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Penn High School Athletic Director Jeff Hart announced that Kelley Watts and Mark Watts have been hired as Co-Head coaches of the Kingsmen Boys Volleyball Team, pending School Board approval.
The first IHSAA Boys Volleyball season will be in the Spring.
“We’re thrilled to announce Kelley and Mark Watts as the Co-Head Coaches for our new Boys Volleyball program,” Hart said of hiring the wife-husband team. “Together, they embody the traits we value most in our Penn Coaches: A passion for education-based athletics, a competitive spirit, and a commitment to fostering positive mentorship for our student-athletes. With their extensive coaching experience and strong ties to the P-H-M community, we are excited to see this new program thrive under their leadership.”
Kelley Watts played volleyball at Benton Central High School and with the Lafayette Area Volleyball Association. She previous coached at Logansport High School as the Varsity and Junior Varsity coach, and was the Freshman coach at Bremen High School.
Mark Watts played for the Purdue Men’s Volleyball Club and played for MPVA from 1991-2001 (ranked No. 1 in 1995). He competed with notable players including Karch Kiraly, Sinjin Smith, Kent Steffes, Adam Johnson, Mike Dodd, and Tim Hovland.
Mark Watts was invited to the Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs, for player development where he learned the latest techniques in volleyball skill development with John Kessel. He made the first cut at 1985 USVBA, (USAV) National Team tryouts, and in 1988 played on the third place USAV team and was named honorable mention All-American.
Mark Watts coached at Mishawaka (1988-1989 and 1993-2002), and at Penn (1991-1992). He coached at Buchanan (1989-1991; semi-state runner-up).
Q-AND-A WITH KELLEY WATTS AND MARK WATTS
- What does it mean to you to be named the co-head coach of Penn Boys Volleyball?
Kelley – This is an honor! To be entrusted to start a program at school like Penn High School means a lot to us. Mark has a very successful background playing and coaching volleyball. Together we have watched many matches together and have always talked about the strategies we would use if that was our team. The idea of co-coaching together has been something we have discussed since we first met while coaching. The timing just has never been right until now.
Mark – It means I get to work with some of the brightest and athletically gifted people in the world. The problem for a coach is not making all players proficient at their game, but making the players be better than they ever thought or imagined they could be.”
For example, (Steve Anderson and I) won the 1988 state championship with a 5-foot-4 middle hitter. She maybe could get her wrists above the net. But she was effective, she could hit the ball off the opposing middle blockers arms or at least in the court. She would get blocked every once in a while. We didn’t care because we had told her that was the “hook”. The opposing blocker would follow her wherever she made that quick approach. If the set was designed to go to the left outside player she would run a backside of the (setter) quickset approach or the front side if the play was a backset. This distraction for the middle blocker left our outside hitters with the hitter facing only one blocker, which is a huge advantage. Worth two or three points a game. But key was she believed and found ways to make it work almost all the time, difficult on a perfect pass, much more difficult on a broken play.
- Why do you want the challenge of building a Boys Volleyball Program?
Kelley – This is both exciting and daunting. There is so much to be accomplished in such a short time. We have to order all of the equipment and establish the program from the ground up. It is exciting because we get to lay the foundation of what we want the program to be. We are honored that the Athletic Department and the Administration have given this task to us. We know what a winning program looks like and we intend to establish that here. We are not looking for players that want to play recreational volleyball. We are looking for players that want to play volleyball at a high level and with a winning attitude. Penn-Harris-Madison preaches and believes in success. We want to pull from the success of other programs at Penn and build upon it. One day, hopefully soon, the Boys Volleyball team will be adding to the winning traditions that are a part of Penn High School.
Mark – I give credit to Jim Langfeldt, Matt Painter, Zach Edey, and Lance Jones.
Jim Langfeldt: His robotics classes did public service and I was amazed at hearing their conversations and sincere sympathy for serving people much less fortunate than them.
Matt Painter: He finds a way to get all his players to believe in his program and system using their skills
Edey and Jones: They were humble and appreciative of their time at Purdue and with their Purdue family yet hungry to win and do all they could to be successful.
- How do you plan to build the program?
Kelley – We have a lot of work ahead of us but we will work through the process one day at a time. We are excited to see how many will be interested in trying out. There is already a bit of a buzz and interest from boys that don’t have a spring sport but would like to be involved in something. At our call out, we will share our vision of what boys volleyball can look like here at Penn. Down the road, I would love to see a collaboration with the girls team where both teams support each other and make each other stronger.
Mark – Chris Geesman used to say just would have them run a few laps and I will tell you who is a great player and what position they should play. (As legend would have it, he would do this with his football teams.) There are a lot of things that go into building a team: We are at the “we don’t know what we don’t know” stage. Ask me this question after a couple of practices. We are in the “every journey begins with a single step stage” after a few practices we will know what direction in which we need to go to build a successful program.
