Randy Kindschuh recently announced his retirement from the Warren County R-III School District after winning three conference championships in his six seasons at the helm of the Warrenton High School volleyball program. 

Kindshuch’s teams registered five winning seasons and three GAC North titles in his six seasons at the helm of the program. The Lady Warriors won at least 20 games in four of Kindschuh’s six years as the head coach at Warrenton. He also served as an assistant coach for two years.

“I will miss it,” Kindschuh said. “I will be at several of the games next fall but I’ve been kind of staying away from the open gyms because I want the new coaches to get a bond going and keep my nose out of it. But I’m there if they need help. They know that.” 

Warrenton’s run under Kindschuh’s leadership included three conference titles in four seasons. This included their first conference title in 40 years in 2018. The Lady Warriors overcame Megan Gross’ death to win the conference title. A player on the Warrenton volleyball team, Gross was killed in a car accident. Kindschuh credited the seniors Allison Tonioli, Amber Glazebrook and Allyssa Evrard for their leadership that season. 

“If there’s any year that was kind of special, that was probably the most special year…We lost three games in a row when we started to come back and play and then we ran off 18 straight,” Kindschuh said. “They held us together. They were the backbone of that team. If I hadn’t had them, I don’t know what would have happened. They had that goal to win conference. They wanted to win it for Megan and for themselves.” 

The Lady Warriors also won conference titles in 2020 and 2021. They also racked up individual honors. Warrenton had 15 all-conference players, seven all-district players and two all-state players in Kindschuh’s tenure at Warrenton. Kindschuh was named GAC North Coach of the Year twice.

 Kindshuch also coached 12 players who went on to play college volleyball. 

“I look at that as being a gauge of success whether you have kids that you can instill that love of the game and they want to continue that on,” Kindschuch said. 

Kindschuh thinks the volleyball program is in a good position going forward. Kayla Nelson was recently selected to lead the volleyball program. Nelson and assistant coach Allison Tonoli were Kindschuh’s assistant coaches last season and played for Kindshuh when they were in high school. 

“They will hopefully take a lot of what we created and continue and just build on that,” Kindschuh said. “Kayla Nelson is big into the physical part of lifting and so forth. Where I was more of an X’s and O’s kind of a guy. They’ll probably be bigger and stronger under her than they were under me.”

Looking back, Kindschuh is proud to have instilled a love of the game of volleyball in his players. Kindschuh believes his former players truly love to play volleyball. He also hopes he has provided his players insight into the game over the past six years. 

“I think a lot of times, kids just play,” Kindschuh said. “They don’t really know much about the game. Hopefully I’ve taught them some of the different nuances of the game and they can continue to carry that on with them.” 

Kindschuh retired from teaching and coaching at the end of this past school year. Kindschuh taught in the Warren County R-III district for nine years. Kinschuh said he and his wife will have more time to travel, since they are both now retired. He noted the challenges to find time to travel with summer volleyball obligations. 

“I was ready to retire from teaching because it’s harder every year to teach,” Kindschuh said. “Volleyball was probably the hardest thing to walk away from.”