International Volleyball Hall of Fame induction celebration: USA’s John Kessel

This is one in a series previewing the inductees going into the International Volleyball Hall of Fame in Holyoke, Massachusetts, on Saturday. 
This year there are nine inductees, two indoor players in Italian Andrea Zorzi and Cuba’s Regla Bell; two beach players in American Tim Hovland and Brazilian Ana Paula Henkel; Brazilian coach Jose “Ze” Roberto and ParaVolley coach Hadi Rezaei of Iran; two officials in Argentinian Juan Angel Pereyra and American Sue Lemaire; and Italian Giuseppe Panini, who is going in as a leader.
There are also three special honoree categories recognized this year: John Kessel is receiving the Mintonette Medallion of Merit Award; Bill Kauffman and Ed Chan are being honored posthumously with the inaugural Award for Media Excellence; and Michael Kane, Mike Knapik, Aaron Vega and Don Humason are receiving the Mayoral Award of Excellence.

In popular culture, there is the cottage industry game centered around the “Six degrees of Kevin Bacon.” It rests on the assumption that anyone involved in the Hollywood film industry can be linked through their film roles to Bacon within six steps. 

Then there is the volleyball equivalent, and that one is the “Six degrees of John Kessel.” The real question, is, who in the volleyball WORLD, and I mean WORLD, is not connected in some way, shape or form to John Kessel??

John’s career has been one dedicated to service of the sport. From playing, to coaching, to coaching coaches, to major roles with the FIVB, and USAV, to being a pioneer in ParaVolley, to running clinics in almost 100 countries, Kessel is literally a volleyball treasure, who may not be cognizant of just how much his contributions are valued by those in the sport.

“I was totally shocked,” he recalled when he got the induction call from IVHF.  “I feel like I chose a good path to impact the world as I hoped.”

Boy did he ever!

Using the word “impact” as he did in the quote above is quite apropos for Kessel. In 1988, Bill Neville, Mike Fleming and John got together for a couple of days to try to figure out how to find a way where good coaching would not simply be “an accident of birth.” The result, a book entitled, “Increased Mastery and Professional Application of Coaching Theory,” IMPACT for short. And in 35 years since publication, it has indeed made an impact, a major one. Over a half million copies have been sold, and every year John…