St. Paul grad Llewellyn reflects on first year as college head coach

WASHINGTON, Pa. — Right place, right time. Oftentimes, things are never that simple. But Lindsey Llewellyn admits things certainly lined up. "As I got toward the end of my time as a graduate assistant, I thought maybe coaching was the right fit," said Llewellyn, a 2016 St. Paul graduate. "I was really lucky that this job opened up and I was local to the area. It was kind of perfect timing." That timing saw Llewellyn be named the head volleyball coach at an NCAA Division III school — just seven years removed from her days playing in the Firelands Conference for the Lady Flyers. Hired on Jan. 24, 2022, Llewellyn completed her first season as the head coach at Washington and Jefferson College this past fall. Located in Washington, Pennsylvania, the private liberal arts college is situated about halfway between Wheeling, W. Va. and Pittsburgh — a little more than three hours from Norwalk. Llewellyn helped St. Paul win an FC championship while advancing to three Division IV district championship matches during her three seasons on the varsity team. She was then recruited to play at Bethany College in Bethany, W.Va. Just 23 miles east of W&J College, Bethany is also a fellow Presidents' Athletic Conference league member. "Probably since the age of five I wanted to be a teacher and work and help with people," Llewellyn said. "It was something I was always interested in. I was really lucky in my college program through my coach, she runs a club program up here." Llewellyn spent several years of club coaching at the Ohio Valley Volleyball Company. She had also helped out her high school coach, Nancy Miller, on a local level with the Northshore club teams. "When I got to Bethany I knew I could coach club, and that was kind of a good gateway for me to coach teams all the way through my career and grad school," Llewellyn said. "Then as I was looking into grad programs, I went into one in sports leadership and coaching, just kind of seeing if I wanted to be an elementary school teacher with a high school team, or something similar to that." Those coaching roots proved to be just the beginning. As a player at Bethany, Llewellyn was a four-year letterwinnner and played on two PAC championship teams. The all-league outside hitter finished with 668 kills and 239 digs in 108 career matches at the school. The Bison claimed PAC titles and reached the NCAA tournament in both 2016 and 2018. Llewellyn served as a team captain for Bethany in 2019, where she played for three-time PAC Coach of the Year Courtney Hilyer. From there, the Vermilion native found a local connection to back home in Riley Schenk. The former Amherst High School and Mount Union University standout had been named the head coach at nearby Div. II West Liberty University (W. Va.) in September 2020. "I did my undergrad at Bethany (Early Childhood Education, minoring in Special Education), and I wasn't really sure what to do with it at the time," Llewellyn said. "Then my senior year of college was the COVID year, so I decided to go to grad school, because I wasn't going to start teaching at the height of that. "I ended up going to West Liberty, which is only about four miles from Bethany," she added. "I did my master's degree there while coaching under Riley, who I've been family friends with forever." West Liberty was 28-18 during Llewellyn's two years on the staff with the Hilltoppers in 2020 and 2021. When she saw the W&J position open, she applied, and ultimately secured the job. Just two years removed from graduating college, Llewellyn was the head coach of her own program that had finished 3-19 in 2021. "It was kind of crazy," she said. "I got here last February, and the first thing for us was recruiting. We only had two girls committed at that point, and we ended up bringing in nine from last spring to this past fall's team." The big thing for Llewellyn and her staff was establishing a culture while having their players get a good experience. "I was fortunate to play in a team in our conference that had a really good culture and a really good relationship with our coaches," she said. "That was our first goal here. Yes, on paper, we wanted to be better and win a lot more matches. But at the end of the day we wanted to enjoy our time together. "When you look at Division III, that's one of the cool things," Llewellyn added. "Yes, you're coming here and playing a competitive sport, but you get to be a student-athlete that is very involved in the campus. It definitely helped that we had some really good girls here. You never know what you're going to inherit as a new program, but I don't have a single athlete that I'm not lucky to be working with." In her first season on the bench and the recruiting trail, Llewellyn said she learned more from her players than anything she could ever teach them. "I think the biggest thing was you have to meet them where they're at in their personal life and volleyball life," she said. "It's about getting to know your players, and I think that's why I had such a good relationship playing for Nancy at St. Paul and for Courtney in college, and working under Riley as a GA. "It's a lot bigger than sports. You want to push your athlete as far as you can to their potential, but at the end of the day you have to support them off the court, too," Llewellyn added. "Having good mentors like that as far back as when I was at St. Paul who set that standard was really helpful to me. It's something I have learned as I got into this role." In her first season as coach, Llewellyn guided the Presidents to an 11-12 record, an improvement by eight wins over a 3-19 finish in 2021. With a 3-7 mark in league play, the Presidents — who went 2-2 in five-set matches — just missed out on the conference tournament. "We want to be vying for a conference championship," Llewellyn said. "We ended up seventh out of 11 teams, which was one spot out of the conference tournament. That is something that will be a big goal for us every year. We want to be in that field and hosting if we can, trying to get past that first round and elevating the level of play each year." A big step toward that goal will, of course, come through recruiting. "W&J is a great school academically that has a lot to offer in terms of campus life and location," Llewellyn said. "We will be continuing to bring in athletes that are going to challenge the ones we have right now, and who will continue to set a standard of a program that wants to be going to a higher level. "With being so close to the Ohio and Pennsylvania region where there is good volleyball, there are open doors for us to get there in those next couple of years."