Haley Kindall rejoins the University of West Florida Volleyball coaching staff for the 2024 season after previously serving as Coach Melissa Wolter's lead assistant from 2021-22.Â
Kindall first joined the coaching staff in the Fall of 2021 and made an immediate impact in her first season, helping guide the Argonauts to the GSC regular-season and tournament titles, and a spot in the NCAA South Region Championship match as the No. 1 seed while being named the AVCA National Assistant Coach of the Year.
A native of Westerville, Ohio, Kindall was a standout player at Division II powerhouse Wheeling University from 2013-16 before starting her coaching career there under another of NCAA Division II volleyball's most successful head coaches in Christy Benner. Benner has led the Cardinals to 16 conference tournament championships and seven NCAA Atlantic Regional Championships in her 23-year tenure while winning 12 Conference Coach of the Year awards and coaching 12 Conference Players of the Year, Kindall among them.
For her performance, Kindall placed on the AVCA All-Atlantic Region First Team and All-Mountain East Conference Team four times, AVCA All-America team three times and D2CCA All-Region team twice. She was named MEC Freshman of the Year and Atlantic Region Freshman of the Year in 2013. As a junior, she played a huge role on the program's first National Championship team in 2015, earning AVCA First Team All-Region and D2CCA Second Team All-Region honors following the regular season and placing on the NCAA Division II Championship All-Tournament Team for her performance in the final field of eight. She capped off her career in 2016 by taking home AVCA First Team All-Region honors for a fourth time and AVCA All-American and First Team All-MEC honors for a third time. For the first time in her career, she won MEC Player of the Year and D2CCA Atlantic Region Player of the Year after finishing with the third-highest hitting percentage in the country at .418.Â
Finishing her collegiate career with an outstanding 156-17 overall record and a perfect 76-0 mark in MEC play, Kindall left Wheeling as one of the top middle blockers in program history. In total, Kindall recorded 1,573 kills, 2.97 kills per set, 536 blocks and 189 digs and had an outstanding .374 hitting percentage in 530 sets played during her time in Wheeling, West Virginia.
Kindall earned her Bachelor's in Business Marketing with a Minor in Art from Wheeling, then Wheeling Jesuit University. A graduate of Westerville Central High School, she received three volleyball letters in high school, and also earned All-District Second Team honors and helped her team to a District Championship as a senior in 2013.
In addition to her outstanding collegiate success, Kindall also brings professional experience to West Florida having played overseas in Germany after college. Playing for proWIN Volleys TV Holz, Kindall spent one year with this pro club in the FIVB Professional League before returning to the States to begin her coaching career.
Back at her alma mater, Kindall served as the Cardinals' Graduate Assistant Coach through the 2018 and 2019 seasons. During this time, she helped develop four AVCA All-Americans and assisted in leading the Cardinals to the Quarterfinals of the NCAA Tournament.
After graduating with a Master’s in Business Administration in 2020, Kindall took a full-time Assistant Coaching position at Washburn University where she gained even more valuable coaching experience. Here she had a heavy influence in recruiting, team development, and film breakdown amongst many other things for the fourth-ranked Ichabods.
Kindall's younger sister, Riley, is currently in her senior season as an outside hitter at Wheeling, a decorated player in her own right who has reached the 1000 mark in both career kills and digs for the Cardinals. Riley earned Second Team All-MEC and AVCA Honorable Mention All-Region Honors while placing on the All-Tournament team in the MEC Tournament and the Atlantic Regional in 2023.
