text: Ball State men's volleyball's Joel Walton reflects on his career
  5 Questions: Joel Walton reflects on his career coaching, and playing for, BSU men's volleyball
  MUNCIE, Ind. — While Joel Walton's final season as Ball State's head men's volleyball coach ended earlier this month, his name will forever be associated with the BSU program.
  Walton played for the Cardinals in the 1980s before joining his former coach's staff, Don Shondell's staff that is, ahead of the 1991 season. During Walton's playing career he etched his name into the record books and helped lead his team to multiple NCAA tournaments, repeating the latter as an assistant under Shondell before becoming the head coach in 1998 ahead of the 1999 season. And success has followed.
  Walton is heading into retirement from his coaching with more than 400 career wins as a head coach and multiple Midwestern Intercollegiate Volleyball Association coach of the year honors. He took his team to the NCAA tournament in 2002. Athletes who've played for him have earned conference and national recognition.
  But as Walton looks to find another job either on campus with BSU or off of it, as he and his wife want to remain in Muncie and he hopes to be one of Ball State's biggest sports fans, with all the positive memories there's also a level of disappointment. As he walked off the court after losing in the MIVA tournament semifinals on April 17, Walton wanted to have accomplished more in his time leading Ball State. It's a program he believes is rich in its history and tradition and is capable of competing for a national title.
  From about 2004-14, Walton said his program was "surviving" because the athletic department only provided "minimal" resources as the Cardinals attempted to be competitive. That's no longer the case, but Walton still feels there's more that can be done. He's always thinking about things that could help the program improve.
  Walton was adamant his departure is not related to a 2020 report that outlined instances of racism that've occurred within his program in recent years, which Walton has since apologized for. He said anyone who knows him would say that, over the last two to three years, he's been trying to figure out how to continue to coach at BSU while also shifting more of his time to being with his family. As a college coach he said "you're never fully away from the program," and he reached the point where he wanted to find the right time and way to redirect his focus.
  Walton has started work on a thank you list, which begins with mentors of his in Don and Steve Shondell. He's grateful to his father, to the parents who entrusted their kids to him, to the Muncie community for their support and those who financially have supported the program. And he believes whoever follows him to lead Ball State men's volleyball will find that his staff "is not leaving the cupboard bare."
  Walton took some time with The Star Press this past Friday to discuss his career in coaching, and more.
  When you stepped onto the floor for the first time as a head coach at BSU, did you ever think you'd be with the Cardinals for so long? Did you envision anything like what would eventually transpire?
  "Actually, I thought I would start my head coaching career and end my head coaching carer and my overall working career at Ball State as a volleyball coach. It's a little bit different when you become a college coach and — typically people start in a program that maybe isn't their dream job. And when I went from being Don's assistant to being the head coach of the Ball State men's volleyball program, as far as volleyball coaching that was my dream job."
  Walton added that there were times when he thought he may switch to coaching women's volleyball, because at the college level he said there are more resources and opportunities available there — especially at the Division I level. But when he stepped onto the court for the first time as a BSU men's volleyball coach it was his dream to develop the program into a national contender and national champion.
  You said when you announced your retirement this was something that you and your wife had thought about for a long time … But was there a moment that stood out when you realized that, maybe … it's time to move on?
  "I don't think so. I think it was more of an accumulation of things, the things that I've talked about that require so much time and attention. And maybe the biggest thing that I've been wrestling with was, just reprioritizing my life. I'm very fortunate that my wife and I have been married — we were married in 1988, the year that I graduated from Ball State, and we stayed married. And that's a challenge for any relationship, but I think it's amplified when you throw a career like college coaching into the mix. For so many years I've had to look at my wife and ask her to forgive me for putting her second to my job or the activities that my job required at so many different times in our life."
  Walton added that his wife "is a saint" who's done an incredible job raising their children. He said she has taught for almost three decades at Selma Middle School, and that sometimes she's the more recognizable of the two around town because it's difficult for them to go somewhere and not see a former student of hers. Instead of continuing to ask her for forgiveness for being away so much, he's looking forward to connecting more with her, traveling with her and having a more regular schedule he can share with her and their children.
  Of course, Walton doesn't want it to sound like he hasn't enjoyed his time with the program. He'll always remember the trips to Hawaii, going on "The Price is Right," visiting Niagara Falls and more. He hasn't forgotten the trips when — before he became the head coach — the Cardinals traveled around "in two 15-passenger vans," at times playing video games as they did.
  If there was a match, or maybe more holistically a season if that's how you feel, that you treasure the most, what would that be? Whether it's a match or a season, what would you want to go back and re-live again if you could?
  "A season is kind of hard, but I can give you a couple of moments, some really memorable moments. I've been pushing for the 1995 team to be inducted into the Ball State Athletics Hall of Fame for a number of years, and the reason I've pushed for that is in that season that 1995 team finished ranked fifth in the country and they beat every other team that finished the season ranked ahead of us. We were the only team that year to beat UCLA and UCLA ended up the eventual national champion. We beat Penn State through the course of that year, Santa Barbara I think was the other team through the course of that year. In the consolation match of the NCAA tournament we beat Hawaii, and they finished ranked ahead of us."
  Walton added that there are members of that team in Phil Eatherton, Eduardo Ferraz and Todd Reimer who are already in the BSU Athletics Hall of Fame, and that Eatherton also went on to compete in the Olympics.
  Walton also noted how significant it was to win the MIVA in 2002, how he cried on the court after winning it because he'd wondered if he could ever lead Ball State to a conference title. And he highlighted his 2004 team as well.
  If you could pick two teams you've coached at BSU as a head coach that could go against each other, which two would you want to see go head-to-head?
  Before answering, Walton went back to praise his 2013 team, too. It was a group that recovered from a mid-season losing streak to win 13-straight matches, until it lost in the MIVA tournament semifinals. He thinks that team's success helped the program receive more resources.
  "I'd love to see that 2013 team play against … that 2002 team that I coached that made it into the NCAA tournament," Walton said.
  Walton then rattled off names from the 2013 squad that included Matt Leske, Tommy Rouse and Jamion Hartley. And he rattled off names from the 2002 squad that included Doug Market, Josh Zuidema and Paul Fasshauer.
  "I'd love to see those two teams match up in their prime and see which team would come out on top," Walton said.
  Spending so much time around volleyball in this area as you have … what do you feel like, about Muncie and maybe just this general area, has enabled it to build such a strong history with this sport?
  "It's the people. It's the guys that coach Shondell wrangled into the gym when he began his career, guys that had just been cut from the men's basketball team or guys that coach found playing intramurals on campus and who coach taught how to play volleyball who then became Mick Haley's — who won national championships at Texas and Kellogg Community College and USC and coached the women's national team. Or Arnie Ball, who coached at Purdue Fort Wayne, really started their program and then coached them into the NCAA tournament multiple times, led his team to the NCAA championship match one of his later years coaching at what was then IPFW and is now Purdue Fort Wayne."
  Walton also praised Pete Hanson, who's won national titles as the head coach for Ohio State men's volleyball and played collegiately for Haley and later Don Shondell. Walton praised Wes Lyon, Dave Shondell and a number of others, including one in Craig Skinner who is a former assistant of Walton's who just won a national title as the head coach for Kentucky women's volleyball. Walton said starts with Don Shondell, and praised his two assistants on the 2021 BSU team in Jim Palilonis and Kevin Furnish.