Andy Puck’s career as the head volleyball coach at Princeton High School was a good read from cover to cover.

He won a regional championship in his very first season in 2002 and he won another one this season, which proved to be his last.

In between, Puck became the winningest coach in not only program history, but in any sport at Princeton High School with 516 wins. His Tigresses won nine regionals and two sectionals, capped by a state tournament berth in 2008, “State in 08,” as the Tigresses called it.

Puck decided before the 2025 season that this would be his last year, a decision he kept to a close circle of friends and staff. On Wednesday afternoon, one day after the season ended in the sectional semifinals, he informed his team that he was retiring.

“I wanted to go out on top as far as winning a regional here at home. It’s kind of bookends because my first year here we hosted a regional and won that regional. And my last year we host a regional and win it,” he said.

“I always wanted to go out on my terms. The administration has always been great. They let me be me. They trust my decisions and give me the opportunity to do what I feel is best for the team and more importantly for the program.”

Puck chose not to let his team know his intentions to retire because he wanted the focus to be on them and didn’t want to be a distraction.

“I did not want this to be about me. It’s always been about them,” he said. “I did not want to go to gyms or tournaments and have people talking to me about the good old days. Don’t get me wrong, I love those talks, But that’s taking away from my job and my focus, which is on the girls and getting them ready to play.”

Puck said he would have not have been able to get through his meeting with his team Wednesday had he not prepared a written statement.

“There were some tears, mostly from me,” he said. “I’m an emotional person. Super hard core. Really old school. Really tough. But if you peel away the onion, I’m definitely soft and they understand that.”

Junior Ava Kyle, who has played varsity for Puck since her sophomore year, said she is sad he isn’t going to be there for her senior year.

“I’m happy that we got to give Coach Puck a regional title for his last year as a coach. That was pretty special, even though at the time we didn’t know it was going to be his last year,” she said. “Although he’s retiring, I’m happy for him and I’m glad he gets to move on to the next chapter of his life.”

Puck said the first regional championship in 2002 feels like yesterday. He had come after coaching just one year at rival Hall, where he had been riffed.

“They threw water over me and I remember they wanted me to do a Pete Rose dive. I don’t know if I’d be able to do that now,” he said.

Puck, who will coach the eighth grade team at Logan one last season this year, admits his coaching style has changed from his first year at PHS.

“I was a lot more of a yeller back then. I thought being loud was more powerful,” he said. “The older I’ve gotten, (I’ve learned) quiet is knowledge. More sit back, take a breath, let’s focus a little more. More positives than negatives. Part of me wishes I was that person back then. But I also feel that it worked for me back then.”

When the COVID shutdown hit in 2020, Puck found he could enjoy life without volleyball and got him thinking then about life after it.

“I did miss it, but I didn’t miss it as much as I thought as I would. Kind of opened my eyes that there’s other parts of life I want to enjoy. That I want to pursue,” he said. “I stayed in because I didn’t want to be that person that regretted it. I still had passion. It’s been harder for me to get to practice, but once I’m in the gym I feel like a kid again. I’m young.

“Saturday tournaments have become, what else could I be doing today? All that set in in during COVID. Gina and I talked and said let’s give this a go and make sure that I’m not regretting the decision and I was glad I stayed in and the senior class was the reason why. Three of them had started since their sophomore year. We definitely took some lumps and knew better days were ahead. I knew this was going to be a special group.”

The family atmosphere of his program over the years has always been important to Puck. This year’s staff includes four alumni, freshmen coach Julie Mussleman, who was on Puck’s first team, and assistants Anna Murray, Libby Boyles and Emma Wittig. Another former Tigress, Emily (Ellberg) Cook keeps the varsity scorebook.

There’s been other alums help in previous years.

“I try to take up as much help as I can possible get, especially as reliable and knowledgable young ladies. You’re only as strong as the people around you,” he said.

When asked about support of his wife, Gina, who’s become his partner on the job, he became emotional.

“Gina said she’d be in for it as long as I wanted to. I did this over half my career without her and the second half has been so much more enjoyable and easier with her,” he said. “She does all the little things that I’m not good at. She takes care of our social media, all of our stats and all of our stats for conference.”

Puck leaves the program in good shape with both the freshman and sophomore squads winning conference titles with more than 20 wins. Puck said no one on his staff has expressed an interest in taking over the program, so the new head coach will come from the outside.

Kyle said she hopes that assistants Murray and Boyles decide to keep coaching because “they are such good coaches and I look up to them both.”