Havili brings coaching experience from Purdue, Miami and Abilene Christian. Photo courtesy of Butler Athletics.

NHU-HAN BUI | SPORTS CO-EDITOR | hbui@butler.edu 

When volleyball assistant coach Ainise Havili first started playing the sport, it was because of her older sister. Havili followed in her footsteps, also playing as a setter, and the rest is history.

Havili’s college career was nothing short of stellar. Her time at Kansas saw the Jayhawks make the NCAA Tournament every year, including a semi-final appearance in 2015. Havili owns the all-time records for career assists and double-doubles with 5,255 and 63, respectively. Her number was retired in 2022, and she was inducted into the Kansas Athletics Hall of Fame the following year.

Head coach Kyle Shondell lauds her as one of the best setters in modern college volleyball.

“[Havili is] probably one of the top-five setters in the last decade or so of women’s college volleyball,” Shondell said. “It’d be like, ‘how did you know Paige Bueckers?’, but in the volleyball world, that’s Ainise. She’s big time. She was a four-time All-American, three-time Big 12 Setter of the Year, all those things.”

Following a stint on Arizona’s beach volleyball team in 2019, Havili went overseas, playing in Sweden, Germany and Turkey. However, the season length led to extended stretches away from home. 

“When you go overseas, it’s for nine months out of the year, so it’s just a long period of time,” Havili said. “It took a mental toll, and after about three years, I just decided that the benefits didn’t outweigh the cost of me spending so much time in Europe, so I decided to start my coaching career. My first coaching job collegiately was [actually] for Shondell’s father [Dave Shondell] up at Purdue.”

Havili returned to the United States in 2022, where she joined Purdue’s staff as a volunteer assistant coach before splitting the 2023-24 season at Miami and Abilene Christian in a full-time role.

When the Pro Volleyball Federation — now known as Major League Volleyball — started its inaugural season in 2024, Havili returned to the court as a player. She was on the Vegas Thrill’s roster before signing with the Indy Ignite the following year.

After being part of Ignite’s debut season, which saw the team finish as runner-ups to the Orlando Valkyries, Havili had the opportunity to continue both coaching and playing.

“I signed with the Indy Ignite, had a great season for our inaugural year and knew I wanted to [keep] coaching just because I loved it, and also [because] the opportunity was still there [to] do both, which is kind of rare for a professional athlete,” Havili said. “I wanted to stay in the area after re-signing and just happened to know a head coach, so I reached out and asked if he was looking [or] if he was interested, and it kind of just worked out from there.”

Shondell and Havili got to know each other through Shondell’s time working as Purdue volleyball’s radio play-by-play announcer a few years prior to his arrival at Butler.

The news of Havili signing with the Ignite came at a perfect time for Shondell, as he needed a new member on his staff who could provide support for the setters. 

“I traveled with [Purdue] everywhere they went, so Ainise and I got to know each other well and became pretty good friends,” Shondell said. “When I saw that she was going to sign here, I’m like, ‘I gotta reach out,’ because our third assistant [Grace Cleveland] — also from the Ignite — decided she wanted to step away from volleyball completely. [Since we have] a young setter in [first-year] Sarah [Kempf] and [junior setter] Kaylee [Finnegan] stepping [into] a new role this year, we needed somebody stable [who] can explain and train that position really well. Ainise was the perfect fit.”

Havili works closely with Kempf and Finnegan during practices and brings a unique perspective as a coach who still plays professionally. While focusing on the physical side is important, Havili makes sure to emphasize the mental aspect of the game just as much.

“She’s definitely taught us that we can’t make everything perfect, and that’s a big thing you have to remember [as a setter],” Kempf said. “It’s hard because you want to get every ball just right, but every hitter and every pass that you’re going to set off of is different. She’s helped us to remember [that] in live play when tensions are high, and there’s a lot going on [by saying things] like, ‘It’s okay, everything can’t be perfect. Just keep doing what you know how to do, and then everything else will follow, and people will do well.’”

Havili feels that her ability to be both a coach and a player helped her bond with the team, especially since she arrived only two months before the start of Butler’s season.

“I think it’s a great way to connect with the players,” Havili said. “I can actually say, ‘I understand how you’re feeling,’ because I’m [still a player] right now. It gives me perspective [and] patience. I think it just allows me to kind of not think how they do, but understand where their ideas are coming from [and] where [their] thought process might be.”

Another perk of having a professional player on staff is the connections they bring. With the arrival of pro volleyball in the United States and the Ignite just up the road in Fishers, Shondell feels that Havili provides the players with a pathway to the professional world.

“Every year that I’ve been here, we’ve had an Indy Ignite athlete on our staff,” Shondell said. “I think it’s really great for our athletes to see, because if you want to play professional volleyball, you don’t have to go to Italy, Turkey [or] Croatia. You can go to Indiana, Columbus or Dallas. So if that was something one of our athletes wanted to pursue, having somebody on staff [who’s] done that is super helpful. And as the recruiting world changes, [we have] a local team that’s got their eyes on us at all times. Her new staff at the Ignite have been here once or twice already [at] practice and matches.”

With the Bulldogs’ season running from August to December and the Ignite’s going from January to May, Havili is surrounded by volleyball year-round. While constantly being immersed in one sport can be exhausting, Havili has learned to embrace it.

“My professional season ended in May, and I said, ‘I’m not touching a ball for a whole month,’” Havili said. “I went on vacation to Hawaii, and [after seeing a] volleyball [for the first time], I was like, ‘let’s go to the beach and play.’ So, yeah, I get tired of it, but it’s just ingrained in me now. It’s part of my life, I can never run too far from it.”

Holding both coach and player roles has only made Havili better on both sides. Her experience as a player allows her to relate to the team and give them first-hand experience, while her coaching career has opened her eyes to new aspects of the game.

“I’ve learned so many different philosophies, styles and techniques of playing the game since I started coaching,” Havili said. “I [said] that I was open to [those styles] when I was a player, but maybe I wasn’t so open until I started coaching and understood that athletes really don’t [listen] sometimes. So now, when I go and I play again, I’m just a lot more coachable after understanding what coachability really looks like.”