Knox Volleyball and Softball Coach Kathy Wagoner Announces Retirement

After 17 years of coaching at Knox College and 25 years in the Midwest Conference, Knox head volleyball and softball coach Kathy Wagoner announced today she will retire from coaching following the 2007 Prairie Fire softball season this spring.  Wagoner has more than 250 career wins in both volleyball and softball to her credit.  A national search for her replacement will begin immediately.

"It's just time for a career change,” said Wagoner.  “I'm looking forward to trying something new and different.  Being a head coach of two sports is very demanding, and I'm ready to devote my time to other things."

Starting her collegiate head coaching career at Monmouth College in 1981-82, Wagoner helped guide Monmouth to a total of three conference championships.

On the volleyball court, Wagoner led the Fighting Scots to three division championships and two conference titles (1981, 1982), the only two conference crowns in Monmouth volleyball history.  She won 110 matches at Monmouth in six years at the helm and remains the volleyball coach with the highest winning percentage (.683) in school history.  She is also second in career wins.

Wagoner won two division titles and the 1987 Midwest Conference championship with the Monmouth softball program.  She won 94 games at Monmouth from 1982-87 and still sits atop the program’s record book for most career wins and highest career winning percentage (.602) in school history.

Wagoner joined the Knox College athletic department in 1987 as the head coach for both programs.  She gave up coaching after the 1994-95 academic year before returning to the softball dugout as head coach in the spring of 1998.  She also resumed her volleyball head coaching duties in the fall of 1998.  Wagoner has won more than 150 times with both the Prairie Fire volleyball and softball teams.

"I want to thank Kathy for all of her hard work and dedication to Knox College,” said Knox Director of Athletics Chad Eisele.  “As much as we will miss her, I am very excited for her as she begins a new chapter of her life and professional career."

A graduate of Northwest Missouri State University, Wagoner will miss her time at Knox.
"It has been terrific to be a part of a college that changes lives, and Knox College does exactly that – it changes lives,” said Wagoner.

"I've been able to see so many of my athletes mature into great women who do great things in life.  I hear about so many of them making positive influences in the lives of others.  Knox College attracts some really good people.  The highlight has been the relationships I've developed with the players.  They stay in touch and I get to see photos of their weddings and their kids, and that's really rewarding.  And it probably will continue to reward me for the rest of my life."

Founded in 1837, Knox is a national liberal arts college in Galesburg, Illinois, with students from 46 states and 50 nations.  Knox's 'Old Main' is a National Historic Landmark and the only building remaining from the 1858 Lincoln-Douglas debates.