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GOLD AND BLACK ILLUSTRATED VOLUME 28, ISSUE 2 99 the practice court now bears his name, and older broth- er Steve is also a longtime high school, club and college coach. So they seemingly knew everyone. If a former play- er of Don Shondell's had a granddaughter playing club, why not go over and say hi? Maybe she's good enough to play. "I would have to be like, 'There are rules. We can't do that,'" Jewell said recently, recalling some of her early in- teractions with the Shondells in 2003. "That's a true story. I know they probably knew that there were rules, but at least I had taken the (NCAA compliance) test and actual- ly knew what rules were there. I would say, 'OK, but you can't talk to her,' that kind of thing. That made for a fun first couple years, but we never had any violations, so that is good." It probably helped set the tone for the next decade-and- a-half, as the trio has cultivated an atmosphere of hones- ty, hard work, shared goals, camaraderie, respect and un- derstanding. And because of that — and other factors too — they've stayed together for nearly 15 years, molding Purdue into a pe- rennial power in the Big Ten, where NCAA Tournament berths are regular occurrences and deep trips, with two Elite Eight appearances, have been possible. In college athletics these days, re- gardless of sport, keeping a staff to- gether for 15 years — heck, five might be some sort of notable achievement — is unheard of. Purdue's staff is the only one in the country that has stayed together since arriving in 2003. "I think we have three coaches that are pretty good people," said Dave Shondell, who was hired in '03 at Purdue after winning four state ti- tles in 13 years at Muncie Central and spending 15 years as the co-director of the Munciana Club. "They respect each other's quirkiness and strengths and weaknesses, and there is a lot of trust that goes on here after 14-and-a- half years. I know whose responsibil- ities are whose, and I know they are going to get it done and get it done at a really high level. I don't have to worry about those things and I would hope they feel that way about me. John and Kat are both completely invested in the program." Roles are well defined. As the head coach, Dave Shon- dell is responsible for all aspects of the program, particu- larly game preparations and matchups — and he serves as the offensive coordinator — but he's not hesitant to lean heavily on the assistants, as well. John Shondell, who was bumped up to associate head coach in 2013, coordi- nates the Boilermakers' defense and is also the best tech- nical teacher of the group; if there's a player who wants extra time in the gym, then it's John who is usually there to help. Jewell is Purdue's recruiting coordinator and in charge of more of the day-to-day-type tasks, although some of that duty was alleviated when Stephanie (Lynch) Harpenau, a former All-America player at Purdue, came on board as the program's first supervisor of operations in 2016. Purdue Assistant Kathy Jewell says her voice is always heard, even when they disagree, and she appreciates that about Dave Shondell."We just have conversations and forget about it afterwards," she said. "Dave has the final say in the end. Even though I don't agree some- times, I will buy in."