From Lady Vol to Legend: Coach April Honored At UTK Champions Weekend

Discover the legacy of UTK volleyball as Coach April Chapple shares her journey from 3-time SEC champion to 2003 Hall of Fame inductee during Champions Weekend.

I've got loyalty...inside my DNA.....

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I didn't think I was going to be this excited to return to the Tennessee campus and reunite with teammates, friends and fellow champions in other sports for the UTK Champions weekend.

Check out this Vol_sports video and let me know if you see anyone you recognize. 

I should have known better.

No one puts on a better show at Neyland Stadium...than the #7 ranked Tennessee Vols football team....and against the opposing Kentucky Wildcats...the Vols were in dark mode.

As it got closer to the departure date to arrive back in Knoxville for our reunion, our Lady Vol volleyball 1984 SEC championship team chat was getting busier with 1984 Tennessee teammates who I hadn't heard from in years excitedly expressing detailed plans on

• who was doing what
• who should do what together 
• who was wearing what and when
• what time to meet and 
• what to do first

It brought me back to what we did and how we sounded 40 years ago ..while on campus...whether it was organizing ourselves for practice, for road trips to nearby schools or plane trips across the country to compete...we fell right back into organizing ourselves and each other for the trip.  

It felt just like old times and I was pumped to travel across the country again and land at the McGhee-Tyson airport like I use to do so often years ago, to begin my Champion's Weekend experience at the University of Tennessee Knoxville on November 1-2 2024.

As I stepped onto the familiar grounds of the University of Tennessee Knoxville for Champions Weekend on November 1-2, 2024, a wave of familiarity and nostalgia came over me.

My last visit to campus was in 2003 when I came with my mother Sallye Chapple aka "GalSal" (rest in peace Mom) for the second University of Tennessee Hall of Fame induction ceremony where I was inducted with the second class of Lady Vol legends as the first volleyball inductee to attend and complete four years at UTK. 

As a proud record-setting Lady Vol and SEC volleyball champion, I couldn't wait to return to my alma mater for this incredible celebration of athletic achievement.

Let me tell you, stepping onto that campus after all these years was like a blast from the past.

It was exciting to see my 1984 SEC champion teammates who also made the trip and in a short time many memories came flooding back. It's where my journey as a Lady Vol began, and where I honed my skills to become the motivational elite private training coach that I am today.

We met at the Joan Cronan Volleyball Center, the playing facility where the Lady Vol volleyball team has trained since the early 2000s.

My freshman year as a Lady Vol was in 1981 so I never played in this facility, we played in the old Alumni gym where we used to walk to from our dorms on one end of campus all the way to the top of what everyone knows is called "The Hill"  on the opposite side of campus from 1982 to 1984.

Alumni Gym is unrecognizable having been renovated and has been turned into ..well look for yourself...

We all thought the wall sized mural of the team huddle was pretty cool.

Pictured from left to right and using the names I know before they got married, 1984 SEC Conference champions:

• outside hitter Donna Monaco (Hamaker),
• opposite outside Kris Kedbetter (Doan
• team manager extraordinaire Becky Hatcher (Duncan), 
• me, 
• defensive specialist Mary Gossett, 
• middle blocker Diane Borgerding, 
• outside hitter Stephanie Scheper Gilchrist and not pictured 
• setter Laurie Caraher 

In Alyssa Andreno's Youtube video tour she said the Player lounge was her favorite place...we quickly found out why...funny how our tour guide didn't show us the refrigerator or where they keep the snacks!!

Going out to where the courts are and looking over your shoulder at the wall on your left you'll see its dedicated to the highest finishing UTK volleyball team in Tennessee program history which is the 2005 team which reached the Final Four. 

Fun fact: Although they didn't win the SEC tournament that season they did make a run all the way through their NCAA tournament bracket to be one of the last four teams making it to the NCAA Final Four teams.  

Walking straight ahead to the wall opposite the facility entrance is the banner wall that hosts a collection of banners that list the years and dates of Tennessee volleyball team honors awards and accomplishments.

Fun fact: How many SEC Regular Season Champion titles has April Chapple helped the Lady Vols win? 

Of the 5 total SEC Regular Season Champion teams in Tennessee women's volleyball program history I've been on three of those teams ..in 1981, 1982 and 1984.  

As of this year 2024, only two more teams won SEC regular season champion titles, after our third one in four years in 1984 the next one won was twenty years later in 2004 and the last one was in 2011.      (Click to see the most updated info on the UTsports.com Quick Facts page or the Lady Vols Recordbooks.)

• Freshman year     1981     
• Sophomore year 1982           
• Senior year           1984   

Fun fact: How many times has April and her Lady Vols team won an SEC Tournament Championship title? 

Of the 4 total SEC Tournament Championship titles that have been won in Lady Vol program history I've been on three of those teams ..in 1981, 1982 and 1984.  

As of this year 2024, only one more team in Tennessee program history has won an SEC championship first place trophy and that took place twenty years after our last one in 2004 and nothing in the next twenty years since..although this is 2024 exactly 40 years after we won our last won which is why we came to campus to celebrate our 1984 title.  

(Click to see the most updated info on the UTsports.com Quick Facts page.)

Freshman year     1981

• We swept Ole Miss, LSU and Alabama on our way to winning the SEC Tournament championships 

Sophomore year 1982 

• That year we travelled to the UCLA NIVT tournament which was an opportunity for me to play in front of family and friends which was something our coach did alot. We'd travel to the home states of many of my teammates who came from different places around the United States. 

At the NIVT we

• beat #19 ranked Texas
• #7 ranked Arizona
• lost to #1 ranked Hawaii
• beat #12 California
• lost to #6 Stanford. 

After that, the next week before the week of the SEC Tournament we went undefeated in matches against Kentucky, Georgia, Eastern Kentucky and #16 ranked Texas A&M

To win the SEC Tournament Championships we beat Kentucky in 4, LSU in 3, and Eastern Kentucky in four sets to claim the title. 

Senior year          1984   

• 40 years ago this month we Lady Vols beat four teams to claim SEC championship tournament title ...sweeping Mississippi State and LSU before going (4) four sets against Kentucky to win the trophy. 

From the time I arrived on the Knoxville campus in 1981 until the time I left...during each of my four years I played with my Tennessee team in the season-ending NCAA Volleyball Tournament.

Fun fact: How many NCAA Volleyball Tournament Appearances has teams that April Chapple played on made?

Of the 18 NCAA Tournament appearances in Tennessee women's volleyball program history four teams in four consecutive years, from my freshman to my senior year achieved those results. 

• Freshman year     1981     
• Sophomore year 1982      
• Junior year           1983     
• Senior year           1984   

Fun fact: How many NCAA Volleyball Tournament Appearances has April Chapple made?

Of the six teams in Tennessee women's volleyball program history with 30+ win seasons three of my teams were responsible for half of those results. 

• Freshman year     1981     (34 - 22)
• Sophomore year 1982     (31 -   7) 
• Junior year           1983     (31 - 10)

my Lady Vol teams finished with 30+ win seasons while my

• Senior year           1984     (25  - 11) 

we finished with a 20+ season which 24 other teams have done in program history

Fun Fact:  Of all the teams in Tennessee women's volleyball program history to make it to the second round of the NCAA Regional Tournament three of my teams made it past the first round to the second round.

1981:

• First Round

1982

• First Round
• Regional Semifinal

1983:

• First Round 
• Regional Semifinal

1984:

• First Round 
• Regional Semifinal

But wait, there's more!

The banner wall also highlights our NCAA Regional appearances. In 1981, my freshman year, we made it to the first round the first of four appearances in four (4) years. 

And speaking of firsts, in the next three years,  my Lady Vols teams became NCAA Regional Semifinalists making it to the second round in the NCAA Tournament in 1982, 1983 and 1984, 

Not too shabby, huh?

NCAA Regional Tournament -1981 First Round:

This was the first time after the AIAW era that the NCAA hosted the NCAA Tournament playoffs and Tennessee, my freshman year also made their appearance in the South regional bracket where we met Purdue who swept us ...a team full of freshmen and sophomores with only one senior Marie Therese Gilchrist ... so after that year we were determined to get better and make it further in the playoff tournament in subsequent years. 

That year USC won their fourth national title over UCLA in the finals, coached by Chuck Erbe 

3-time NCAA Regional Semifinalists -1982, 1983, 1984

Lady Vols were NCAA regional semifinalists in 1982 where we lost in three sets to eventual NCAA tournament second place finishers USC Trojans who lost to Hawaii in the championship finals. 

In 1983, my junior year, the Tennessee Lady Vols went five sets in the first round against Florida State and pulled out an eventual victory in the fifth set. 

Once again we faced an NCAA championship finalist, (Dude we got no breaks, lol) this time a team that was led by my friend (current San Diego Mojo asst coach Deitre Collins Parker) who led her Hawaii team to the NCAA title that year. 

In 1984, after sweeping Eastern Kentucky in the first round, my Lady Vol team met eventual NCAA tournament champions the UCLA Bruins (who had a bunch of my friends on that team (setter Michelle Boyette, childhood friend Olympian outside hitter Liz Masakayan and Italian pro teammate Merja Connolly. 

Taking pictures in front of the SEC championship team picture wall was a trip down memory lane! 

I'm on three out of four of those SEC Championship team pictures and I'd be lying if I didn't admit to being proud of the fact that that record still stands today. 

This wall and the Tennessee volleyball team photos on it stands as a testament to the fact that 40 years ago (and 41, 42 and 43 years ago,

• as a starting outside hitting freshman in 1981
• a starting outside hitting sophomore in 1982 and 
• a starting outside hitter senior in 1984 

I helped a establish an SEC Championship title winning record playing on three Lady Vol  teams in four years is a team and player record that has yet to be broken... 

In 40 years ..since I finished my collegiate volleyball career no other Tennessee team has done what I did on the four years of teams I played on from 1981 to 1984 winning 3 SEC Championship Tournaments in 4 years!

I love being a volleyball original, having met the short term and long term goals I set for myself as a late starting volleyball-playing sophomore in high school at St Bernard's High School in Playa del Rey California.  

Walking straight ahead to the wall opposite the facility entrance is the collection of SEC championship team pictures wall, and boy, was that a trip down memory lane!

There I was, in the 1981, 1982, and 1984 SEC championship team photos.

Fun fact: my teammate Mary Gossett and I are the only three-time SEC champs in UTK volleyball history.

How's that for leaving a legacy?

Next up was the individual picture All American wall.

I gotta say, seeing my portrait there, second from the left and second overall, gave me goosebumps. It's a reminder of the hard work and dedication that earned me the title of UTK's second-ever volleyball All-American.

Now, let's talk SEC championships. In my senior year, 1984, we clinched the SEC Regular Season Championship.

But that's not all – we also snagged the SEC Tournament Championship in 1984.

That means I've been a part of teams that earned three titles in four years – a record that still stands today, 40 years later!

The SEC Athletic Honors wall in the Joan Cronan Facility was our next stop, and it was pretty cool to see my name up there honored on

• the All-Southeastern Conference Team in '82 and '84, 
• Southeastern All-Tournament Team in the same years, and – the cherry on top –
• Southeastern Tournament MVP in '84.

Not gonna lie, I was feeling pretty proud at that moment.

Not going to lie...having the entire Neyland Stadium empty while you're at a party at the yee haw Lounge the day before the Vols defeat kentucky...is a major FLEX!

Oh and on the giant screens your collegiate portrait is flashed on the screens during the whole event...Priceless...

Friday evening, we all gathered at the Yee-haw Lounge in Neyland Stadium for a Champion's Social BBQ lunch and team reunion.

Seeing our collegiate All-American photos on those Neyland Stadium giant screens the day before the big Kentucky vs Tennessee football game was surreal.

Totally like being back in time, but with better technology!

One of the highlights was reuniting with my long-time friends and fellow UTK honorees – four-time Olympians Sharrieffa Barksdale, Joetta Clark, and Sam Graddy.

These American world class track stars were part of the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics (88 and 92 Olympians) and we all went to school together and experienced the University of Tennessee Knoxville as collegiate student athletes and are Tennessee Volunteer Southeastern Conference champions too.

Talk about star power!