any other university in the entire nation. And that’s why Ball State’s called the volleyball capital of the nation."

There was a time when more than 50 Ball State graduates were coaching men's and women's volleyball programs across the country. Many staffs still have a connection to Muncie and/or Ball State. Three of the top-eight ranked NCAA Division I women's volleyball programs are coached by Ball State grads.

Men's volleyball is one of the fastest growing high school and club sports in the country today, more than 60 years after Don Shondell brought it back to Ball State.

“It’s kind of moved forward, past him at this point, but his disciples have been really good about carrying it on," Haley said. "The thing is, it’s the fastest growing men’s collegiate sport in the country and how does it get to be that? He wouldn’t let it fail and the people he brought along wouldn’t let it fail.”

'A fierce competitor' and 'a beautiful man'

How could one man convince so many now-Hall of Fame volleyball players and coaches to become passionate about a game they had next to no knowledge of before?

“I think the one thing I saw that he had every day was love and he knew when you’re around him that his passion was so great that it was almost contagious," said Mike Lingenfelter, a former Ball State men's player and owner and co-director of Munciana Volleyball Club. "He made you want to be in the game, he made you want to be better than you were. But it was just love. You know, there’s a lot of things coach was but he was a very giving and a very loving man. His love for the game was what made everybody better.”

“He always wanted to do well, he always wanted to do that, but he was always interested in you as the person," Haley added. "You know, he was interested in how you acted, he was interested in how you were doing, you know, he was just interested in you and that was never — if you were on the team, you were on the team and you were part of the group and you were part of the family. Once you were accepted into the family, you were there for life.”

Many of Shondell's former players said he's like a father to them. Shondell was the actual father of four children — Dave, John, Kim and Steve — and eventually became the patriarch of one of the most recognizable American volleyball families.

Kim had three daughters who played volleyball. Dave, who earned his 400th career collegiate victory this season, is the head women's coach at Purdue, one of the top programs in the country. John is an assistant on the Boilermakers' staff.

Steve is one of the most accomplished high school coaches ever. At Muncie Burris, Steve led the Owls to a state record 21 state titles 1976-2009 and finished his 35-year high school career with a 1,209-101 record. He also coached the Ball State women's volleyball team 2010-16.

But Don wasn't just interested in his sons as coaches. Dave remembers times when he was coaching at Daleville Junior-Senior High School and Don would ride his bike out to watch his son teach a gym class.

“He just cared about people and that’s what excited him about life was just teaching and developing people," Dave said.

Many people will remember Don as the man who led the Ball State men's volleyball team, usually with a smile on his face.

"Inside of that person was a fierce, fierce competitor," Walton said.

Whether it was badminton, racquetball, tennis, hearts — anything — Don Shondell did not like to lose.

After his playing career, Walton spent eight years (1991-98) as an assistant coach under Don Shondell. Three or four times a week, the two of them would go out to play racquetball or tennis during their lunch break.

If Walton was playing too well, Shondell would strategically bring up a practice plan or talk about a recruit to stop his assistant's momentum. Even if he were a few decades older than Walton, Shondell always wanted to make sure their contests were competitive.

Shondell always wanted to make sure his players were competitive, too. If you weren't giving your best effort, he would let you know about it.

That's the same way he was at home, too, Dave said. But Don wasn't all volleyball all the time. He was a caring father and grandfather and husband to his late wife Betty. Dave admitted that he's tried to run the Purdue program the same way his father ran Ball State.

The day after his father's death, Dave decided to get up early and get back to work because that's what Don would've done.

"There are very few things I do and don't think, 'What would Dad do?'" Dave said.

But there are few people, if any, who can do what Don Shondell did. None could replicate his passion.

Well into his 80s, Shondell would attend volleyball coaches clinics at camps. Even though he was probably the most experienced person in the room, he was always in the front row taking notes when other coaches talked. He didn't care if he was on the best court or worst court, coaching 8-year-olds or 18-year-olds, he was just as happy being able to teach the game to whoever would listen.

"What a great lifetime learner," Lingenfelter said. "Coach was always learning until the very end. He asked me questions this summer, he watched me run a camp this summer that his granddaughter was in and he came, sat, watched and asked questions. He was a beautiful man."

Fighting until the very end

Don Shondell was a fighter and his spirit never waivered.

In the final years of his life, Don Shondell continued to show that fighting spirit. He lived with dementia and was confined to a wheelchair, but never missed a match at Ball State, Burris or Purdue if he could control it.

In May 2020, Shondell was found unconscious and admitted to the hospital with pneumonia and a urinary tract infection. Days later, he was released.

Dick Powers, who played at Ball State in the 1970s, knew then there would be a day when Don Shondell would no longer be here. So Powers decided he would spend as much time as he could with the legendary coach.

Powers would often be seen next to Shondell during Muncie Burris matches. Powers' daughter, Paige, is on the varsity team. One time, during the Annual Shondell Invite tournament, Powers remembers wheeling Shondell in right before the competition. As he walked the coach across the gym, everybody — coaches, players, parents and fans — stood up to applaud the legendary coach.

"We’ve got to enjoy this person while we can and we did," Powers said. "I mean, I have this very unique last few months with this gentleman and it was like a dream come true. We’d just sit there and we’d talk about volleyball there and he was very honest and candid."

Powers admitted that he wasn't one of Ball State's best players. He never went on to become and Hall of Famer, but he did go on to form Dick Powers Volleyball, training over 25,000 athletes and hundreds of coaches. All that was because of Shondell.

At the Shondell Tournament, Dick remembers his daughter, Paige, giving Shondell an Owl, which the coach kept on his desk. After the tournament, where Paige was named to the All-Tournament team, Shondell was the one who awarded her with a medal.

It was a full circle moment for Dick Powers, who grinded in college just to get a chance to play under Shondell. Their relationship bloomed well beyond Powers' playing days, and he's grateful to have gotten so close to the legendary coach.

“The elation of being able to spend time with such a wonderfully talented and capable human being will be with me forever," Powers said.

One of the final matches Don Shondell watched was inside Ball State's Worthen Arena, where the practice facility, which opened in 2018, is named in his honor.

It was at Worthen Arena on Nov. 6, 2021, where Don saw another reminder of his impact. It was there where Don saw Steve honored as a part of the 50th anniversary of the Indiana high school volleyball state tournament. It was there where he saw his granddaughter and John's daughter, McCutcheon sophomore setter Allie Shondell, lead the Mavericks to a sweep in the Class 4A State Championship.

Steve said Don was OK during that match, but began to get sick in the days following. He ended up being transferred to the hospital and was diagnosed with COVID-19, a UTI, blood clot and what Steve called "laundry list of potential things that could've been wrong with him."

Don Shondell speaks to the crowd during the opening dedication at the Yorktown Sports Park Jan. 28, 2010.
Don Shondell speaks to the crowd during the opening dedication at the Yorktown Sports Park Jan. 28, 2010.

Surrounded by his family, Don continued to fight. He had been in the hospital before and seemed just as determined to keep fighting. But Shondell's fight came to an end last Tuesday. In his final days, he was surrounded by his children.

“He fought so hard in that hospital. I was there the last two days and I actually enjoyed being there," Dave said. "Because to see him fight, he still had enough spirit in him and enough alertness and built a cognitive ability, you knew he understood what he was doing. … It was just very meaningful, a meaningful couple of days to be in there and just to see that he still had that life in him that he was trying to compete and trying to live.”

Private services for Shondell were held at College Avenue United Methodist Chapel and Jones Cemetery, according to his obituary, but a public event to celebrate his life and legacy will be will be scheduled early next year.

Obituary: Donald Stuart Shondell, 92

Don Shondell is no longer here, but his legacy will live on through those who carry his name and through the tens of thousands of volleyball players, coaches and fans he inspired.

“He’s the soul of the game," Lingenfelter said. "You can’t go anywhere and run into anyone that wasn’t impacted by him. Really, it’s amazing. I’ve never seen anything like it and we will never see anything like it again, he’s that special. But, you know, to say that he’s sewn into the soul of the game would be an understatement. He’s just, he’s a treasure.”

Robby General covers Ball State and East Central Indiana high school athletics for The Star Press. Contact him via email at rgeneral@gannett.com, on Twitter @rgeneraljr or phone at 765-283-8864.

This article originally appeared on Muncie Star Press: Remembering the life, legacy of volleyball legend Don Shondell