Athletic Department Staff Update

It is with mixed emotions that I announce two changes to our athletic staff. Coaches Amanda Burge and Kyle Shondell will both be leaving HU. They both will be missed, but we are happy for them and the new journeys they will begin.

Kyle has made the decision to step down from his positions as volleyball coach and ERC Coordinator as of December 14. He will be taking a newly created position just up the road in Fort Wayne. Indiana Tech is adding men’s volleyball as a varsity sport and has hired Kyle to be their new head coach. It is a full-time coaching position and a move that will keep him closer to home and his family.

We want to thank Kyle for his four years of service to HU’s volleyball program. During his tenure, Kyle helped stabilize the program after three coaching changes during the previous six years. His impact was immediate. In his first season at the helm, the team recorded the most league wins in program history and snapped several losing streaks to league opponents that had spanned as long as a decade. The team also made their first league tournament appearance in his first season after a six-year drought. Kyle has continued to grow the program with record numbers on his roster throughout his time at HU and leaves a strong core of returning athletes to enable his successor to continue moving the program forward.

Amanda has made the decision to step down from her soccer and business professor positions at the end of the academic year. It likely comes as no surprise that she and her husband, Shane, have decided to follow the Lord’s call to the mission field. The Burge family will be heading to the mission field in Mexico in early June.

We want to thank Amanda for her three years of service to HU’s women’s soccer program. Under her leadership, Amanda helped the program make strides in roster numbers and went from a ninth place finish and missing the Crossroads League Tournament in her first season to a fourth place finish the following year that garnered an opportunity to host an opening round tournament game for just the second time in the history of the program. She also recruited very capable student-athletes who excelled not only on the playing field, but in the classroom and on our campus as well.

I pray the Lord’s blessing on both of them and their families as they follow the Lord’s leading in their lives!