After five seasons at the helm for Northwest College volleyball, coach Scott Keister is leaving. He recently announced his resignation from the position and the college has since posted the position for Trapper volleyball head coach.

“It’s something I’ve been thinking about for a while and just wanting to make sure we do the best thing for our family,” Keister said. “I’ve been trying to decide if coaching is a career that I want to continue on, or if it’s time for a change.”

In his career at Northwest, Keister boasted an 86-62 record, leading the Trappers beginning with the 2020 Covid season while finding a way to rebuild the program.

“I’ve been reflecting on the last five years. I keep going back to my first year and a half to two years here, and so incredibly grateful for the kids that jumped into the program at that time because it was a losing program. And they jumped on a sinking ship so to speak, and turned it around,” Keister said. “Not that there weren’t good kids in the last three years, but it took a pretty special thing in that first year, especially not only trying to turn a program around to make it win again, which they did, but they did it through Covid and all that.”

Over three of the last four years, the Trappers have finished with 20 win seasons, while also being one of the top teams off the court academically, making the Academic All-American team’s list all five years.

“It’s kind of fun to look back on the last five years here and the stuff that we’ve done,” Keister said. “We had three 20 win seasons, and we had I don’t know how many Academic All Americans. We were an NJCAA All-Academic every year that I was here. There’s a lot of accomplishments we had along the way.”

Keister said he is primarily stepping down for his family, and will be searching for a new position whether it be in coaching or not while leaving a community that helped embrace that same family five years ago.

“It’s going to be bittersweet, because we know it’s the right decision for our family, but it’s a tough one also. We’ve made a lot of good friends here and it’s going to be sad to leave them,” Keister said. “Just taking a step back for personal reasons and focusing on our family and making sure our family is good right now.”

He said that the family will remain here through the end of the school year with the graduation of his daughter Sophie, before deciding on their next step over the summer.

NWC Athletic Director Brian Erickson was glad to have Keister at Northwest.

“We’re appreciative of his time here and wish him the best of luck,” Erickson said. “He always had teams that competed on the court and had great kids in the classroom.”

The process for finding a new head coach is in full swing, with the job being posted nationally and likely being open for just over two more weeks before closing.

Erickson said they will then begin interviews, and hopefully have a new hire for the position in four to five weeks.