“I WAS A basketball player. Loved it. Thought I was going to be really good—small town Northern Wisconsin kid. I got to college at [University of Minnesota in Duluth], and, man, I wasn’t as good as I thought,” says George Padjen in his first interview as head coach of first-year volleyball team Indy Ignite.
“There was a friend who asked, ‘Hey you want to play intramural volleyball?’ I said, ‘Yeah, I can do that,’” he goes on. “I figured [the game] out pretty fast. I got proficient, and after a couple years of playing in high-level adult leagues, the coach at St. Scholastica, a club in Duluth, asked me, ‘Hey, could you come be an arm [coach] at practice?’ I was 21or 22 at the time.’”
In 2003, a new job took Padjen to the Twin Cities, where he reconnected with an old friend who had just been hired as assistant volleyball coach at Concordia University.
Often in life, timing is everything, and at that time, Concordia was transitioning into Division 2. While on the golf course, Padjen’s friend asked him if he wanted to be an arm coach at Concordia. He agreed, coming on part-time for the first year.
The next year, he became a little more involved, and the following year, his friend informed him that a full-time position had been created for him if he wanted it. “I’m like, ‘Yeah let’s do it,’” he says, and so began his time at the university as an assistant coach. “And 21 years later, here I am in Indy.”
Word-of-mouth was a most effective promotional tool in helping Padjen make his journey from college assistant coach to head coach of a professional volleyball team.
He describes how Sydney Hilley, a setter and free agent signed to the Ignite, boosted his career, explaining, “I worked with Sydney when she was 13 to 14 years old until she left to play for Wisconsin. When she’d come home, I would help her. She just trusted my coaching.”
Last year, Hilley played professionally for the Omaha Supernovas in the Pro Volleyball Federation’s inaugural season. While Omaha had coaches in place, Hilley felt that Padjen could help them with their skills training. “Because she thought I was a strong trainer, she went to the Omaha brass and talked to them about me.”
Around the same time, Ignite co-owner Don Hutchinson called Padjen up and said he’d heard Padjen’s name through Hilley. “We went through a few days of figuring things out, and they offered me the job.”
In his 21 years at Concordia, Padjen was happy in his role and never considered looking for another coaching job. “After 10 years of telling people, ‘No, thanks,’ the calls stopped coming,” he recalls. “So, when [the Ignite management] called, I’m like, ‘I don’t know if this opportunity will come up again.”
After meeting with Hutchinson, fellow Ignite co-owner Jim Schumacher, and the team’s general manager and president, Mary Kay Huse, Padjen could see their passion for the sport. “I could tell the city’s passion also. I am familiar with the reputation of Indy as a sports city,” he adds.
“I really appreciate Don and Jim for taking a shot. I never had the ego where I had to go coach somewhere bigger than where I was. It was never about me.”
