Coach Walton provides Cardinal volleyball with steady leadership

By THOMAS ST. MYER
tstmyer@muncie.gannett.com

MUNCIE -- Joel Walton missed the adrenaline rush he felt on the volleyball court the moment he stepped off.

Following his graduation from Ball State in 1988, Walton put in his dues in Indianapolis at a Marsh grocery store, then a fashion clothing store at the Keystone Mall and finally a Nabisco plant in Warsaw before his volleyball coach Don Shondell brought him back to Muncie.

"I left and worked in the business world and not having volleyball left such a hole in my life," Walton said. "When there was a chance to be an assistant coach I jumped at it."

His leap of faith ultimately paid off when Ball State hired him to succeed Shondell before the 1999 season.

Now a 10-year coaching veteran, Walton takes his 10th-ranked Cardinals (20-9) into St. John Arena in Columbus, Ohio today for a Midwestern Intercollegiate Volleyball Association tournament semifinal match against 14th-ranked Lewis (21-9).

The Cardinals enter the match two victories away from a second trip to the NCAA Tournament in the Walton era. Ball State last played in the NCAA Tournament in 2002.

Walton feels the same adrenaline rush as a coach that fueled him as a player. He paid his dues for the opportunity to coach his alma mater and he appreciates every moment from the practices to the matches.

Married to his college sweetheart, Jennifer, Walton convinced her in 1990 to resign from her position at a Warsaw phone company and move back with him to Muncie where they lived off his salary of $26,000 for about 18 months.

"We had one car and I rode a bike to work," Walton said. "It worked out fine, but we weren't living extravagantly."

Jennifer graduated from Ball State in 1988 with a business degree, but returned to school to pursue a teaching license. She completed her studies in August of 1991, four months before the birth of their first child Kaitlyn. Jennifer stayed at home to raise Kaitlyn, now a Delta sophomore volleyball player, for nearly two years before she accepted a teaching position at Selma Middle School in the fall of 1993.

Walton took a slower path to his ultimate destination. He assisted for eight seasons until Shondell resigned in 1998. The recruiting coordinator for Shondell, Walton secured commitments from two Asics/Volleyball All-Freshmen Team selections in Eduardo Ferraz (1994) and Doug Market (1998) and two United States National Team players in Phil Eatherton and Greg Romano.

His tireless effort both on the recruiting trail and in the gym paid off in June of 1998 when after a trying six months Ball State hired Walton as head coach, the third in program history.

Shondell anointed Walton his successor but to his frustration Ball State opened up the vacancy for applicants. Shondell then faced a dilemma when his son, Burris volleyball coach Steve Shondell, applied for the position.

"Joel did a great job for me. That's why I recommended him for the job," Don Shondell said. "He was a wonderful assistant coach. But they opened it up. I talked to Steve and thought he should remove his name because Joel earned it. He accepted my suggestion and withdrew his name. Steve needed to stay at Burris. They really needed him over there because he's an excellent elementary teacher."

Walton took on the enormous, and some at the time probably considered impossible, task of replacing Shondell. An inaugural inductee into the American Volleyball Coaches Association Hall of Fame, Shondell won 20 MIVA titles and compiled a 734-254-6 record in 34 seasons at Ball State. His .741 winning percentage ranks second best in NCAA history.

"You hear people say, 'You don't want to be the guy that follows the legend.' But maybe I was just naive enough. I just wanted to be the next coach at Ball State," Walton said.

Ball State transitioned to the Walton era without any significant drop-off. He won the MIVA Coach of the Year honors in 2001, his third season at the helm, when the Cardinals won 20 matches for the first time since 1997.

Walton followed that breakthrough by coaching Ball State to the 2002 NCAA Tournament, snapping a five-year tournament drought.

Six years later, Walton remains in search of his second NCAA Tournament appearance. Once a fixture in the tournament, the Cardinals enter the MIVA semifinals tonight in the midst of their longest absence in program history. Shondell coached the Cardinals to three NCAA Tournament appearances in his final five seasons alone, but recent cutbacks from 4 1/2 to two scholarships along with the emergence of other MIVA programs brought Ball State back to the pack.

"I've thought about trying to coach elsewhere where they put more money into the program, but Muncie is my home," Walton said. "It just feels right being here."