Life Coach
When Diane Geist started her volleyball coaching career at Knoch High School more than three decades ago, she was intense.
Almost too intense.
Always demanding and at times ruthless, she didn't pull punches.
“I was really tough when I first started,” Geist said. “If they weren't passing the ball, I'd yell, 'Go run the track!' They'd come back in, 'It's snowing, coach.' I'd kick people out of the gym. Kelly Meyers, who went on to play at (The University of Pittsburgh), I remember kicking her out of the gym. They all friend me on Facebook later. There are a few who probably don't care for me much.”
Geist has built more than just a winning tradition at Knoch.
Several of her current and former players and students say Geist shaped them into the women they are today.
“Coach Geist was just as tough on the court as she was off the court,” said Sarah Armahizer, an outside hitter who helped the Knights win a PIAA Class 3A title during her senior year in 2017 under Geist. “She taught me about volleyball just as much as she taught me how to be morally right.
“Looking back, I always was so scared of disappointing or upsetting her,” Armahizer added. “Now that I have grown, I realize she just truly wanted the best for us girls. She didn't just create WPIAL and state champions, she created successful, respectable women.”
Not long after she began coaching, she went back to school to earn her teaching certificate.
She already had a degree in fine arts from Indiana University of Pennsylvania.
She taught just about every age group imaginable in art until she retired last year. She taught many different disciplines, from painting to drawing to even cartooning.
“There were some kids who came through where you were just, 'Wow.' There were so many kids who could really draw and learned painting really quick,” Geist said. “I had a lot of kids who would be good at a lot of things. It was neat to see them really blossom.”
Through it all, Geist was still stern as a coach. That changed when her son, Zane — now 26 — was born.
“When I had my son, I definitely mellowed out some because these are these people's babies,” Geist said. “It changed me.”
Not much has changed the way her current and former players think of her.
Hannah Rowe didn't always know where the ball was going.Blessed with superior leaping ability and a strong right arm that she swung at a volleyball with uncommon speed and malice, Rowe just needed someone to rein her in.That someone was Geist.Rowe was a key player as a sophomore on Knoch's state title team. She went on to star for the next two season, helping Knoch to three consecutive WPIAL championships.But it's what Geist did for Rowe off the court that she will remember most.“She is so much more than just a coach,” said Rowe, who is a freshman on the University at Albany. “She was always a person I could talk to about anything, serious or not. I never had a problem opening up to her at any point and still wouldn't hesitate to reach out if I needed her.”Kennedy Christy, who was also a sophomore with Rowe on that Knights' state championship team in 2017, said part of Geist's charm was her off-beat sense of humor.She can be tough, but can also make her team laugh.“She had a goofy personality that always made me laugh and enjoy practice every day,” said Christy, who is a freshman on the Juniata women's volleyball team. “She will always be one of my all-time favorite coaches.”Geist also started a tradition of sorts.Pancakes.
When a player dove and slid a hand across the floor to keep a ball from hitting, keeping a point alive — called a pancake — that meant pancakes in her classroom the next morning.It's one of the little things that have endeared Geist to all of her teams over a 33-year coaching career.And counting.“Coach Geist has taught me everything I know about volleyball,” said Knoch senior outside hitter Quinn Hughes. “As a young player, she saw my potential and worked me hard to get me to where I am today.”And then there's Meyers.Now Coffield — her daughter, Ellie, is a standout senior soccer player for the undefeated and nationally-ranked Mars girls soccer team.Coffield recalls the incident when she was booted from the gym.“She was tough, but that's what I loved most about her,” Coffield said. “She had high expectations and held you to them. I always wanted to make her proud. She knew how to motivate me — which might have included kicking me out of the gym once — and she taught me what it meant to really compete.”And to think, Geist didn't really like volleyball all that much when she was in high school.“I thought it was kind of a wimpy sport,” Geist said.
Geist's volleyball career began on a dare.When Geist was a junior at Freeport High School, she and her friend, sophomore Carol Perroz, dared each other to go out for the volleyball team.Geist curled her lip and initially balked, but decided a challenge was a challenge.“I said, 'OK, I'll do it if you do it,'” Geist said.Turns out Geist was a natural at it and she quickly grew to love it.Two years later, the 1979 Freeport graduate was excelling as a setter at IUP.Little did she know at the time, a long career in volleyball was burgeoning.Geist was recently inducted into the Armstrong County Sports Hall of Fame — all because she took that dare so many years ago.“I think at the time probably basketball was my first love,” Geist said. “I always played softball. You have to remember, there were no little leagues, no junior high sports for girls back then. I had to learn everything in high school.“When I went to college, I didn't feel very confident about trying out,” Geist added. “I missed one of the (volleyball) tryouts and then I was walking on campus one day and the senior captain of the team recognized me and stopped me. She asked me, 'Where were you?' I was surprised she knew who I was, so I went and tried out.”She grew to love the sport.Her coaching career has seen successful season after successful season pile up.There was always something missing, however.A WPIAL title.That finally came in 2017. A PIAA crown came shortly after it.Two more WPIAL championships have followed, including one last fall.This season was a rebuilding one for Geist and Knoch. After a 1-4 start, the Knights finished 6-9 with a team short on experience.“A lot of people asked me why I didn't retire last year, go out with three WPIALs in a row,” Geist said. “That's not why I got into it in the first place. I wanted to see it through with these girls.”Geist almost walked away from coaching in 1999.She was growing more and more frustrated with being lumped into the same section with big schools in the WPIAL because there were only two volleyball classes.“It was getting tough and I was just about ready to hang it up,” Geist said.But in 2000, the state expanded from two to three classes and Knoch was no longer thrown into the same section with the perennial titans.Geist decided to stay on as coach.She has no designs on giving it up anytime soon.“I don't know — I still enjoy it,” Geist said. “I'm not going to say it's not frustrating — it can be at times — but I still like it.”
