Former Missouri State University-West Plains Grizzly Volleyball Head Coach Paula Wiedemann has been selected for induction to the Missouri Sports Hall of Fame with the Class of 2024.
Wiedemann, who retired after 26 years at MSU-WP, will join her fellow honorees at the Missouri Sports Hall of Fame enshrinement ceremony set for 1 p.m. Sunday at the Ozark Empire Fairgrounds in Springfield.
Tickets are $150 per person and available through the Missouri Sports Hall of Fame. Call 417-889-3100 for more information.
“There is no one I know who is more deserving of this honor than Paula Wiedemann,” said MSU-WP Chancellor Dennis Lancaster. “Her name is synonymous with volleyball throughout this region, state and nation. She helped develop the Grizzly Volleyball program into a nationally recognized program, and the impact she has had on her players, her peers and this university will reach well into the future. We extend our heartfelt congratulations to Paula on this wonderful honor.”
Wiedemann joined the Grizzly Volleyball program in 1997 and served as assistant coach to fellow Hall of Fame Head Coach Trish Knight. She became the program’s second head coach in 2009.
During her 26-year tenure with the team, which ended in March 2023, she helped guide the Grizzlies to 19 Region 16 Championships, five district championships and 18 NJCAA national championship tournament appearances, with eight of those teams finishing in the final four. Her final two appearances with the Grizzlies in the national tournament resulted in back-to-back third place finishes.
Wiedemann helped develop 43 NJCAA All-Americans, 133 All-Region 16 players, 61 NJCAA Academic All-Americans and 18 NJCAA Academic Team Award winners, and she has an overall record of 835-286 with the Grizzlies as an assistant coach and head coach.
In addition to her accomplishments with the team, Wiedemann fulfilled various roles with the NJCAA and the American Volleyball Coaches Association (AVCA). She served six years as the NJCAA Region 16 Women’s Assistant Region Director and served on the NJCAA committees for D1 Volleyball, Beach Volleyball and Awards. She spent three years as the NJCAA Volleyball Coaches Association president and was most recently the association’s D1 representative.
Wiedemann also served as the two-year college representative on the AVCA board and on the association’s two-year college head coaches committee and the two-year college awards committee.
She was inducted into the NJCAA Volleyball Coaches Association Hall of Fame in April 2021.
The Jenks, Oklahoma, native played collegiate volleyball for Drury University, becoming the first player to receive NAIA All-American honors (1987, 1988). She left Drury ranked first in career kills and career digs.
She played professionally in 1998 for the Kansas City Lightning of the National Volleyball Association and was a two-time All-American in 1997 and 1998 at the USAV national tournaments.
She began coaching club volleyball for Springfield Juniors in 1988 and has been involved with club teams in the Springfield and West Plains areas for the past 35 years.
