Mrs. Karrie Quenichet has been hired to take on the role of women’s volleyball head coach, and she has promising plans for her team. 

Starting next August, Quenichet also will be a full-time substitute teacher on the Hill. 

Quenichet graduated from Roncalli in 1993 having played volleyball all four years. She said she remembers playing Cathedral and having many rival matches against the Irish. Quenichet said, “Those competitions are some of my favorite memories from my high school days.” 

After high school, she went on to graduate from Purdue University with a degree in movement and sports science/pre-physical therapy and began her coaching career. She has been a coach at high schools including Lafayette Central Catholic, Roncalli, Providence and Floyd Central. She comes to the Irish volleyball program as the coach of the Southern Indiana Elite Volleyball Club, a position she has held since 2019. 

Quenichet also earned a master’s degree from the University of Louisville and currently is working on her doctorate in education leadership, evaluation and organizational development. 

Although many applied for the job as head coach, Quenichet was the most qualified. Athletics Director Mr. Rick Streiff shared why Quenichet was the best fit for this position. Streiff noted that her background and experience with both youth ministry and coaching put her in the best position for the job. He also explained how she reinforced Cathedral’s Holy Cross values. He said, “Her own philosophy matched up very well with what our school and our coaching department hopes to be.” 

Quenichet also described why she applied for this position. She said she was drawn to the Catholic roots of Cathedral, especially in her hometown. As for volleyball, she shared that Cathedral has a great reputation due to the leaders that the team has had throughout the years. She said, “I am humbled and excited by the opportunity to lead a program with such a great history and such deep tradition.”

That tradition includes multiple State championships, the most recent of which took place in 2016 when the Irish defeated Crown Point for the Class 4A State title at Worthen Arena on the Ball State campus in Muncie. Ms. Jean Kesterson was the head coach of the team.

One of Quenichet’s strategies involves making some changes, she said, as every team strives to create success and to make a legacy for themselves.

The new coach said, “What the team does in the coming seasons will be different than what’s been done before, because we have to be different. We have to innovate and change to highlight our current strengths while at the same time giving respect to the people, traditions and legacies that came before us.”

Quenichet has great expectations for the 2022 season. She said, “My main goal for the team is to build relationships with the players, to get to know them and to help them reach their personal and team goals.” 

If team members put each other first and take care of the little things with focus and discipline, she believes that “the winning will take care of itself.” She said if the players do this, they will have a lot of success and will have a positive shared experience to remember. 

The new coach is hopeful for the upcoming season and expressed how much she appreciated being welcomed by everyone on the Hill. She also remarked how incredibly grateful she is for the opportunity she has been given. 

Quenichet said, “I believe coaching is a ministry, and at a Catholic institution, participation in sports has the potential to be an extraordinary extension of a person’s formation and education.”