SPORTS 11
Thursday, August 1, 2019
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
Rosen, Jewell share special ‘reconnection’ on Foreign Tour
It took 21 years and 6,000 miles
of travel, but Michigan volleyball
coach Mark Rosen and Purdue
assistant Kathy Jewell finally
found themselves on the same
side of the net again this summer.
To understand the sincerity
of the reconnection, one must
examine its roots. In the fall
of 1994, Rosen and Jewell both
arrived on campus at Northern
Michigan
University
—
the
former
as
the
newly-minted
volleyball coach and the latter
as an incoming freshman. Rosen
and his wife Lesia went on to
spend four years at Northern
Michigan, guiding the Wildcats
to
a
Division
II
national
championship, runner-up finish
and two Final Four defeats.
Jewell, meanwhile, was the
difference maker in the Rosens’
successful tenure. Despite being
undersized at 5-foot-6, she held
her own as an outside hitter,
earning a pair of NCAA Elite
Eight
All-Tournament
Team
selections
and
tallying
the
second-most digs in program
history. She was inducted into
the Northern Michigan Hall of
Fame in 2000.
In 1998, Rosen and Jewell
went their separate ways. Mark
and Leisa took over at Boise
State, while Jewell finished her
bachelor’s degree in management
of health and fitness.
Following
her
graduation
from Northern Michigan, Jewell
hadn’t made up her mind on a
desired career and, admittedly,
had no idea what she wanted
to do. After spending a year
coaching at the high school and
club levels in her home state of
Indiana, Jewell’s phone rang.
Rosen’s voice was on the other
line.
By that point, the Rosens
had already made the leap to
Ann Arbor. Mark was calling to
inform Jewell that he submitted
her name for coaching vacancies
at Central Michigan and Toledo.
***
Jewell
ultimately
spent
three years as an assistant with
the Chippewas before joining
Purdue’s staff in 2003, where
she has spent the last 16 years.
Since then, her former college
coach has been one of her fiercest
competitors.
When asked why she chose to
go into coaching, Jewell didn’t
hesitate to credit Rosen’s phone
call. But to Rosen, it was the
obvious path all along.
“She had all the makeup of
(coaching),” Rosen said. “It didn’t
surprise me at all when she went
into coaching because she’s very
much a student of the game. As
a player, she was an undersized
outside, so she had to be one of
those players who learned the
game very well in order to be
successful.”
Recently, the two have clashed
on the recruiting trail more than
ever. With their teams typically
finishing close to one another
in the Big Ten standings, Rosen
and Jewell often battle for the
same high school prospects when
they’re not trying to outduel each
other during the season.
It was only fitting for the
two to reunite on the Big Ten
Foreign Tour, which saw 12 of
the
conference’s
top
players
represent the Big Ten in Japan
during
a
six-match
summer
swing.
For Rosen, the presence of a
familiar face added a dimension
of comfort to the uneasy dynamic
of coaching the same opposing
players that give him headaches
during the season. On a personal
level, it presented an opportunity
to temporarily put their coaching
competition aside.
“It’s kind of hard to have this
really friendly relationship when
you’re competing for the same
players and you’re competing
to beat each other during the
season,” Rosen said. “That went
away a little bit during that time
because we were on the script
together and coaching the team
together. It just really brought
that relationship back a little,
which was really fun.
“To be honest, it was really
cool.
It
was
really
fun
to
reconnect with her and spend
some time not talking about
volleyball, just talking about life
and just sharing a trip together.”
***
Jewell isn’t the Rosens’ only
alumna who has made their
mark
in
college
coaching.
Loyola Maryland head coach
Alija
Pettinger
and
George
Washington assistant Erin Moore
— who graduated from Michigan
in 2001 and 2004, respectively —
are also active coaches, to name
another two.
In Jewell’s eyes, playing for the
Rosens made all the difference,
and the Northern Michigan roots
are as strong as ever.
“(Mark
and
Leisa)
really
helped mold me through my
playing career and if I have
questions or need something, I
know I can reach out to either
one of them for personal or
professional help,” Jewell told
The Daily in a phone interview
last week. “They’re always there
for me in that regard. As a player,
they put me in my place at times
but also challenged me to be the
best competitor that I could be.
I’m grateful to have those two in
my life.”
The Big Ten Foreign Tour
gave Rosen and Jewell a chance
to reminisce over their 1994
national
championship
run,
catch up on life beyond the court
and swap stories from the two
decades since leaving Northern
Michigan. The value of such an
opportunity wasn’t overlooked,
to say the least.
“We have a long history,”
Jewell said. “By coaching against
him and also seeing (Rosen)
out recruiting, it’s just like an
old friend kind of thing. It was
really fun to be on that side and
to see his style of coaching and
interacting. It brought back a lot
of memories from back in the day
when he coached me.”
In four short months, these
“old friends” will once again find
themselves on opposite sides
of the net in West Lafayette.
But, for now, the heat of the
competition can take a backseat
to the reconnection — regardless
of whichever side of the globe it
happened on.
ALEC COHEN/Daily
Michigan volleyball coach Mark Rosen is reunited with Purdue assistant Kathy Jewell, who he coached at Northern Michigan.
DANIEL DASH
Daily Sports Writer