Kennedy Krull, a Claypool resident, a Whitko basketball and softball alum, a Huntington University (NAIA) infielder, and most recently Triton Junior-Senior High School’s head varsity girls’ basketball and softball coach is taking another big leap into a Division I (D1) college softball assistant coaching position with Georgia Southern University.
Krull has already made some big leaps in her career, but this move from the area’s smallest school to a NCAA D1 program in the Deep South is a bump – on the surface – that might seem surprising.
It wasn’t long after she carried her sheepskin down the aisle at Huntington University in May 2021 when the Whitko alum secured her first teaching position (World History, U.S. History) at Triton, and earned the head softball coaching spot.
Wherever Krull seems to land, when she intentionally secures one position, other opportunities bloom for her. During her first school year at Triton, she earned an opportunity to step in to coaching high school girls’ basketball for the Trojans when the position unexpectedly became available.
A trip back to summer 2020 in the Gulf Coast region of Florida, however, is the first step toward where and how Krull recently landed her most recent exciting opportunity.
The newest addition to the Georgia Southern softball coaching staff spent time sharing a recent Saturday breakfast at American Table prior to her relocation from the area where she’s been living at the high school over the last three scholastic sports years.
Krull shared experiences leading up to her new role in a free-flowing discussion where the recorder ran continuously while each of us operated by what I call the Chipmunk Rule (no pun intended); moving our “chewing in progress” food to the side of our mouths so we could continue the rhythm of discussing so much in such little time.
The COVID summer of 2020 and a summer league for college softball players who felt they must keep the show going were looking beyond players who were D1 athletes to be part of the Florida Gulf Coast League softball rosters.
Not very many players below D1 level answered the call. Krull not only took the trip down to Florida, but she also took on a coaching role as well as being on the roster.
“There were only a few of us that first summer who didn’t play Division 1 (softball),” Krull noted, “Maybe three. Our general manager, who recruits for our (league) teams throughout the year, and communicates with our (league) owner, was a (Division III – D3) baseball player. He said, ‘I was a small school kid, and I would love to have some small school kids on the teams. I’m, happy you’re here.’
“I don’t think there has been another NAIA kid in the league since then. I was lucky. To think that if I had not done that over the COVID summer I wouldn’t be here. It blows my mind a little bit.”
Krull completed her fifth summer in the league near mid-July. She continued coaching from 2021-2023 then played first base while coaching in the recently completed 2024 campaign for the Pioneers.
It’s not your ordinary league. Coaches among the league’s teams do not just tend to those players donning matching uniforms. Every coach helps as many players as they can.
“The league is unique because no matter whose team you’re coaching,” Krull said, “If you’re coaching third base, for example, and you see the opposing pitcher is not hiding her changeup very well, you coach her, too, not just your squad.”
The Florida heat is oppressive each summer, and the teams play one game each day with pregame warmups ranging from 30 to 60 minutes.
As noted in an April 2023 feature article about the Triton softball skipper, the heat does her some good. Krull battles lupus and has benefitted from excellent Cleveland Clinic treatment coupled with an annual dose of Gulf Coast heat and high humidity. She’s eager to make the journey South each summer.
The league is comprised of mostly D1 athletes whose goals and agendas vary depending on their regular season college baseball results. It’s a combination of about five or six returnees each year with kids coming through once who want to get more reps in because they didn’t get enough action during the college softball season.
Krull’s routine in the summer includes a trip to a nearby Wawa gas station following a confirmation phone call for the other coach to confirm their uniform of the day is a match. It might seem mundane, but the trip to Wawa – a Deep South mega gas/convenience store like Buc-ee’s - is a treat.
“I venture to say it’s better than Buc-ee’s,” Krull remarked. “I am a Wawa fanatic… I stopped at Wawa for my breakfast hoagie. It’s gas station food that could rival restaurant food.”
The league is chockfull of athletes and coaches who love softball, want to improve their game, and do some or all those things in very unpretentious conditions.
Some heavy hitters, however, will grace the League’s numerous ballfields for two reasons: athletes in the transfer portal, and coaching prospects.”
This season, Krull’s resume triggered the interest among at least three college programs including two offers before she made the leap from 1A Triton to D1 Georgia Southern.
“If you look at my resume, I’ve been with the Florida Gulf Coast League the previous four years. This is about as close to D1 coaching experience as you could get,” Krull explained. “When D1 schools were looking on my resume my scholastic won-loss record… didn’t catch their eyes.
“I was able to talk to (Georgia Southern) head coach (Sharon) Perkins at the summer league. I really think being authentic, expressing the passion for college softball, and coaching in that realm, showing her I know what it takes to work hard led to the offer I accepted.”
What Perkins was able to see beyond the resume was an individual who has a history of hard work, passion for the game, and knowledge of softball. Krull and Perkins’ dialogue revealed the Triton skipper’s numerous plates she spun in the air several weeks after grabbing her university diploma.
“My positions at Triton… I practically lived there right out of college,” Krull said with a fondness for these memories leading up to the new role. “Teaching and coaching during basketball season is a 16-hour day. A small school like Triton, the numbers and resources in a comparatively larger school are not there, so I am working with kids from fifth grade and above, and I had to manage fundraising, equipment, uniforms, arrange transportation and all these things you can talk to someone about in person to fortify what’s on my resume.”
Perkins knew she had what some military veterans would call “a live one.”
Krull will be a graduate student in a full-time coaching position. She’ll coach the infield and co-coach hitting and spend her autumns scouting and recruiting.
“We had some good conversations,” Krull said about the interview among the head coach and her assistants. “Georgia Southern is the one that felt right. The connections I made with the coaches right off the bat leaned me toward Georgia Southern.”
For what it’s worth, the Claypool native had no intention of making the pun in her remark.
Kennedy Krull was exuding the excitement of her current opportunity during breakfast where the time was well spent. She was, however, also feeling the pain of moving from the Triton community where in the 2021-2022 scholastic sports and academic year she instantly became part of the Trojan fabric in the classroom, on the hardcourt, and on the softball field.
“I’ve kind of been a wreck all week,” Krull remarked about the experience. “Because leaving those kids will be one of the hardest things I’ve had to do all my life. I talked to my softball kids first, then the basketball kids after that. It was tough. Those kids have been a big part of my life.”
One athlete hugging the coach after a quick but emotional meeting said to her, “Your dad would be proud of you.”
Krull lost her father, “Doug” Krull, May 31 this year. He passed away at the age of fifty-five.
The Whitko multi-sport athlete of tough stock will carry familial memories and conventional wisdom forward as a young adult. She also has room in her heart and mind for the athletes who remain at Triton, and in this area of tech media, who knows how many folks in Trojan Nation will track her new role.
Additionally, Krull assured her students and athletes who are parting that she can still be available for counsel on the college recruiting process, and other matters on and off the field.
The former Huntington University Forester infielder shared some additional thoughts about missing the atmosphere of Indiana high school basketball, and how she’ll still fill multiple roles she loves equally.
“I’m really excited to be around softball 24/7,” Krull exclaimed. “If I had to pick my favorite sport to coach in the high school realm it’s basketball. It doesn’t get better than Indiana high school basketball. I have loved, loved, loved my time at Triton and wouldn’t change it for the world.”
“If you’re around me during the spring sports season college softball is all I talk about,” Krull continued regarding her full-time move to softball. “I pay for a cable subscription only during the season to watch all the softball I can.
“I’m really excited to get to do something I love 24/7. I knew I wanted to be a teacher all my life. In my last few years as a teacher, I realized it’s less about the career in teaching than it is about being around the kids I’m teaching, and the kids I get to help through things happening outside the classroom. Being a good influence on kids, to pour into them outside the classroom, the basketball court, the softball field – coaching is the one way you get to do all these things – teach them, help them in life.”
Kennedy Krull made it clear she is someone whom area people would say among themselves to each other, “I remember her when….”
“When…” will be sooner than many people expected in her first collegiate sports year at Georgia Southern.