By Ken Hansard
The word legend is oftentimes thrown about whimsically in the world of sports.
However, in the case of Independence High School volleyball coach Kristi Speicher, it
absolutely fits. Speicher recently completed her 40 th season at the helm for the Lady
Bulldogs, and in that time, she accumulated a staggering win total – over 750 in all told.
Speicher announced her retirement from the sport recently after four decades of
success for Independence. And about that legendary status… Craig Null, a former
coaching and teaching colleague of Coach Speicher, recently addressed a crowd in
honor of the Coach, saying, “…40 years. Think about that for a moment. A coach is a
veteran if they hang around for 10 years. Twenty-five years and you’re a coaching
legend. And 40 years? That places a coach in rarified air that has the other coaching
veterans and legends bowing at your perseverance.”
Speicher is a Bulldog through and through. In 1978, she was a standout junior
for the volleyball squad that was Indy’s first ever state tournament qualifier. She also
played basketball for the Lady Bulldogs, who were state qualifiers for three straight
seasons during her tenure.
After college, Speicher returned to IHS in 1985 to take the reins as the head
volleyball coach. Coach Speicher guided the Lady Bulldogs to five SEK championships
and qualified for the state tournament nine times. Her teams won sub-state five times in
her first eight years as coach. She also led IHS to four consecutive sub-state titles
between 2016 and 2019.
The Lady Bulldogs had an especially notable season in 1992, when IHS won
SEK, won sub-state, and finished runner-up at the state tournament. They finished that
season with a record of 35-3, a win total that stood as the school record until 2017,
when the Lady Bulldogs won 28 consecutive matches (also a school record) en route to
a 37-3 overall mark. Incredibly, Speicher’s squad matched that win total the following
year.
Coach Speicher obviously has a competitive spirit and wanted to win every time
she stepped on the court. But just as any great coach, Speicher knows that her
greatest accomplishments are exemplified by the lives that she has touched. When
asked about her greatest accomplishments in the sport, Coach Speicher once told a
reporter, “Don’t get me wrong … I hate to lose. …I like going to state, but I don’t really
look at going to state as the ultimate goal. There are so many other things that go
along with it. Watching the girls improve and get better … watching the girls work as a
team and develop that camaraderie. Those are skills they will carry throughout their whole life … not just Independence volleyball. Those are life skills… Because in the
end, it’s not all about me … it’s we.”
