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

