Bond soaks in full-circle moment of being a head coach

Former standout Nodaway Valley player Corinne Bond has returned to volleyball through the coaching ranks, first as an assistant with the Wolverines and now as their head coach.

Bond’s appointment as head coach of Nodaway Valley’s volleyball program was recently approved by the school board, and she said she is excited to get started.

Bond, a 2021 Nodaway Valley graduate, takes over for her own high school head coach, Allie Kiburz, who returned to the role in 2025 for one season.

“It’s definitely a full-circle moment, being a part of this program and now building off of what Allie Kiburz has laid,” Bond said. “I plan to just keep up what Allie has started and keep building off of that and building the girls up.”

The Wolverines won 11 matches last year, the most the program had won since going 15-15 during the 2021 season. They also won a postseason match over West Central Valley.

In the not-too-distant past, the Wolverines won 20 or more matches in Bond’s junior and senior seasons. Bond remains the program’s career leader in kills per set, 2.58; career kills, 779; and career blocks, 156.

Because she is tall, Bond said volleyball came naturally to her, and she is excited to help others, through her new role, to make small adjustments needed to be even more successful. The Wolverines will be young next fall, but that does not scare Bond.

“We have to allow the younger kids to trust the process and follow after the older girls,” Bond said. “We also have to believe. Last season we changed things up from previous years, and it was new to them. We had a lot of girls swapping positions to find the best fit for those girls. I think it’s really neat to be able to say that we have a lot of girls who are very versatile.”

Winning in volleyball often depends on being the team that makes the fewest mistakes, and Bond hopes her team will come together, support each other and build momentum with one another.

“I feel like our girls are pretty strong in that now, coming from losing seasons to more winning seasons,” Bond said. “They’ve stuck it out and have that mental mindset of, ‘We can get this done!’ I want to continue to build that because volleyball is a game of mistakes.”

Bond will be assisted by Courtney Woodcock and Mikayla Ribble, a new coach who was a setter at Central College.