Longtime AFC volleyball coach wins 500th match

Few milestones have passed with less fanfare than AFC volleyball coach Jan Cupp's 500th victory last Saturday afternoon.

And the 28-year veteran coach wouldn’t have it any other way.

After the Raiders’ third win at the Mercer County Tournament last weekend in Aledo, Cupp asked if she could get a photo with her players, and casually mentioned that it was to remember her 500th win as a high school volleyball coach.

“She looks at us and says, ‘Oh yeah, guys, that was my 500th win,’” senior setter Katie Sondgeroth said. “We were mad that she didn’t tell us earlier, because we had nothing with us to give to her to congratulate her.”

But that’s exactly the reason why Cupp didn’t tell her players beforehand. As humble and self-effacing as she is passionate about volleyball, Cupp would have wanted as little attention placed on her for the feat as possible.

But that didn’t deter her Raiders. Before Monday’s home match against Dakota, Sondgeroth and her mother, Karen – a player during Cupp’s first 3 years in Ashton – presented Cupp with a bouquet of flowers, while Cupp’s husband, Ric, the AFC athletic director, gave her a plaque commemorating the impressive feat.

“It was really cool to for my mom to come out and do that with her, someone who was with her for the first win and us who were there for her 500th,” Katie Sondgeroth said. “It’s extra nice, because we thought we’d get it for her last year, and it just didn’t happen … then, honestly, we all forgot about it [during the offseason]. It’s a really good feeling to finally get it.”

As expected Cupp deflected the credit to her players, current and past, as well as the parents, assistants, administration, and anybody else she could get a shout-out to. But that’s just the way Cupp is, and it started that way from Day 1.

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Jan Cupp still remembers the first team meeting she ever had with her Ashton Aces. The year was 1987, and it was long before rivals Ashton and Franklin Grove got together in a co-op and, eventually, consolidated the school districts.

“That first day, I sat everybody down and I said, ‘What do you want? It’s not about what I want, it’s about what you want,’” Cupp recalled. “The one thing they really wanted was for people to come watch them play. I said, ‘Well you can want people to watch you play, but if you don’t win, it’s hard to get people to come and watch you.’

“Now, I rarely emphasize only winning, but when you’re first starting out, it’s important. So I told the girls, ‘If you trust me, and you work really hard, I promise you you’ll get people in those stands. You will work hard enough that they’ll want to come watch you.’”

By the next year, the Aces had achieved their goal. In fact, Cupp remembers a girl who didn’t play volleyball that first season come up to her after joining the squad that second season and tell her why she changed her mind.

“She said, ‘I was wanting to be part of it because I heard everybody at the restaurant say they were going to come watch the girls because they’re really good, and they’re playing really hard,’” Cupp recalled. “That’s where it started; from that moment on, we started having lots of people come into the program, and lots more people watching us.”

Longtime Eastland coach Kristy Pierce isn’t surprised her good friend and colleague has had such success. Pierce, who is approaching 900 career wins herself, has coached with Cupp since the beginning of the No Limits club teams out of Westwood Sports Complex in Sterling.

Like several of her colleagues when she passed the 500-win milestone, Pierce was proud and happy to welcome Cupp to the group, and helped get the word out over the weekend on Facebook – something she knew Cupp would never tout herself.

“All of us coaches care deeply about our kids, but Jan is special because she cares about each kid’s development to the fullest,” Pierce said. “She’ll work with them before practice, after practice, helping any way she can. She’s a player’s coach, cares so much about every single kid, no matter what their ability is, and that’s what sets Jan apart.”

It’s something her Aces and Raiders have experienced firsthand.

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Ask any one of Cupp’s former players, and the same words tumble out of their mouths when they talk about her.

Dedication. Pride. Determination. Energetic. Passionate.

“She’s such a great coach, very fundamentally sound,” former player and assistant Melissa Lawrence said. “You learn tons every time you talk to her, and she just really knows the game … and how to impart that knowledge and love and passion for it to her players. She gets so much support for the program from past players and parents, but it’s really support for her, and a reflection of the type of person she is.”

Kelly Ator, who played three seasons under Cupp and Lawrence from 2004-06, credits her development to the AFC program. Ator, who played a North Central College after her AFC days, said two things really stuck out to her about her time as a Raider.

“Her willingness to try new things, techniques or drills she’d learn from clinics and workshops and magazines was always cool,” Ator said. “She’s always trying different ways, always looking for ways to make us better and keep things fun and interesting.

“Then, she’s always there for you. If I had a bad practice, I could ask her to go through something with me, and she literally never said no. She wouldn’t let me leave until I got it right, and you’d always go home with a good feeling that you were back on track and ready to go for the next match.”

Karen Sondgeroth has experienced that as a player and a parent. While she thought it was cool to have a young coach so interested in herself and her teammates, she’s grown to appreciate it even more as an adult watching her daughter go through it.

“I can’t think of anybody more dedicated to her volleyball program,” Karen Sondgeroth said. “Nobody puts in the hours she puts in, the dedication to every little detail. She’ll watch film, she’ll check all the stats, she’ll text the girls about what they did ... and she does it after every match. She just makes you love the game as much as she does.”

That’s something that hasn’t changed one bit throughout the years.

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Katie Sondgeroth echoes her mothers thoughts about playing for Cupp, just as her teammates do. Katie, who wears the same number 23 her mother wore on Cupp’s first teams, believes it’s easy to play the AFC way because Cupp’s unselfish attitude and personality rubs off on her players.

“It’s why we always seem to be scrappy, always dive for everything and put our effort out there and put everything forth for the sport,” Katie Sondgeroth said. “We always want to win every point, and it’s easy to play for your teammates and your coaches when you have that role model on the sideline doing the same thing.”

Sondgeroth has played for Cupp since club in fifth grade, as have many of her AFC teammates. Senior Marissa Sanford believes that’s what makes this milestone accomplishment even more special for coach and players alike.

“It’s special for us to be with her because she felt like it was really special to be with us, too,” Sanford said. “We trust her, we love her and this whole program she’s built, and we’re really glad we accomplished it with her. It’s a really awesome experience.”

As Cupp would be quick to say, it’s been her players more than herself that have built AFC’s program from the ground up. And her current players know that without those who came before them, they wouldn’t be celebrating this with their coach.

“It’s such an honor, being part of something that big in her career that she’ll always remember, just knowing all the players who have come through here and helped her get to this point,” junior Cassidy Koning said. “It makes me feel really good as a player to think that I’m carrying on the AFC name, the tradition of this program. It’s amazing how Coach has stuck with it through everything, and her believing in us just makes us believe in her even more.”

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As much as Jan Cupp pours into the AFC Raiders, she couldn’t do it alone. She is quick to credit everyone who has helped her get to this point, and it’s a long list.

She thanks her junior high coaches for getting the girls started out on the right foot. She thanks all her assistants throughout the years – many of them former players – for their contributions and dedication to the helping coach volleyball the AFC way.

She thanks the parents for shuttling their kids to practices and summer tournaments, often meaning late-night pick-ups at the school after long days on the road to Aurora, where they play their summer league. And she thanks the administration for all their support, and having her back for these past 28 years.

But that is reciprocated by all of those folks, and nobody can sum it up more succinctly than her husband.

“It’s one sport we don’t have to worry about, because she’s so organized and puts so much work into it that it takes care of itself,” the AFC AD Ric Cupp said. “She doesn’t take anything for granted, rarely ever takes any time off, even in the offseason, and she just really enjoys it. She’s always there cheering, laughing, having a good time with the girls, but at the same time teaching them the sport … and life lessons through it.

“That all carries over to the program, and the people within the program, and it means success and staying power.”

It also means one of Jan Cupp’s favorite phrases, AFC’s “volleyball family,” rings truer than most. The feeling that they’re all in this together doesn’t just come from Cupp, but comes back to her from everybody else who’s had a part in building the program and sustaining it the past 3 decades.

“Parents of the younger players will come up to us and say their girls can’t wait to play varsity volleyball and have Jan as their coach,” Ric Cupp said. “That’s says it all right there.”