Volleyball: Keystone hires Kate Verhoff as coach

When Keystone was looking for someone to turn around its volleyball program, it turned to one of the leading families of Lorain County sports. Kate Verhoff, the 2004 Lorain County Miss Volleyball and one of four sisters enshrined in the Elyria Sports Hall of Fame, was recently approved as the Wildcats' coach. She takes over for Jeff Schaef, who led Keystone to a 4-19 record last season. "I know that the Keystone community is growing," Verhoff said. "My family has moved out that way. My parents are out there now, my sister is out there now, so it's familiar territory."Watching the successes their programs have been having in other sports, I thought it was a great opportunity and they have a lot of great kids in the program who want to be part of something bigger than themselves."Verhoff was an assistant coach under Laurie Cogan at Elyria Catholic in 2024 when the Panthers advanced to the regional final. Verhoff credits Cogan and Carol Russo, her coach at Elyria High School, as being mentors in her coaching career. "I'm really excited to have the opportunity to make a difference in young kids' lives. That's really what it's all about," Verhoff said. "I saw the dedication both of them had to their programs and the kids. I saw them make lasting impacts on their players."Verhoff said she talks to Russo on a regular basis and seeks her advice on how to handle difficult coaching situations. She said they spoke before Verhoff applied for the Keystone job. "I'm ready to make an impact and try to build the tradition back up at Keystone and get the program back on the map," Verhoff said. Keystone hasn't finished higher than fourth in the Lorain County League since 2020. "Kate comes from a great background. We all know about the Verhoff family," Keystone athletic director Jeff Holzhauer said. "I remember watching the girls when they were in high school and reading about them."I have heard great things about Kate being an honest, tough, fair and hard-working coach. I know she's going to push the girls and demand perfection and I think she can get results."Verhoff's sister Lisa Medvetz is an assistant basketball coach at Keystone, sister Jessie Bendik coaches basketball at Open Door and Sara Randall is a teacher at Midview.Verhoff was a two-time second-team All-Ohio player at Elyria and played collegiately at South Florida and the former Notre Dame College in South Euclid. She started her coaching career at the University of Findlay and then returned home to assist Medvetz on the Lake Ridge Academy basketball staff. Verhoff has done most of her volleyball coaching at the Junior Olympic level with the Cleveland Volleyball Company, with whom she coached a 12u team to a third-place national finish last year. "I'm looking forward to bringing all that experience to Keystone," Verhoff said. "You have kids who have been around winning cultures at Keystone but just not recently in the volleyball realm. Getting them to understand and believe they are able to do it in volleyball is a really big thing."I think a lot of it is built from the youth program. That's something I take a lot of pride in. I have had the opportunity to work with a lot of youth in Keystone through the Cleveland Volleyball Company. There is a lot of talent there now."Contact Todd Shapiro at (440) 329-7135 or ctsports@chroniclet.com.