Kentucky head coach Craig Skinner and Wisconsin skipper Kelly Sheffield have a relationship that goes back decades.
Skinner and Sheffield are both from the Muncie, Indiana, area. In 1990, they led a Muncie Burris High School junior varsity team to an undefeated record.
Skinner and Sheffield would go their separate ways before both eventually became Division I head coaches. Skinner was named the head coach at Kentucky in 2004, while Sheffield was the head coach at Albany and Dayton before landing the Wisconsin job in 2012.
The UK head coach had nothing but praise for his counterpart in Thursday’s match.
“Kelly has earned everything he’s gotten,” Skinner said. “He’s come from humble beginnings, both in school and in coaching. He’s been on — coached and packed his car in an evening, had to be in Houston 20 hours later to start his first coaching job probably making about $10,000 a year. I have a lot of respect for someone that earned their way to this point in time.”
Skinner is also appreciative of the Muncie roots that both he and Sheffield have.
“You have to give a lot of credit to the Shondell family and Don Shondell for starting the Ball State program,” Skinner said. “Steve Shondell, the oldest Shondell son, played in and started the Muncie Burris program and Munciana Volleyball Club. When I started coming through Ball State, yeah, I’ll try this coaching thing. I just fell in love with what they were about.
“Ball State University started as a teacher’s college. Coaching is teaching,” Skinner said. “The joy and passion and interest in helping players do something better than they have ever have before. You really felt the essence of what coaching is.”
Skinner believes that his early beginnings showed him just how much he really wanted to be a coach.
“I tried to get away from coaching for a while,” Skinner said. “I had an accounting degree, got into banking. It sucked me back in because I love the competition and the teaching aspect. That started in Muncie, Indiana, in 1988 or ‘89 for me.”
For those who want to get into to coaching, starting off the way Skinner and Sheffield did is not rare. But Skinner knows that it has to be something you love.
“I always tell people that if you’re going to get into coaching, don’t get in it because you like it and you can make some money,” he said. “Get into it because you have a passion for helping people go above and beyond where they are. Kelly has demonstrated that for a long time.”
Two coaches who once coached a high school junior varsity team together square off in Thursday’s national semifinals when Kentucky plays Wisconsin. It’s a lesson in how much hard work and dedication can pay off.