Girls Volleyball: Retiring St. Charles East coach Jennie Kull honored in final match

ST. CHARLES – One by one, the entire crowd in the St. Charles East gym was standing and applauding Jennie Kull.

Kull, who is retiring as the St. Charles East girls volleyball coach at the conclusion of this season, was honored with a ceremony after the final regular-season match of her career Oct. 19.

Family members, coaches and Kull’s current and former players – some from more than 20 years ago – were in attendance for the 30-minute celebration. After speeches, a video montage of pictures spanning Kull’s career was shown.

Beyond a resume that features more than 700 career wins, two state championships, nine sectional championships and 18 regional titles, it’s four lessons that her daughters Morgan and Katie shared with the crowd that perhaps best sum up Kull’s impact on the volleyball court.

1. When you have an opportunity, take advantage.

“Our mom took over the varsity team when it was just St. Charles High School in 1997,” Katie Kull said during her speech. “Up until that point, the team hadn’t been dominant. They had never won a state championship. But mom had experience coaching at various universities and she knew how to win. When she was blessed with a group of incredible players, she cultivated and encouraged them. They went to state in 1998.”

Three years later, that state championship dream was realized. The song she played to motivate that group was Lee Ann Womack’s “I Hope you Dance” – and they eventually did.

2. Hard work wins out.

“The only thing you can control is your work ethic, and I think that’s a lesson everyone can take beyond the volleyball court,” Morgan Kull said. “Someone, a coach, a boss, a manager, whoever is always watching, and your hard work pays off. Not always in the way that you think it will, not always in the way that you expect it, but when you’re working hard, someone will always notice.”

3. Meet each person where they are.

“Perhaps my mom’s greatest quality as a coach is her ability to understand each player as an individual,” Katie Kull said. “And how they fit in the picture with the rest of the team. If someone needs a firm hand, she’ll provide it. If they need a little bit more care and encouragement, it might be more difficult for her to provide that, but she will. She’s constantly searching for the best way to put a player in a position to help the team. And she spends even more time trying to figure out how to motivate the group.”

4. Be passionate about what you do.

“Our mom has always loved her job and she showed us what it meant to do your best while working,” Katie Kull said. “I can’t even tell you how many athletes she sent to play in college or how many people she’s influenced to better themselves, but it’s clear that she loves the sport and she loves coaching so much that she, quite literally, would make herself sick over bad losses and missed opportunities. I think it’s easy for us, for players who have gone through the program, to take that dedication for granted.

“There aren’t many other places where it’s basically required for you to play club and be at the top of your game to make just the high school team, but our mom has built that expectation.”

Perhaps some traditions beyond singing the school song on the busses to away games or saying “two and three because we are No. 1” may outlast Kull in the next chapter of volleyball at St. Charles East. But, at heart, one may never go out of style:

“We St. Charles; yeah, yeah.”