If Kellie Kirkhoff can have as much success as a girls basketball coach as she did as a player, then Whiteland should be in good hands in the coming years.
That’s what Warrior athletic director David Edens is banking on.
A two-time national champion during her time on the court at Marian University, Kirkhoff was formally introduced as the Warriors’ new head coach on Monday evening. She succeeds Ashley Fouch, who was recently hired as the boys coach at Daleville.
Kirkhoff, who will also be teaching high school math at Whiteland, comes to the Warriors after two seasons at Greencastle.
“I grew up on the southside of Indianapolis, and I knew that at some point in my career my goal was to coach 4A basketball somewhere in Indianapolis,” Kirkhoff said. “So when I saw the opening at Whiteland, I thought that that sounds like a place that could be home.”
A 2014 graduate of Roncalli, where she scored over 1,000 points and helped lead the way to two regional titles, Kirkhoff then went on to star in the backcourt for coach Katie Gearlds at Marian, scoring 1,622 points (second in school history) while starring for a pair of NAIA championship squads.
Kirkhoff spent one season as a junior varsity coach at Speedway before making her head coaching debut at Greencastle. The 25-year-old isn’t sweating her relative lack of bench experience.
“I feel confident in my knowledge of the game of basketball,” she said. “I know it’s going to be a lot of work, and there are a lot of things I still have to learn as a coach, but I’m really excited to put in the work to get there.”
Having the opportunity to learn under Gearlds, who recently joined the women’s basketball staff at Purdue and will become the head coach there after the 2021-22 season, has been and continues to be a major part of Kirkhoff’s development.
The two are still in regular contact, and Gearlds’ competitive spirit is quite evident in Kirkhoff.
“Katie Gearlds is one of the most intense people I’ve ever met in my life,” Kirkhoff said. “I was definitely a competitor before going to Marian, but she brought that out of me more, my most competitive side, and taught every day that you have to compete in order to improve yourself, which will then improve the team.”
Edens is excited about the high expectations that Kirkhoff will be setting and the competitive fire that she’ll bring to Warrior practices each day.
“It was evident very early on that Kellie’s expectations are very high, and that she will not shy away from putting the time in to build a successful program of her own here at Whiteland,” Edens said. “We have some kids who are very willing to put the time in, and coach Kirkhoff will absolutely give them the opportunity to do so.”
