Faith sets the foundation for Providence coach’s 25 years of success
One of the great joys of Terri Purichia’s 25 year of coaching at Our Lady of Providence High School in Clarksville has been sharing seasons and special moments with her three daughters, Maggie, Anna and Grace. Here, she shares a hug with Grace after the team won Indiana’s 3A state championship in 2022. (Submitted photo)
By John Shaughnessy
One of the most telling points concerning the way we view our lives comes in the answer we give to this question:
“How do you measure success?”
For coaches, there are always the first-reaction measures of the scoreboard and the win-loss record—a reality that Terri Purichia knows from her 25 years of coaching girls’ volleyball at Our Lady of Providence High School in Clarksville.
Considering that she has led the program to four state championships and that she is closing in on 700 wins against just a little more than 200 losses, Purichia has clearly achieved those measures of success.
Yet her answer to the question about success goes much deeper.
In one part, it involves the joy she’s had in coaching the three daughters she has with her husband of 25 years, Jeff, including the 2019 season when Maggie, Anna and Grace all played varsity together.
Even more so, it involves how her Catholic faith has guided her life and the approach she has strived to bring to all the players in the Providence girls’ volleyball program.
“I think my faith impacts everything I do, so that is certainly a stamp on my coaching,” Purichia says. “I feel that I’m a role model. When you are a coach at Providence, part of your ministry is to impart your faith and your leadership in empowering young women to be wonderful people—to be strong and beautiful and have confidence in themselves.
“I really take that part of my job very seriously. I think that has just been molded for me by my strong faith. I also just look at everything through a mother’s lens—how I want my daughters to feel, how I want my daughters to be treated, and how I want my daughters to be empowered. Because I truly do believe that I have a love for all these girls as if they’re my daughters. For 25 plus years, that’s how I’ve gone about my business.”
Purichia shared that insight in a lengthy conversation with The Criterion about her 25 years as a coach at Providence. Here is an edited version of that conversation.
Q. You graduated from Providence in 1990. You started coaching there in 1998, and you’re a teacher there. Talk about what makes the Providence community so special for you.
A. “I like to call myself ‘a super senior’—a senior who never really graduates. I adored this community as a student, and I have loved every second of it as a coach, a teacher and a parent. It’s just filled with so many wonderful people. To be surrounded by so many wonderful people who love you and would do anything in the world for you is just very special and has enriched my life in so many ways.”
Q. What does it mean to you to have coached the sport you love at the school you love for 25 years?
A. “That is very hard to put into words. I loved Providence so much as a student and I had such a great experience that when I became the coach, I just wanted to do everything that I could to make sure my players felt the same way about Providence that I did. I wanted to give them the very best experience that I possibly could. That’s the goal, year in and year out.”
Q. What are some of the principles at the heart of the program?
A. “We wear a gray practice T-shirt every day that says, ‘Property of Providence Volleyball’ on the front, and on the back, it says, ‘Commitment to Excellence.’ I believe that is the underlying thread of our program. We’re trying to commit ourselves to be excellent in every facet of our lives. Excellent teammates, excellent people, excellent volleyball players.
“Secondly, you have to be a good teammate to be a part of this. You have to be willing to be selfless and think about others. It isn’t always easy to recognize that sometimes my needs don’t take precedent over what the needs of the team are. But that is a really big piece of why we have been successful—being selfless and realizing that the team comes first. I certainly think we have a group of people who believe in that. It’s such a family.”
Q. One of the program’s traditions is what you call “the circle of love.” Talk about that.
A. “Every day at practice, we wrap our team in a circle in the middle of the gym floor. We’ve done that forever. That is where we have our opening prayer. We talk about different things. When we talk about leadership, we talk about leading with love. And that when you lead with love, you typically don’t make mistakes. It’s hard to do at times, but it’s definitely the best way for us to be able to show how we care about each other.
“We’ve titled that circle ‘the circle of love.’ It’s where we have our good times. It’s where we share bad times. And that’s where we talk about serious things. That’s where we laugh, and that’s sometimes where we cry. We talk a lot about when you have a circle, you’re bound together by strength. When we’re in that circle, we lock arms. That forms a bond that can’t be broken. All those little things together are our circle of love.”
Q. As part of your 25 years, Providence has been the Class 2A state champions in 2013 and 2014, and the Class 3A state champions in 2015 and 2022. Talk about them in the context of the 25 years.
A. “Definitely our state championship runs have been very special. But it’s never been about championships for me, ever, ever. Have they been nice? Oh yes, they’re so wonderful. And those are experiences I’ll never be able to put into words how special they are. But there’s been years when we’ve lost sectionals, and those kids have had phenomenal seasons because of all the great things we’re trying to pour into them on a daily basis.
“That to me is my most important job. When I know I’ve done my job is when they come back later and say, ‘Thank you. You instilled something in me that has made me better at my job, better at being a mother or a wife, or as a leader in my community.’ ”
Q. What’s it been like to share this experience with your three daughters?
A. “Those were really special years for me. There was only one season—2019—where I had all three of my girls at the same time. Grace was a freshman, Anna a junior and Maggie a senior. So that was a really special year for me. Having three girls grow up in the volleyball program, not only do you get to coach them, you get to coach all of their friends. That was a really special group because I knew those kids so well. And I just loved them.
“I’m the kind of person who pours my heart and soul into this, and I feel that way with my players. I feel they’re my daughters, and I feel like they know they can count on me. And that if they needed me for anything, even outside of volleyball, I would show up for them.
“A lot of people thought that once my kids were gone, that could be a time for me to retire. But I still have so much love and pride for this program that there’s no place I’d rather be.”
Q. This year’s team has been ranked as the fourth best overall in the state, and second in Class 3A. What stands out to you about this year’s team?
A. “I have 10 seniors. Most of them have played as sophomores. They’re very talented. They’re wonderful kids. They’re great students as well—leaders on and off the court. We’re really enjoying the efforts we have put into bonding our relationships for three years. It’s very special for them because they’re all really close as a group, and they’re close to us as a staff. It’s just been a really good year.”
Q. When you look back across these 25 years, what are some of the main thoughts that run through your mind?
A. “Just the amount of dedication that people put into making our program so successful. It’s just something everyone pours their whole heart and soul into.
“I could never do any of this without my coaches. They’re not only great coaches, but they’re also just such amazing role models for these players. And they’re some of my best friends. I consider them my family.
“I care about the people in my program so much. I’m just really blessed, and I’m so, so proud of what we have done down here. I’m just so proud to be a part of it.” †
