Chris Slone
Kelsey Glockner has been preparing for this moment her entire career. The first-year Notre Dame volleyball coach has a “talented” team at her disposal and a “solid” system in place.
“I’m very fortunate to come from a very successful and fundamentally sound program, and I’m going to try to instill that at Notre Dame,” Glockner said. “The talent is all there and I respect everything the previous coaches have done, I’m just coming in and trying to do things the way I was raised. I just know one way and I’m going to try to bring that culture to the Notre Dame volleyball program — starting with the junior high and varsity.”
A former All-Ohioan and two-time All-SVC Player of the Year, Glockner was part of the first Westfall Volleyball team to reach the state semifinals in 2003, under the tutelage of Lori Merriman, who Glockner credits as being instrumental in her career — as a player and a coach.
Glockner, who also served as an assistant for two years under Merriman at Zane Trace High School, believes she’s the right fit to lead the Titans because of the values she learned from her mentor.
“I think I’m the right person coming from the program I come from, like I said, playing for such a successful coach I’ll be able to give to these kids what I always had,” Glockner said. “I also love kids and I believe in kids, and being in the gym is one of my happy places. I want to do this for the kids and I want them to have what I always had. I’m piggybacking off the volleyball culture I was raised in and I hope that I’m able to do that here.”
Changing the culture in the community is one of Glockner’s main priorities.
“My main goal is just wanting to change the culture, the dedication, the program; I just want to make volleyball more exciting,” Glockner said.
Glockner reminisced about her playing days in high school, noting the excitement level surrounding the program and the packed gym during major home games. Glockner wants to turn those memories into a reality at Notre Dame.
“The passion and the dedication I hope to bring to the program will hopefully instill into the girls, and they will be so involved in volleyball and will be talking about volleyball,” Glockner said. “I plan to be a big scouting coach and I plan to make every game so exciting to the girls that they are talking about it at school and it becomes a domino effect. And I hope the more success we have, it’ll get the community more excited. I hope to keep a competitive level enough to where every year, people are looking to see how far we get in the tournaments. I want people packing the gym for our home games.”
Chris Slone can be reached at 353-3101, ext 1930, or on Twitter @crslone.
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