New Trier to celebrate 50th Anniversary of first-ever IHSA Girls Volleyball State Championship on Sept. 16

In 1974, the New Trier Girls' Volleyball team captured the first-ever Girls' Volleyball State Championship in IHSA history. The New Trier Athletic Department is celebrating the 50th anniversary of this historic win with a medal ceremony and trophy presentation on Monday, Sept. 16, in the Winnetka Campus Main Gym (385 Winnetka Ave) between the junior varsity (5 p.m.) and varsity games (6 p.m.) against Maine South High School. Community members, current and former staff, and alumni are invited to attend.

The 1974-1975 New Trier Girls’ Volleyball team was led by Head Coach Bonnie Beach, who also served as a teacher, adviser, department chair, and head coach for field hockey and badminton. She led the unification of two separate boys' and girls' physical education departments, creating what is known today as the New Trier Kinetic Wellness Department. Beach also served as a member of the IHSA Advisory Committee for Volleyball and won the Women's Sports Foundation National Award in 1990.

The team’s Assistant Coach Lee Kennicke’s tenure at New Trier spanned 30 years, during which she served as an assistant coach, head coach, department chair, and Assistant Athletic Director. Kennicke created and led New Trier's Student-Athlete Leadership Team (S.A.L.T.), and was New Trier’s first head coach for girls’ swimming and diving, track and field, and badminton. She captured three State titles in badminton and was inducted into the Illinois High School Badminton Hall of Fame in 2023.

Known as pioneers of Title IX who paved the way for female athletes across the nation, Beach and Kennicke co-founded the Illinois Coaches Association for Girls' and Women's Sports in 1977, and Beach served as the association’s first president. Both we inducted into the 2018-2019 New Trier Athletic Department Hall of Honor.