Triton’s Kennedy Krull Lives Full Life Averse To Regrets
April 4, 2023 at 9:42 p.m.
Triton’s Kennedy Krull Lives Full Life Averse To Regrets
By Chip Davenport-
The shirts feature Triton head softball and girls’ basketball coach, Kennedy Krull, in an action shot holding a goat, and another caught in the midst of a hot dog eating contest during her college freshman year during Huntington’s annual Olympiad.
The hot-dog eating countenance of “Krull-y The GOAT” – thanks to a student graphic artist who took a Google ad – is now worn among greater than 5,000 other people beyond the reaches of Triton’s three towns: Bourbon, Etna Green and Tippecanoe.
This jump from the college campus in early May 2021 to inking a teacher’s and coach’s contract with Triton in the ensuing month, then onto the varsity hardcourt and diamond, looks like a baptism under fire at first blush.
Krull walked onto the Triton campus, however, with a lot of athletic and coaching horsepower before she signed her aforementioned contract in June 2021. The journey to Triton was just as interesting as her immediate immersion into the Triton community.
Kennedy Krull earned an academic and athletic scholarship to NAIA athletics, specifically Huntington University, after an outstanding softball career for the Whitko Wildcats as a shortstop.
Krull talked to the Times-Union about how the journey to Huntington opened doors to operate outside her comfort zone on a recent sunny, windy Thursday afternoon post-practice visit. The discussion covered a broad spectrum of experiences as a college recruit, as a student athlete, and as a young coach stepping right into the spotlight following graduation.
An injury to Huntington’s starter at third-base in Krull’s freshman season resulted in her deployment to the hot corner even though her entire career to that point was spent almost exclusively at shortstop.
“I played third base my entire (college) career once I stepped in,” she noted.
“The coach at Huntington who recruited me, Doug Gower (who now coaches at Taylor),” Krull continued. “(He) recruited pitchers, catchers, shortstops, and centerfielders and he just made it work. When I showed up with nine other freshmen, six of us were shortstops.
“(Third base is) closer than playing shortstop, and I know my mom hated that.”
The position is known as the hot corner, and in softball, the third base position moves closer to the batter more frequently than baseball, and more than different levels of softball. Fielding against a batter with a powerful line drive requires quick hand-eye response.
It would even make the most seasoned of athletes’ parents a bit nervous.
The Forester graduate, who teaches World history, U.S. history, and psychology to Triton’s high school students, still appreciated upside in her three seasons spent on the hot corner.
“It’s way less responsibility than shortstop,” Krull said, chuckling. “You’re running everything that goes on around the field at shortstop. At third I was just reacting to the ball.”
Krull’s first foray into coaching softball was still two summers away from her 2018 freshman season, but the NAIA schedule for softball opened a perfect gap during high school basketball season.
She also played basketball for Whitko, standing 5’10”, and the Wildcat alum has two 6’9” older brothers who graced the hardwood along with a younger brother (6’4”) and the baby of the family, the Wildcat’s All-area Times-Union player, 6’7” Kyler Krull.
“We liked beating each other up in our driveway playing basketball, but we all agree we’re close enough to make a great five-man family team that could take on anyone,” she said.
Southwood, a familiar Three Rivers Conference foe in Kennedy’s hardwood days, needed a JV coach in her sophomore year. Student-athlete Krull was now high school assistant coach Krull after she reached out for the opportunity, rather than experiencing the regret of passing on it.
She spent the next three school years during softball’s offseason in an assistant coaching role for the Knights’ girls’ hoops squad.
“I was 19 coaching 18-year-olds. The girls I was coaching, I also played against them in high school. It was easy to navigate from being a conference rival to their coach. It was nice because it was really easy to relate to them. Otherwise, they were working with a staff full of guys. They really appreciated the fact I was a young woman close in age to them.
“Southwood was a great place for me, and a great experience all three years.”
Fast forward to early May, 2021 when Krull crossed the stage with her sheepskin. Tight timelines seem to echo throughout her young life, and she shared more experiences proving the spring and summer of 2021 were, for lack of a better term, vintage Kennedy Krull.
What, pray tell, would still create a time crunch for someone graduating college and seeking a teaching position not starting until August?
“I interviewed for the teaching position (at Triton), and ended up leaving with the softball job,” she explained. “It made me feel pretty good about getting the teaching job, which wasn’t decided yet. I had an interesting time crunch during all of this because I already had another summer commitment waiting for me in Florida.”
The clock was ticking for Krull, who quickly headed to Florida to join a summer league for NCAA Division I softball players, The Pioneers, a team that was part of the Gulf Coast League.
The COVID spring and summer of 2020 resulted in another opportunity to put another wrinkle in her playing-coaching career a year prior to graduation.
Krull moved back her timeline in the discussion to 2020 for the Times-Union.
“The week after I signed my contract for Triton,” she said. “I was headed to Florida to join (my team). (The league) started in the COVID year, 2020, and me being an NAIA kid knowing it was a league of D1 players, I went ahead and signed up for it anyway. They’ll either pick me or they won’t.”
Krull approached what others would call a reach… with confidence. It’s nothing ventured, nothing gained for her, and no regrets to boot.
“I’m a nerd of the game,” she remarked. “And if I got to spend the summer in Florida playing softball, why wouldn’t I want to do it?
“They never called for a while, but two weeks before the league started their season, some athletes were dropping off, and they called me. I played for them in 2020, and coached for them the next two summers.”
Erica Beach, head softball coach for Arizona State, was Krull’s mentor and the skipper of the Pioneers.
Krull plans to return to the Gulf Coast League to coach again this year.
“I keep upgrading in coaching positions each year. Last year I was the second assistant, throwing front toss every day at practice, hitting infield and outfield for them. This year, I’ve actually been recruiting for them.”
The mélange of playing and coaching simultaneously would feel like drinking from a firehose for some, but the Triton softball skipper (in present time) has been cultivating a variety of great relationships among athletes and coaches.
“Being (in Florida), one of my best friends I’ve made down there is (Oklahoma University redshirt senior) Alex Storacko,” Krull said. “I’m an Oklahoma fan now. Oklahoma is the team to watch this year. If you see number 8 on the mound, she’s Alex.
“I’ve been able to make so many connections with college coaches and college kids, (coaching college softball) is something I see myself doing in the future. This is an opportunity I got because I applied at the perfect time.”
Again, vintage, regret-averse Kennedy Krull particularly in discussing her coaching timeline.
“I’ll regret missing an opportunity if I don’t pursue it,” she continued. “If I can make it work, I WILL make it work. Coaching is something I’ve always wanted to do, and coaching (basketball) at Southwood solidified that for me.”
Krull, now 24, continues to find success in a leadership position with athletes who are close in age, just as she did as a college sophomore coaching the Southwood Lady Knights, and as she currently does among college athletes in the Gulf Coast League.
The head girls’ basketball position opened in Triton near the 2021-2022 preseason. Who knew the opportunity to coach basketball again would present itself to Krull long before the first pitch of her inaugural 2022 softball season was thrown.
Coach Krull guided the Trojans to a 13-9 record in her first season, finishing second in the Hoosier North Athletic Conference (HNAC). The Lady Trojans used a strong late season to improve their most recent season to 15-9.
Krull, now launching her second softball season, no longer has two teams for a single season. She has two programs. She credits former Whitko coach Rob Bell for the solid basis she learned when it comes to building a good program, specifically, Bell’s “Wildcat Code of Conduct.”
“’What It Takes to Be A Lady Trojan’ is based on the ‘Wildcat Code of Conduct’,” Krull noted. “I wanted to be sure these girls knew how we’re going to represent ourselves, our school, and our community.
“We pride ourselves in both programs on having good kids. This past basketball season we earned three IHSAA exemplary behavior awards: two for the team, and Jocelyn Faulkner earned one individually. I want my kids to leave my basketball program as better human beings, and better basketball players while having fun.
“’Control the controllables’ is what I tell them a lot. You can still show up having a bad day, but you can give me 100% of the effort that you have in you that day. That’s also what it takes to be successful in our program.”
If you can read some empathy toward physical and mental health in Krull’s comment, you’re onto something, and the Triton basketball and softball coach mentor relates well with her players because of health challenges she shared without reservation with the Times-Union.
“I’m passionate about mental health in athletes,” Krull remarked. “Our environment in athletics is full of focus on positive achievements, and the great feelings those experiences produce, but it’s O.K. to struggle, too.
“About a year-and-a-half ago, at age 22, here I was a healthy former college athlete, and suddenly after a full day I found myself arriving home with swollen joints preventing me from getting out of my car by myself once I reached the driveway. My brother Kyler was helping me out of my car.
“After a lot of lab work, I was diagnosed with lupus.”
“Waking up in the morning was easy but I knew as the day moved along I would experience pain, and swollen joints. These students here, awaiting me every day, kept me fighting the struggle. I had great doctors, and I eventually worked with doctors in the Cleveland Clinic. I’m extremely thankful for them because I feel so much better this year.”
“I am very thankful for so many accomplishments in my life, but I am also making the best of the struggles. Between the doctors and me, the extended period not knowing what was going on was a struggle. It was draining mentally along with the physical pain.”
The summer heat of Florida, oppressing for many folks, will be welcome weather for Coach Krull’s battle with lupus.
Among students and others from near and far are donning Krull-y the GOAT t-shirts, athletes whose lives she continues to positively influence, and the fans at the diamond or in the Trojan Trench, there is a community of people who are benefiting from Kennedy Krull’s aversion to regrets.
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The shirts feature Triton head softball and girls’ basketball coach, Kennedy Krull, in an action shot holding a goat, and another caught in the midst of a hot dog eating contest during her college freshman year during Huntington’s annual Olympiad.
The hot-dog eating countenance of “Krull-y The GOAT” – thanks to a student graphic artist who took a Google ad – is now worn among greater than 5,000 other people beyond the reaches of Triton’s three towns: Bourbon, Etna Green and Tippecanoe.
This jump from the college campus in early May 2021 to inking a teacher’s and coach’s contract with Triton in the ensuing month, then onto the varsity hardcourt and diamond, looks like a baptism under fire at first blush.
Krull walked onto the Triton campus, however, with a lot of athletic and coaching horsepower before she signed her aforementioned contract in June 2021. The journey to Triton was just as interesting as her immediate immersion into the Triton community.
Kennedy Krull earned an academic and athletic scholarship to NAIA athletics, specifically Huntington University, after an outstanding softball career for the Whitko Wildcats as a shortstop.
Krull talked to the Times-Union about how the journey to Huntington opened doors to operate outside her comfort zone on a recent sunny, windy Thursday afternoon post-practice visit. The discussion covered a broad spectrum of experiences as a college recruit, as a student athlete, and as a young coach stepping right into the spotlight following graduation.
An injury to Huntington’s starter at third-base in Krull’s freshman season resulted in her deployment to the hot corner even though her entire career to that point was spent almost exclusively at shortstop.
“I played third base my entire (college) career once I stepped in,” she noted.
“The coach at Huntington who recruited me, Doug Gower (who now coaches at Taylor),” Krull continued. “(He) recruited pitchers, catchers, shortstops, and centerfielders and he just made it work. When I showed up with nine other freshmen, six of us were shortstops.
“(Third base is) closer than playing shortstop, and I know my mom hated that.”
The position is known as the hot corner, and in softball, the third base position moves closer to the batter more frequently than baseball, and more than different levels of softball. Fielding against a batter with a powerful line drive requires quick hand-eye response.
It would even make the most seasoned of athletes’ parents a bit nervous.
The Forester graduate, who teaches World history, U.S. history, and psychology to Triton’s high school students, still appreciated upside in her three seasons spent on the hot corner.
“It’s way less responsibility than shortstop,” Krull said, chuckling. “You’re running everything that goes on around the field at shortstop. At third I was just reacting to the ball.”
Krull’s first foray into coaching softball was still two summers away from her 2018 freshman season, but the NAIA schedule for softball opened a perfect gap during high school basketball season.
She also played basketball for Whitko, standing 5’10”, and the Wildcat alum has two 6’9” older brothers who graced the hardwood along with a younger brother (6’4”) and the baby of the family, the Wildcat’s All-area Times-Union player, 6’7” Kyler Krull.
“We liked beating each other up in our driveway playing basketball, but we all agree we’re close enough to make a great five-man family team that could take on anyone,” she said.
Southwood, a familiar Three Rivers Conference foe in Kennedy’s hardwood days, needed a JV coach in her sophomore year. Student-athlete Krull was now high school assistant coach Krull after she reached out for the opportunity, rather than experiencing the regret of passing on it.
She spent the next three school years during softball’s offseason in an assistant coaching role for the Knights’ girls’ hoops squad.
“I was 19 coaching 18-year-olds. The girls I was coaching, I also played against them in high school. It was easy to navigate from being a conference rival to their coach. It was nice because it was really easy to relate to them. Otherwise, they were working with a staff full of guys. They really appreciated the fact I was a young woman close in age to them.
“Southwood was a great place for me, and a great experience all three years.”
Fast forward to early May, 2021 when Krull crossed the stage with her sheepskin. Tight timelines seem to echo throughout her young life, and she shared more experiences proving the spring and summer of 2021 were, for lack of a better term, vintage Kennedy Krull.
What, pray tell, would still create a time crunch for someone graduating college and seeking a teaching position not starting until August?
“I interviewed for the teaching position (at Triton), and ended up leaving with the softball job,” she explained. “It made me feel pretty good about getting the teaching job, which wasn’t decided yet. I had an interesting time crunch during all of this because I already had another summer commitment waiting for me in Florida.”
The clock was ticking for Krull, who quickly headed to Florida to join a summer league for NCAA Division I softball players, The Pioneers, a team that was part of the Gulf Coast League.
The COVID spring and summer of 2020 resulted in another opportunity to put another wrinkle in her playing-coaching career a year prior to graduation.
Krull moved back her timeline in the discussion to 2020 for the Times-Union.
“The week after I signed my contract for Triton,” she said. “I was headed to Florida to join (my team). (The league) started in the COVID year, 2020, and me being an NAIA kid knowing it was a league of D1 players, I went ahead and signed up for it anyway. They’ll either pick me or they won’t.”
Krull approached what others would call a reach… with confidence. It’s nothing ventured, nothing gained for her, and no regrets to boot.
“I’m a nerd of the game,” she remarked. “And if I got to spend the summer in Florida playing softball, why wouldn’t I want to do it?
“They never called for a while, but two weeks before the league started their season, some athletes were dropping off, and they called me. I played for them in 2020, and coached for them the next two summers.”
Erica Beach, head softball coach for Arizona State, was Krull’s mentor and the skipper of the Pioneers.
Krull plans to return to the Gulf Coast League to coach again this year.
“I keep upgrading in coaching positions each year. Last year I was the second assistant, throwing front toss every day at practice, hitting infield and outfield for them. This year, I’ve actually been recruiting for them.”
The mélange of playing and coaching simultaneously would feel like drinking from a firehose for some, but the Triton softball skipper (in present time) has been cultivating a variety of great relationships among athletes and coaches.
“Being (in Florida), one of my best friends I’ve made down there is (Oklahoma University redshirt senior) Alex Storacko,” Krull said. “I’m an Oklahoma fan now. Oklahoma is the team to watch this year. If you see number 8 on the mound, she’s Alex.
“I’ve been able to make so many connections with college coaches and college kids, (coaching college softball) is something I see myself doing in the future. This is an opportunity I got because I applied at the perfect time.”
Again, vintage, regret-averse Kennedy Krull particularly in discussing her coaching timeline.
“I’ll regret missing an opportunity if I don’t pursue it,” she continued. “If I can make it work, I WILL make it work. Coaching is something I’ve always wanted to do, and coaching (basketball) at Southwood solidified that for me.”
Krull, now 24, continues to find success in a leadership position with athletes who are close in age, just as she did as a college sophomore coaching the Southwood Lady Knights, and as she currently does among college athletes in the Gulf Coast League.
The head girls’ basketball position opened in Triton near the 2021-2022 preseason. Who knew the opportunity to coach basketball again would present itself to Krull long before the first pitch of her inaugural 2022 softball season was thrown.
Coach Krull guided the Trojans to a 13-9 record in her first season, finishing second in the Hoosier North Athletic Conference (HNAC). The Lady Trojans used a strong late season to improve their most recent season to 15-9.
Krull, now launching her second softball season, no longer has two teams for a single season. She has two programs. She credits former Whitko coach Rob Bell for the solid basis she learned when it comes to building a good program, specifically, Bell’s “Wildcat Code of Conduct.”
“’What It Takes to Be A Lady Trojan’ is based on the ‘Wildcat Code of Conduct’,” Krull noted. “I wanted to be sure these girls knew how we’re going to represent ourselves, our school, and our community.
“We pride ourselves in both programs on having good kids. This past basketball season we earned three IHSAA exemplary behavior awards: two for the team, and Jocelyn Faulkner earned one individually. I want my kids to leave my basketball program as better human beings, and better basketball players while having fun.
“’Control the controllables’ is what I tell them a lot. You can still show up having a bad day, but you can give me 100% of the effort that you have in you that day. That’s also what it takes to be successful in our program.”
If you can read some empathy toward physical and mental health in Krull’s comment, you’re onto something, and the Triton basketball and softball coach mentor relates well with her players because of health challenges she shared without reservation with the Times-Union.
“I’m passionate about mental health in athletes,” Krull remarked. “Our environment in athletics is full of focus on positive achievements, and the great feelings those experiences produce, but it’s O.K. to struggle, too.
“About a year-and-a-half ago, at age 22, here I was a healthy former college athlete, and suddenly after a full day I found myself arriving home with swollen joints preventing me from getting out of my car by myself once I reached the driveway. My brother Kyler was helping me out of my car.
“After a lot of lab work, I was diagnosed with lupus.”
“Waking up in the morning was easy but I knew as the day moved along I would experience pain, and swollen joints. These students here, awaiting me every day, kept me fighting the struggle. I had great doctors, and I eventually worked with doctors in the Cleveland Clinic. I’m extremely thankful for them because I feel so much better this year.”
“I am very thankful for so many accomplishments in my life, but I am also making the best of the struggles. Between the doctors and me, the extended period not knowing what was going on was a struggle. It was draining mentally along with the physical pain.”
The summer heat of Florida, oppressing for many folks, will be welcome weather for Coach Krull’s battle with lupus.
Among students and others from near and far are donning Krull-y the GOAT t-shirts, athletes whose lives she continues to positively influence, and the fans at the diamond or in the Trojan Trench, there is a community of people who are benefiting from Kennedy Krull’s aversion to regrets.
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