Catching Up With ...
        Gymnast-turned circus performer Kai Tindall (June 12)
        SPU's coaching dads (June 19)
        Basketball player and Utah women's coach Lynne Roberts (June 26)
        Rower and orthotics / prosthetics specialist Katie Degner (July 3)
        World-class goalkeeper Marcus Hahnemann (July 10) 


By MARK MOSCHETTI
SPU Sports Information
 
SEATTLE – When she put down a match-clinching kill against Alaska Anchorage on an October afternoon in 2011, Lindsey Wodrich figured that was her final college volleyball action in Brougham Pavilion. It was Senior Day, and Wodrich would be joining the rest of the Seattle Pacific Falcons on the road for the last three regular-season matches and the NCAA Tournament.
 
But Wodrich will be back in Brougham this fall – not in the role of outside hitter that she played so well during her four-year career, but as the new lead assistant coach for the Falcons.

 

"I thought as soon as my senior year was over, I would be done with volleyball, apart from playing here and there," said Wodrich, whose hiring was announced earlier this week by head coach Chris Johnson. "I'm excited about it. I'll have some first-hand SPU student-athlete experience, and that will be helpful."
 
Wodrich takes over the top assistant's spot from Whitney Reehm (nee Whitney Dibble), another former Falcon who had that position the past three seasons before moving to California.
 
"To have Lindsey back in the building is very exciting," Johnson said. "She knows our system, she knows our culture and our program. She's just the right person in so many ways."
 
FIRST SAID NO – THEN SAID YES
As a Family & Consumers Sciences major at SPU with a focus on apparel design, Wodrich has been moving toward getting her foot into the fashion industry's door. Last year, she stretched her horizons even further, spending the summer in London in a jewelry design program.

 

"(Jewelry) is something I've always wanted to do. Now that I'm doing some part-time work here and there, I have more time to branch out and do my own jewelry," she said, "although it's more of a hobby now."

The 25-year-old Wodrich is currently working in a nearby Magnolia-area boutique – The briK – and was doing both sales work and writing about fashion for the firm's Website and for fashplay.com when she was approached by Johnson about the assistant coaching job.
 
"It was a few months ago, and my initial response was that I would love to, but I didn't think it would work out with my current work schedule," Wodrich said. "So initially, I told him no"
 
Still, Wodrich didn't just say "no" and dismiss the idea entirely. Matter of fact, the more she thought about it, the more it was pulling at her.
 
"It was always in the back of my mind and kind of my heart since then," she said. "I really wanted to make it work."
 
Wodrich spoke to her employer and was able to carve out a schedule that will allow her to continue doing some Website writing and blogging on a part-time basis while the volleyball season is in progress. Practice begins on July 27 – earlier than normal for the Falcons they'll be leaving on Aug. 12 for a 10-day volleyball and cultural trip to Costa Rica.
 
The schedule proper begins with an exhibition match against British Columbia on Aug. 27 in Brougham and a season-opening tournament at Cal State Los Angeles on Sept. 4-5. The regular season ends the weekend before Thanksgiving.
 
"I'm thrilled that I can make it work and do both," Wodrich said.
                                            
READY FOR A RETURN
While many athletes naturally gravitate toward coaching after their competitive days conclude, Wodrich didn't envision herself going that direction.

"During college, I had done a few coaching things here and there with (Seattle's) Cascade Volleyball Club, but that was always on a volunteer basis," she said.
 
After playing briefly on a local semipro team with some of her former Seattle Pacific teammates, Wodrich stepped away from the game, save for the occasional grass tournament or beach league.

 

Turns out that hiatus might have been just what she needed to whet her appetite for a return.
 
"I finally reached a point where I'd been away long enough that I miss it," she said. "Now, I'm really excited to get back into volleyball and into SPU."

PLENTY OF KNOW-HOW TO SHARE
As a player, Wodrich helped the Falcons qualify for three straight trips to the NCAA West Regionals (2009-11). The 2010 team rewrote several school records, including 16 straight wins to start the season and a final mark of 26-3 that led all the way to Seattle Pacific's first-ever appearance in the regional championship match.
 
Wodrich, one of just six SPU players in history with 1,000 career kills (1,041) was part of a talented Class of 2012 that included record-setting libero Anna Herold, outside hitter Paige Hoffman, and middle blocker Angie Pricco.
 
"It's hard to put into words something that was so special," she said. "We pushed each other, and we weren't afraid to push each other."
                                       
Johnson believes that experience will be beneficial as Wodrich transitions into coaching.

 

"She will be a person who is able to encourage and coach and come alongside our girls in a positive way," he said. "But she also knows the demands of the task in that she was on GNAC championship teams, she was the starting outside hitter of our Sweet 16 team in 2010, and she has a lot of great actual playing experience. … I feel confident in her ability to teach a range of skills."
 
From Wodrich's perspective, those skills aren't necessarily limited to volleyball, either.
 
"I'm so familiar with the program and with Chris as a coach and with being a student-athlete and what all of that means," she said. "The SPU student-athlete program is a lot different from many other schools. Hopefully, they can relate to what I've gone through, and I can relate to what they're going through."
 
In the meantime, Wodrich is looking forward to getting back to the same gym where she put down that still-memorable kill to polish off a four-game Senior Day victory against Alaska Anchorage.
 
"It was an intense match, and we were excited to get back at those guys," she said. "It wasn't even a super-amazing kill. But I finished the match on a kill. And it was just a bittersweet moment, too, because it was my last match at home."
                                                                                      
Last match – but only on the court.
 
On the bench, the first of what Lindsey Wodrich hopes will be many matches is still to come.