Two names hold the significance of royalty in Delaware County.
The first is Ball. As the namesake of the local university and the name of the family who brought jobs to Muncie in the early 20th century, the Balls have given Delaware County’s biggest city a comfortable spot on any United States map.
The second name has a different long-lasting effect in a state that embraces a rich basketball history. They created a new tradition on the same hardwood floor courts that were meant for a ball and a hoop.
Don Shondell never intended to transform the game of volleyball; in fact, he never meant to have any involvement in athletics until one incident changed it all. A factory accident while working in Fort Wayne, Indiana, paved the way for Don and his three sons, Steve, Dave and John, as pioneers of volleyball not just in Muncie, but in the United States. The accomplishments of Don and his three sons have cemented their family name in the legend and lore of Muncie and American volleyball.
After graduating from high school in Fort Wayne, Don Shondell looked for work wherever he could find it. While making pies in the local bakery for 70 cents an hour, he heard of a more appealing job with General Electric, paying $1.22 an hour cutting granite.
He said he believed General Electric would be where he would spend his life working. The factory had a history of helping individuals climb the corporate ladder year after year, and Shondell planned to be a part of that cycle. However, after an accident inside the walls of the factory, Shondell’s perspective changed forever.
“One of my friends got transferred up, and about a week later, he got three of his fingers cut off,” Don Shondell said. “He was doing manual work around dangerous machines while we were just putting stuff into boxes and putting them onto conveyor belts. As soon as I saw my friend get his fingers cut off, I said, ‘That’s it. I’m out of here.’
“I had a friend I played sports with at church [who went to] Ball State who was trying to get me to come down. After that accident, I decided to go to school at Ball State.”
“I had a friend I played sports with at church [who went to] Ball State who was trying to get me to come down. After that accident, I decided to go to school at Ball State.”
- Don Shondell
With tuition costs around $100, Shondell made the trip an hour south to Muncie. After a month at school, Shondell’s roommate asked him if he wanted to get involved with the volleyball club that had started. Shondell hadn’t even heard of the game. He had experience in basketball and softball but never volleyball; yet, he decided to try.
Three years later, with a little help from some players at the local YMCA, Shondell was a strong setter for the club. Even off the court, Shondell maintained an athletic mindset in becoming a founding member of the fraternity Theta Chi as the athletic director. His years as a student at Ball State gave him the experience, but there was more he wanted to do in growing the game.
After graduating from Ball State in 1952, Shondell joined the military, assigned to Fort Leonard Wood in Missouri. While dedicating years of his life to the red, white and blue, Shondell got his chance to coach and build volleyball at his army base in the Ozarks.
“We had a residential volleyball tournament, and no one knew how to play volleyball,” Shondell said. “The first two weeks, we spent setting the ball, bumping the ball, handling the ball and so forth. We made it to the finals of the tournament where we faced off against officers who had played for years, and we lost.”
After that first tournament, Shondell continued to coach and play with his team, and he eventually picked up on how to find the best players. Former basketball players from the likes of Kansas and DePaul helped guide Shondell’s team to an undefeated finish and a championship in the residential tournament.
Returning to Indiana after his time in the service, Shondell moved to Brook, Indiana, with his wife, teaching fifth grade and coaching basketball. It was at that time he was approached by former Ball State Athletic Director Bob McCall about applying to the job as intramural director. After arriving in Muncie for a job interview, then Ball State President John Emens didn’t beat around the bush.
“I started explaining my background and how I felt pretty qualified,” Shondell said. “[Emens] said, ‘Don't waste your time. Bob wants you to have the job. Do you want the job?’ I said, ‘It would be a real treasure to work at Ball State. That's my dream job.’ He said, ‘OK, you got it.’”
“I started explaining my background and how I felt pretty qualified. [Emens] said, ‘Don't waste your time. Bob wants you to have the job. Do you want the job?’ I said, ‘It would be a real treasure to work at Ball State. That's my dream job.’ He said, ‘OK, you got it.’”
- Don Shondell
McCall pushed Shondell to interview for the job for a reason: He wanted him to restart the Ball State Men’s Volleyball program. It folded a few years after Shondell graduated in 1952. Shondell agreed to help bring the program back but only if he met three personal goals: to show how great of a sport volleyball was, have Ball State become a varsity team and have the NCAA start a men’s tournament.
From the start, Shondell worked to get a college league organized. After talking with coaches at nearby Wittenberg University in Ohio and Michigan State, the three universities created an eight-team league that played its first tournament in East Lansing, Michigan. The name of the league became the Midwest Intercollegiate Volleyball Association, otherwise known as MIVA.
After creating a volleyball presence at Ball State, Shondell’s next step was to spread awareness of the game outside Muncie. Shondell and his team traveled to a fair in Indianapolis where they hosted a clinic to show off the game. These clinics took the team everywhere from Detroit to Pittsburgh. Slowly, Shondell said, he saw more people become interested and involved in the game.
Shondell said his final goal, to create an NCAA Men’s Volleyball Tournament, was more paperwork than anything else. Eventually, in 1970, UCLA hosted the first NCAA Men’s Volleyball Tournament. While Shondell’s efforts proved successful, his team was still young, and the West Coast school was a powerhouse, and it still is.
“UCLA was just a more successful team, and we had gone and gotten our pants beat off,” Shondell said. “They had all those beach players. UCLA and Santa Barbra were just the strongest schools on the West Coast.”
Ball State eventually got the honors of hosting the tournament in 1972, facing the top teams in the nation in what is now the Jo Ann Gora Recreational Center. While the Cardinals lost the tournament, Shondell built something from the ground up. The seeds had been planted. The tree was growing. The only thing left was to strengthen the roots.
After being hired as the intramural director at Ball State and establishing a men’s volleyball program at the school, Don Shondell’s next step was to educate those around him and get them excited about a sport many people didn’t know about.
To spread the word about men’s volleyball, Shondell took his players to various schools in the area to play exhibition games, where his team played a game as Shondell explained it.
“I saw the way the game was being mistreated, and I felt like volleyball should be a respected sport,” Shondell said. “That’s why we did these demonstrations, and we had a great time doing it. We went to places like Winchester, Indiana, for example, and showed how volleyball is an athletic sport.”
While Shondell and the Cardinals continued to spread the game, Shondell still struggled to get men’s volleyball registered as a varsity sport. Shondell said he mainly received pushback from former Athletic Director Robert Primmer, who served Ball State from 1958-70, and former head of Division of Physical Education and Athletics Robert McCall.
“Bob Primmer thought volleyball was a hit and giggle sport,” Don said. “He fought me in any way that he could.”
“Bob Primmer thought volleyball was a hit and giggle sport. He fought me in any way that he could.”
- Don Shondell
When the vote came in 1964, Primmer brought forward a committee he believed would not instate volleyball as a varsity sport. Shondell said up until that time a committee had never been created or used to decide if a sport should receive varsity status or not.
However, Shondell had close connections with those who were voting — a local volleyball player of his, one of his top students and the volleyball coaches from Burris. After Shondell spoke to the committee about volleyball as a sport, the committee, knowing his audience, decided to instate men’s volleyball a varsity sport at the university. From what Shondell remembers, Primmer didn’t take fondly to the decision.
33 Midwest Intercollegiate Volleyball regular season and tournament championships
Six NCAA Final Four Appearances
Six-time MIVA coach of the year
“They put on a big board, that was unmoveable, that the volleyball teams had received varsity status,” Don said. “Bob punched his fist right through that board. He was so mad.”
With an official program now established, Shondell said he moved his efforts to focus on recruitment. Because men’s volleyball wasn’t as popular in the late ’60s, Shondell looked wherever he could to get people for his squad. He said some of the best players he recruited were basketball players who were either cut or didn’t get a lot of playing time.
“The story of our program, in the earliest phase, is coach finding these players on campus,” current Ball State Men’s Volleyball head coach and former player Joel Walton said. “He was finding them in other places, getting them to campus and teaching them how to play the game. Some of those guys, with the athleticism they had, were just remarkable.”
“The story of our program, in the earliest phase, is coach finding these players on campus. He was finding them in other places, getting them to campus and teaching them how to play the game. Some of those guys, with the athleticism they had, were just remarkable.”
- Joel Walton
Shondell held a passion for the game many previous players said was infectious to those on and off the court. After moving from Lincoln, Nebraska, to Indianapolis fresh out of high school, Walton came to Muncie to watch a Ball State game and noticed how much fun the team had. After rejecting an offer to play college volleyball at Graceland College in Iowa, Walton knew he wanted to be a Cardinal.
“I just wanted to do something else, and I dreamed of playing Division I volleyball,” Walton said. “Going up to Ball State and seeing them play, I was really impressed with their team, and it looked like they were having a good time. I saw myself in that environment, and I was excited to become a part of it.”
Part of that passion and having fun was the vibe of knowledge and competition Shondell presented. As a coach, Shondell made a point not to scream or yell but held a calm demeanor.
“He comes across as very calm and a man with a lot of experience who is very down to earth,” Walton said. “He wasn't a yeller or screamer, but once you got to know Don, you knew that there was a competitive spirit burning inside of him. I, for sure, came across that competitive spirit when we weren't playing well as a team on the volleyball court.”
In Shondell’s 19 seasons with the Cardinals, Ball State went 447-98-6, picking up 11 Midwest Intercollegiate Volleyball Association titles along the way. His coaching didn’t go unnoticed, as he picked up six MIVA Coach of the Year acclimations. Shondell also led Ball State to 15 NCAA Tournament Final Four appearances. The Cardinals finished in third place eight times, and the championship was hosted four times in Ball State’s Irving Gymnasium.
“It was a men's program that I grew up with, and, of course, Dad helped lead the team to 15 Final Fours,” said Steve Shondell, Don Shondell’s oldest son. “That was always special to be able to be a part of that. I've just been very, very fortunate that I learned the game at a young age, and it was really interesting.”
“It was a men's program that I grew up with, and, of course, Dad helped lead the team to 15 Final Fours. That was always special to be able to be a part of that. I've just been very, very fortunate that I learned the game at a young age, and it was really interesting.”
- Steve Shondell
Despite the success, the program had continuous problems staying afloat financially. It wasn’t uncommon for the team not to have enough scholarships or enough travel money. The athletic department also continued to challenge Shondell about keeping men’s volleyball as a varsity sport.
Between the late 1970s and early 1980s, Shondell had to present to the board, again, why Ball State should keep the men’s volleyball team. Even after Shondell left the program as head coach, Ball State Athletics continued to threaten Walton with the elimination of scholarships and thousands of dollars in budget cuts to the team. In 2000, former Athletic Director Bubba Cunningham told Walton men’s volleyball was going to be one of six teams cut. However, as he did back in the ’60s, ’70s and ’80s, Shondell fought for his team to stay.
“I was told, ‘Your sport is going,’” Walton said. “Fortunately, Don rallied the alumni, and they wrote letter after letter. People who came from across the United States wrote letters to Ball State saying, ‘You can’t do this. This program has so much history and means so much to so many people.’ The program was saved.”
In 2004, the program lost $10,000 from its budget. Walton said it costs the program around $60,000 to function. Even before Ball State made the budget cuts, the team was fundraising its own money to stay above water.
“We did a golf outing, and we did coaching clinics to fundraise money for the program,” Walton said. “Having so many of our guys that were nationally-known coaches with reputations holding a coaches clinic became a big fundraiser for us. I think that alone raised about $10,000 a year because our alumni were willing to come back, and Don was, at that time, very helpful in organizing and helping run that coaches clinic.”
From the early beginnings to present day, it hasn’t been easy to keep the Ball State Men’s Volleyball program going. However, Shondell has fought for this program like it was one of his own children. Even now, at 91 years old, he can still be seen sitting behind the scoreboard at Worthen Arena. No matter how young or how old, he said, he’s supporting his team any way he can.
From fighting athletic directors, to keep the program alive, to having an entire training facility named after him in 2018, Shondell’s passion for Ball State Volleyball has burned endlessly.
From the age of 5, Steve Shondell remembers being on the courts with his father, Don Shondell. Most of the time, Steve Shondell would hang around practice after school, doing small things to help out while his dad coached the Cardinals.
“I was kind of a huge part of the program because my dad took me to practices, and I swept the chalk off the floor after gymnastics practice,” Shondell said. “Ball Gym was the only gym on campus, so we had basketball, gymnastics and then volleyball come through there. I’ll tell you what, that floor was white with chalk and slicker than a cat’s rear end.
 It was just a great experience growing up.”
Shondell lived and breathed Ball State volleyball. Eventually, he found his way onto the roster. He rode alongside his father for four seasons, winning three Midwest Intercollegiate Volleyball Association (MIVA) titles, finishing third in the 1974 NCAA Men’s Volleyball Tournament and being named Ball State’s co-most valuable player in 1977.
However, similar to his father, it wasn’t his time as a player that made Shondell a part of the legend and lore of volleyball in Delaware County. It’s what he has done off that court as a coach that has given him the title of winningest high school volleyball coach in Indiana and put a little public school in Muncie on the map.
After graduating from Ball State in 1977, Shondell was set on taking a physical education job at New Castle High School. That was until he was approached by Burris Laboratory School’s girls’ athletic director about continuing as Burris’ girls’ volleyball coach. In his last semester of college, Shondell received special permission from his father to step in as the interim coach after the head coach left in the middle of the season.
“That athletic director went to the principal and demanded that a position be made for me after I graduated,” Shondell said. “I didn’t have a class to teach until 10 a.m., and I was done at 1 p.m., teaching four or five P.E. classes. I ended up staying for 34 years, and in a little school of 200 students, we became the most successful high school program in the country.”
Shondell’s run at Burris was unmatched. In his time at the school, the Owls won a record 21 IHSAA Volleyball State Championships from 1982-2010, including 13 straight from 1997-2010. The Owls were the best team in the country four separate times throughout the ’90s and early 2000s and finished seven seasons undefeated.
Similar to his father, Shondell hadn’t lost more than 100 games at Burris, going 1,183-95 in his first tenure with the Owls. He said the key to turning a small school into a volleyball powerhouse is familiarity in coaching and relationships. To increase that sense of familiarity in coaching, Shondell pushed his players to become a part of Munciana.
The Munciana program, created by Shondell in 1974, started out as a junior program for volleyball players to participate outside of school-sanctioned programs. The first group, made up of 12 players from Northside High School, took seventh in nationals. From there, Shondell’s program, with support from his father and brothers, began to snowball into one of the most successful junior volleyball programs in the country.
Seeing the Munciana program take off through the success of the Northside players who were part of it, Shondell knew his team at Burris needed to join as well to be successful.
“Once my girls started playing Munciana, finally after five seasons, we won our sectional and made it to the Final Four in State for the first time,” Shondell said. “We had finally broken through the stranglehold Muncie Northside High School had on us because they had Munciana players those first four to five years. After I started getting the Burris players to play at Munciana, it just snowballed from there.”
“After I started getting the Burris players to play at Munciana, it just snowballed from there.”
- Steve Shondell
A lesson Shondell learned from his father in coaching is to enjoy the game and stay positive. Success within the squad can be broken down into having good chemistry.
“I try to do my best to be a positive coach, to make my players believe in themselves [and] play with confidence because playing with confidence is so important,” Shondell said. “You have to believe in your players. If your players don't think they believe in you, they'll never become all they can be.”
Along with Shondell, current Ball State Men’s Volleyball coach Joel Walton was also part of the powerhouse that was Burris. Walton said Shondell’s lighthearted attitude gave him the chance to succeed and prove himself at a strong Burris program.
21 IHSAA Volleyball State Titles, the winningest coach in IHSAA history
Four National Championships with Burris
Two Mid-American Conference Championships
Two NCAA Tournament Bids
“Steve gave me this girl one day in practice and said, ‘Joel, I want you to go and work with her on her passing,’” Walton said. “I go, and I'm giving this girl some passing repetitions. I'm looking at what I see as really great passing technique — good feet, good platform, nice and stable. I'm wondering how in the world does Steve expect me to improve what this girl is doing?
“That was kind of the magic of Steve. He's so good at enlisting people to be a part of his organization, making them feel like they're valued. Giving them responsibilities, maybe beyond even what they're comfortable with, but seeing that they're going to be able to handle those responsibilities just fine.”
“That was kind of the magic of Steve. He's so good at enlisting people to be a part of his organization, making them feel like they're valued. Giving them responsibilities, maybe beyond even what they're comfortable with, but seeing in them and ability that they're going to be able to handle those responsibilities just fine.”
- Joel Walton
After finding decades of success, then-Ball State Athletic Director Tom Collins approached Shondell about coaching Ball State’s women’s team. Prior to Shondell’s arrival at Ball State, the team was 65-90 from 2005-09 and coming off a 15-win season. In his first year taking over the program, Shondell guided the Cardinals to a 24-5 finish.
“Tom Collins just wanted me to try to turn it around and put a couple more banners in Worthen Arena, of which we did,” Shondell said. “The first year, we actually won the conference championship after being picked to finish dead last. We were 14-2-1.”
In his time with the Cardinals, Shondell amassed a 199-68 record, bringing in a Mid-American Conference Regular Season Championship in 2010 and an NCAA Women’s Volleyball Tournament appearance in 2011 off of a 24-7 finish. He finished with a record of 119-68 with the Cardinals.
Shondell brought the same lighthearted approach, which helped him transfer success from Burris to Ball State, and current Ball State Women’s Volleyball head coach Kelli Miller Phillips noticed. Before stepping into the head coaching position, she spent time as an assistant coach under Shondell.
Miller Phillips, who was brought up through the intense style of Shondell’s brother, Dave Shondell, at Muncie Central and Purdue, learned how to balance her coaching style with techniques she learned from the two brothers.
“They are similar in that their philosophy is the same that we teach volleyball, we teach competing culture and gym environment is really, really important,” Miller Phillips said. “Steve is very, very soft-spoken, not going to raise his voice. He is going to inspire you through confidence building and positive thoughts. He’s very, very patient when helping you to get through it.
“They are similar in that their philosophy is the same that we teach volleyball, we teach competing culture and gym environment is really, really important. Steve is very, very soft-spoken, not going to raise his voice. He is going to inspire you through confidence building and positive thoughts. He’s very, very patient when helping you to get through it.
- Miller Phillips
“My natural instinct is a little bit more similar to Steve's patience. I think [he has] a really good balance, and it helped me learn a ton about how you can approach things in completely different ways and still have success.”
Steve Shondell left Ball State in 2016, handing the program over to Miller Phillips. However, he was not out of the game for long. In 2019, Shondell returned to Burris as head coach for the first time in nine seasons. The Owls went 26-7, eventually losing in the sectional championship to host Bellmont High School.
Now 67 years old, Shondell has dealt with some roadblocks in his return to coaching. He has to deal with Spasmodic Torticollis, a rare neck disorder in which neck muscles contract sporadically. However, that hasn’t hindered the passion he’s had since age 5.
“You make money coaching college volleyball; in high school, you don't,” Shondell said, “High school coaches have to do it for the love of the sport, love of the team and so forth. That's basically what I'm doing.”
While Steve Shondell’s earliest memories of the game of volleyball originate on the floor, his brother Dave Shondell’s memories come from riding in a green limousine. For years, Shondell and his brother rode to away games in a stretch limousine to watch their dad, Don Shondell, coach all over the Midwest.
“Because Steve and I weren’t that big, we were able to fit into those places and not cause too much disruption,” Dave Shondell said. “I can still remember going to places like St. John Arena at Ohio State. There weren't a lot of college teams. We’d go to the Dayton YMCA or the Fort Wayne YMCA and watch the team play. I can still remember those trips pretty clearly.”
Shondell grew up playing the game like his brother. He played in tournaments throughout middle school and high school, winning the state tournament with Muncie Northside High School.
Eventually, Shondell also moved on to play for his dad at Ball State. However, Shondell’s career was different from his brother’s. He wasn’t a standout or the star player. He had to work for the top spot, and it wasn’t easy.
“When I was there, we had several other setters on the roster who were all three equal, and my dad made it pretty clear that I was going to have to be clearly better than them to play,” Shondell said. “Because of the talent of those other players and because of back-to-back third degree ankle sprains that I had as a sophomore and junior, my career never really came to fruition the way that I had hoped.”
With a complicated college career on and off the court, dealing with injuries and getting married at 21, Shondell focused on things outside of volleyball. However, the sense of competitiveness, handed down by his father, was still in everything he did. He saw the success his dad and brother had, and Shondell knew he wanted to match it, so he took a job as head coach at Daleville High School in Daleville, Indiana, out of college.
“It was really beneficial to have the success of my dad and brother driving me,” Shondell said. “Steve and my dad, but mostly Steve, were having a lot of success, and at a similar moment, I took the job at Daleville High School out of college. I wanted to make that program special. I wanted to be successful and prove what we could do.”
“It was really beneficial to have the success of my dad and brother driving me. Steve and my dad, but mostly Steve, were having a lot of success, and at a similar moment, I took the job at Daleville High School out of college. I wanted to make that program special. I wanted to be successful and prove what we could do.”
- Dave Shondell
Before starting as a coach, Shondell took advice from his family — Steve Shondell allowed him to watch how he ran the Burris program, and Don Shondell told him to be a genuine educator in the position.
Right off the bat, Dave Shondell made an impact at the little school 20 minutes southwest of Ball State. From 1981-88, Shondell amassed a record of 167-63 with the Broncos and put them in the top five rankings for the first time in school history. It was a complete turnaround from what the program was before he stepped in.
“The most matches I think they'd ever won was six before I came in,” Shondell said. “I was able to come in at a time when they had what I thought were some pretty good athletes, and our first year, we went 12-6. From there, we got the ball rolling. Before we knew it, we were breaking into the top five rankings in a single class system. We actually knocked off the No. 1 ranking school in the country that year. That would have been Steve’s team, Muncie Burris.”
That win over Burris and Steve Shondell felt like the road to victory was complete for Dave Shondell and his Daleville squad. He remembers sitting at a team bonfire and getting the sense that all of his work was paying off. They had knocked off the kingpin of Indiana high school volleyball, but Steve Shondell and his Owls weren’t going away anytime soon.
Four IHSAA Volleyball State Titles with Muncie Central
14 NCAA Tournament appearances with Purdue
Two NCAA Tournament Elite 8 appearances
2011 Big 10 Coach of the Year
The competition between the two brothers burned even hotter when Dave Shondell accepted a job at Muncie Central, 1.7 miles away from Burris. The two swapped No. 1 and No. 2 year after year, set to play each other in the state playoffs.  Unfortunately, their rivalry had consequences.
“We were very competitive in our relationships at times,” Shondell said. “Even though we are a very, very tight family and love each other tremendously ... I think the worst of it was when Steve was at Burris, and I was at Muncie Central, and we were several times No. 1 and No. 2 ranked teams in the state.
“We were very competitive in our relationships at times. Even though we are a very, very tight family and love each other tremendously ... I think the worst of it was when Steve was at Burris, and I was at Muncie Central, and we were several times No. 1 and No. 2 ranked teams in the state.
- Dave Shondell
“When your brother, who's the most successful coach in the history of Indiana high school sports, is your measuring stick, and you can get close to that, that's a good thing. Those are all great stories that we can look back on, but at the time, it certainly created some animosity over Thanksgiving dinner.”
Shondell had tremendous success at “that school on the other side of the river,” as Steve Shondell called it. Central took home the state titles in 1998, 1999, 2000 and 2003.
One player who was part of that run was current Ball State Women’s Volleyball head coach Kelli Miller Phillips. Winning the state title in 2003 was just a part of her long history playing for Dave Shondell. She started playing for him at Munciana at 12 years old. She also played for him at Northside Middle School and at Central for two years.
 “You’re part of this tradition at Muncie Central, this whole Delaware County environment of great volleyball. I think it just really inspired everyone to just want to be better than the year before.  You’re part of this tradition at Muncie Central, this whole Delaware County environment of great volleyball. I think it just really inspired everyone to just want to be better than the year before. That's tough because we had really good teams the year before, but it was just really special to play at that time.”
- Miller Phillips
In 2003, Shondell went out for the head coaching job at Purdue and was named the new head coach of the Boilermakers. Alongside his brother John Shondell, who had a successful career at New Castle before joining the Purdue team as an assistant, the two created a winning culture in West Lafayette. With the Boilermakers finishing at 3-37 prior to the Shondell brothers’ arrival. In the last 16 seasons, they have clinched 14 NCAA Tournament berths along with two Elite Eight appearances.
In a similar fashion to Daleville, Dave Shondell’s push to build a successful program has made the Boilermakers a Big 10 powerhouse.
“Getting invested in what you're doing and then finding a way to get more and more people invested in the same purpose is key into growing a program,” Shondell said. “Whether it was at Daleville, or Central, or Purdue, or for Steve at Burris, or for John at New Castle, Indiana, or for my dad at Ball State — it’s about having that vision, and that drive, and daily purpose and what you're doing every day you wake up.”
That sense of drive and doing more every day is what brought Shondell to the place he is today. His competitiveness in every aspect of his life is what has pushed him and what has pushed others like Miller Phillips, who followed him to Purdue after high school.
“Dave had a vision, and he would talk about it all the time,” Miller Phillips said. “We would know what we needed to do to get to the Final Four at the start of the year. We would have that vision in mind. He just has a way of motivating and keeping your vision on the big picture. You could just tell. I knew him, so it wasn't that I even had a worry about that. I just knew he was a competitor, and he was going to go fight and call to make Purdue back on the map.”
The age gap between John Shondell and his two older brothers, Steve and Dave Shondell, is pretty large. When he was a toddler, John Shondell would hang around his brothers’ high school practices. By the time he was 10, Shondell was already watching his brothers compete alongside his father, Don Shondell, at Ball Gymnasium.
“They were a great bunch of guys to be around, and with my brothers on the team, it really gave me more of a valued interest into what was going on,” John Shondell said.  It always meant a lot to me, and it was great being around that.”
As there was a sizable age gap, Shondell was very much a part of the success of his dad and brother’s coaching. Shondell was a product of the Munciana program, created by Steve Shondell in the early ’70s as a junior volleyball developmental program. In his time with Munciana, John Shondell was named the National Most Valuable Player in 1982, 1984 and 1986.
296-87 record at New Castle
1982, 1984, 1986 National Most Valuable Player with Munciana
14 NCAA Tournament appearances with Purdue
Two NCAA Tournament Elite 8 appearances
Following in the footsteps of Steve and Dave Shondell, John Shondell came to Ball State and played for his father's team. During his time at Ball State, he quickly became a part of the success in Ball State’s program, playing as a setter in the 1989 NCAA Tournament Final Four in Los Angeles.
John Shondell went through Ball State’s program and took a coaching job out of college, but he didn’t find instant success like his brothers had. Shondell spent a year at Delta High School, where his team finished with a 31-4 record, and he earned White River Conference Coach of the Year honors. He also spent time as an assistant coach with Steve Shondell at Burris Laboratory School, but John Shondell eventually moved out of Delaware County. He traveled 45 minutes south of Muncie to New Castle, a school in need of a spark.
“[The New Castle program] was a building process,” Shondell said. “My second year, I think we broke the top 25, and in my third year through my 10th year, we ranged from the top five to top 10 in the state ... It took a lot of work to get people going, but once they felt the success we were having, it was kind of a snowball effect.”
“My second year, I think we broke the top 25, and in my third year through my 10th year, we ranged from the top five to top 10 in the state ... It took a lot of work to get people going, but once they felt the success we were having, it was kind of a snowball effect.”
- John Shondell
Getting to New Castle, Shondell instantly focused on the middle schoolers, looking to grow a strong team from a younger age. In the process of building the program, Shondell felt he needed to prove something to the sporting culture at New Castle. In a city that’s home to the Indiana Basketball Hall of Fame, the World's Largest High School Gym and decades upon decades of rich basketball history, there was a push to prove volleyball was just as worthy of a sport.
“It takes awhile to win some people over and show that the volleyball program can actually be serious,” Shondell said. “After about two or three years when those players [I] started working with in fifth, sixth, seventh and eighth grade came into high school, that’s when [I] really started to see the program turn around.”
“It takes awhile to win some people over and show that the volleyball program can actually be serious. After about two or three years when those players [I] started working with in fifth, sixth, seventh and eighth grade came into high school, that’s when [I] really started to see the program turn around.”
- John Shondell
Joining the pre-existing rivalry, Shondell’s team met up with his brothers’ teams from Burris and Muncie Central on the court a few times. For six years, Shondell’s Trojans failed to defeat Muncie Central. However, in 2001, Shondell and his team finally got revenge, beating then-nationally-second-ranked Muncie Central.
“We finally beat him that year, and we ended up going to state finals in 2001,” Shondell said. “Steve wasn’t in our conference, but Dave was in our conference and sectional, which made it much more of a rivalry between us.”
The program went from just another team in Indiana to a modern powerhouse. In his time with the Trojans, Shondell amassed a 296-87 coaching record and pushed the team into a successful future after leaving the program in 2001. Since his departure, the Trojans have won four state titles, including back-to-back titles in 2018 and 2019.
While Shondell created something special at New Castle, he left the high school to serve alongside Dave Shondell, building upon a volleyball culture at Purdue. After John Shondell encouraged his brother to go out for the Purdue head coaching job, Dave Shondell brought him on as an assistant coach. The two have been at the helm together for 17 years in West Lafayette.
In that time, the two have balanced each other out in coaching the Boilermakers. John Shondell said his brother’s weaknesses are his strengths, and his weaknesses are his brother’s strengths. The duo also learned lessons from their father’s coaching strategy in motivating players and making the game an enjoyable experience.
“We tried to make the sport enjoyable by developing positive and productive relationships with players and staff,” Dave Shondell said. “If they come in every day, know that you care about them, that you want what's best for them, that you're going to be fair and honest with them … and you have some fun yourself ... all those things really help.”
“We tried to make the sport enjoyable by developing positive and productive relationships with players and staff. If they come in every day, know that you care about them, that you want what's best for them, that you're going to be fair and honest with them … and you have some fun yourself ... all those things really help.”
- Dave Shondell
That balance of hard work and enjoyment has led Purdue to one of its best stretches in program history. Even though John Shondell is a part of a Big 10 powerhouse at Purdue, he is still working to grow younger players and build the game.
“My son, John, who’s been at Purdue, started coaching for Academy Boiler Juniors,” Don Shondell said. “He coaches kids from ages 10 to 14 and has them play in national tournaments.”
In holding a similar competitive nature to his brothers, John Shondell said his father taught him to enjoy the game and not let everything get to him. It’s what he believes helped his dad find so much success in the sport.
“Just don’t take things too seriously,” Shondell said. “That can screw with your job. You just have to let it go and move on. [My dad] didn’t let things bother him too much when he coached. Although, I can’t say Dave and I are as good as dad at that because we do let things get to us. If there’s one thing I learned from him is don’t take things too seriously. It’s just a game.”
As I-69 bends northeast from Indianapolis, the hardwood courts in east central Indiana see action beyond just basketball. Nestled inside the many courts in Delaware County is an outline of 59-by-30-square-foot rectangle. While it may seem like a nuisance to those who play basketball, the large box is part of a culture within the region of the state.
It’s a culture made up of 38 percent of all IHSAA Volleyball State Titles. It’s a culture that has created a movement based on a vision. It’s a culture that has established one of the most accredited junior programs in the country. It is a culture powered by the Shondell family.
As Don, Steve, Dave and John Shondell all came, went and returned to Delaware County, their efforts have left a strong imprint on the community. Don’s Ball State program, despite many roadblocks, has developed some of the most successful coaches and players in the country.
Mick Haley, a product of Don’s 1965 team, has coached USC’s volleyball team to seven national championships in the 17 seasons he has been there. Haley also coached Team USA Women’s Volleyball to a bronze medal at the 2000 Summer Olympics.
Kelly Sheffield, who played for Don in the final years of his career, has led Wisconsin-Madison to two second-place finishes in the NCAA Tournament.
Even at a local level, Mike Lingenfelter, who played for Don in the early ’80s, coached nearby Wapahani to state titles in 2002, 2011 and 2012. Lingenfelter is now an owner and co-director of the Munciana program founded by Steve.
“Don really motivated me to step into coaching,” Lingenfelter said. “I found out that I love to teach. What most people don’t realize is that coach [Don], Steve and those guys were teachers first. They really kind of created a scenario where I wanted to teach. Even when I came back, one of the first things I did was try to follow Steve’s blueprint at Muncie Burris.”
“Don really motivated me to step into coaching. I found out that I love to teach. What most people don’t realize is that coach [Don], Steve and those guys were teachers first. They really kind of created a scenario where I wanted to teach. Even when I came back, one of the first things I did was try to follow Steve’s blueprint at Muncie Burris.”
- Mike Lingenfelter
Following that blueprint as closely as he could, Lingenfelter’s knowledge really came to the test when he met Steve on the court when Wapahani faced Burris. Lingenfelter said going up against one of the Shondell brothers was going to be an all-out war.
“There was never a chance you were going to outcoach or outwork them,” Lingenfelter said. “Those teams were never going to beat themselves. With every Shondell team, it wasn’t about what they were going to do, but what they were never going to do. You knew every time you got out on the court with them, you were going to play your best, or you were losing.”
However, Lingenfelter also has experience working alongside the family within the Munciana program. The junior program, based out of Muncie, has been highlighted as one of the best in the nation, winning national titles and producing some of the top volleyball players in the country.
The Shondell family not only has experience in coaching in the program, but playing for the program as well. Playing for Munciana before he came to Ball State, John was named the National Most Valuable Player in 1982, 1984 and 1986. Lingenfelter said he believes the program’s attention to detail has been a factor in making it so successful.
“Because of what the Shondells gave and what Wes Lyon brings has always been a teach-first mentality,” Lingenfelter said. “The preparation and attention to detail is second to none. Whenever you take that kind of meticulous care of something when you're teaching, it goes back to passion. I think the program has always been a very passionate program.”
Players and coaches from Kentucky to Penn State have found their footing in Munciana, including a handful of Ball State players and coaches. Current Ball State Women’s Volleyball head coach Kelli Miller Phillips and assistant coach Fritz Rosenberg both played for Munciana before coming to Ball State. Currently on the roster, senior speech pathology major Kate Avila and freshman visual art and animation major Mykel Ivy are both products of Munciana.
Avila said she learned about volleyball at Munciana, but she also learned about work ethic.
“They teach you how to get after it, deal with adversity and just push through,” Avila said. “I think just being a part of that program really made me the person that I am today because, you know, it wasn't always easy. You learn to deal with difficult players, or you'd love some players. You'd have some great teammates, you'd have some great coaches, you'd have some that you didn't get along with. Going through that definitely taught me a lot, and I owe a lot of who I am as a player to Munciana.”
“I think just being a part of that program really made me the person that I am today because, you know, it wasn't always easy. You learn to deal with difficult players, or you'd love some players. You'd have some great teammates, you'd have some great coaches, you'd have some that you didn't get along with. Going through that definitely taught me a lot, and I owe a lot of who I am as a player to Munciana.”
- Kate Avila
Alongside building better volleyball and better people, Munciana is where lifelong relationships were established. Miller Phillips was first coached by Dave at Munciana before playing for him at Muncie Central and Purdue. She learned his style and his passion for the game.
“I think the biggest thing is he was a really big proponent of fundamentals, working hard and then just ensuring that you carried on the tradition that Muncie Central had created,” Miller Phillips said.
While the Shondells helped spread successful volleyball to their players, the tradition also spread throughout their own family tree. Dave’s children, Lindsey and Kyle, have both been extremely active in volleyball. After going through the Purdue program and being coached by her father and uncle, Lindsey coached at a handful of schools, including Villanova, Samford and Mississippi State, before working with The Academy Boiler Juniors where she is now.
Kyle is following in similar footsteps to his grandfather. After graduating from Purdue and spending time coaching at other schools around the Midwest, he is now the head coach of Indiana Tech’s men’s volleyball team in its first season. Growing up around the game, Kyle knew coaching was something he was good at and had a passion for.
“It’s what I enjoy the most, and growing up, I was able to watch my father, uncles and grandfather have a job that didn’t feel like a job,” Kyle said. “I watched their families be a full part of their program. Now, I’ve got my own family that gets to travel with the team and watch us play. It feels like a full circle.”
“It’s what I enjoy the most, and growing up, I was able to watch my father, uncles and grandfather have a job that didn’t feel like a job. I watched their families be a full part of their program. Now, I’ve got my own family that gets to travel with the team and watch us play. It feels like a full circle.”
- Kyle Shondell
When Kyle is on the court, he said, he feels like his coaching style very much embodies his father’s: very competitive and very intense. However, growing up watching both his father and Steve coach, there are times he tries to take in some of the qualities his uncle offered.
“A lot of people, my wife included, would say I’m a lot like my father,” Kyle said. “There’s nothing I try to do to be like my father. I’m just a lot like him. However, there are plenty of times where I try to be a little bit more contemplative and reflective like Steve. I try to find a blend of those two, and when I train, I try to find a little bit of John. All three of them take part in what Don was like. It’s a Shondell blend.”
While Kyle continues to build a team at Indiana Tech, Walton has held down the program at Worthen Arena for 20 years since Don retired. Recently winning his 400th win with the Cardinals, Walton has become a part of the storied volleyball culture at Ball State to the point where he has been mistaken as a Shondell brother. While the mistake is common, he takes pride in being associated with the family that has shaped the fabric of the sport he loves.
“I think it's a real compliment to the Shondells and what they have meant to the Muncie and Ball State communities,” Walton said. “Don has now been retired from coaching the program for 22 years. And yet, when I tell somebody in the community that I coach Ball State Men's Volleyball, they assume that I'm a Shondell. That's just still the name that sticks with this program.
“I think it's a real compliment to the Shondells and what they have meant to the Muncie and Ball State communities. Don has now been retired from coaching the program for 22 years. And yet, when I tell somebody in the community that I coach Ball State Men's Volleyball, they assume that I'm a Shondell. That's just still the name that sticks with this program.
- Joel Walton
“The impact that they all had in coaching those high school teams at a really high level of success, and then also coaching so many different players from this community, and even from Indianapolis and Fort Wayne within the Munciana volleyball organization — just the number of people that they've impacted and touched or given opportunities to in their lives is remarkable.”
Like Walton, Lingenfelter said he never gets tired of talking about his past coach’s passion and legacy.
“A lot of people have traced the Shondell legacy, but it never gets old, and I never get tired of talking about it,” Lingenfelter said.
As the torch is passed down from generation to generation, player to player and coach to coach, there are lessons that are never forgotten. Those impacted by Don have never forgotten his teachings. Whether it’s his sons or former players, they always took something away from him.
“Coaching is about relationships and helping your athletes become all they can be,” Steve said.
“There’s a lot of pressure to win and have the top recruits, but there are other avenues you can be invested in like family, health and have the happy places you can go to,” Dave said.
“Don’t take anything too seriously. It’s just a game,” John said.
It’s a legacy that may have never happened if it weren’t for a factory accident. It’s a legacy that has put Muncie on the map as a volleyball hotbed. It’s a legacy that altered the landscape of NCAA volleyball. It’s the Shondells’ legacy.


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Age Jones yes sir are you good are you are you are you are you are I am very
stripy are you ready for our weekly catch up I am what do we do Monday and
Tuesday we had our final week of the school and graduated our class of 2015
which is crazy right it is crazy four years of school now done and a total joy
to see everybody graduate that's amazing but marked by sadness and weirdness that
we don't get to see the moment is in Tuesdays.
It does feel weird that tomorrow they won't be there when we go in.
Or the other highlight of my week.
What?
I got a new iPhone.
Yes, you do.
But it wasn't really a new iPhone.
It's just the same iPhone as the one I had before, but they swapped out because it was
a fault with the screen.
Doesn't matter.
Still a new iPhone.
Right.
Still joy.
And still I got to sit in the Apple Store.
Right.
And got recalibrated, Tom.
What could possibly be better?
The big news, however, for us this week is that John and Carol came in this weekend
and are staying with us.
Yay!
Welcome John and Carol, aren't it?
Thank you.
Mm-hmm.
You guys did so great being quiet for that whole, like, couple of minutes.
I know it was really hard.
[laughter]
How weird is it you staying in our house when it used to be us staying in your house?
I know, isn't that fun?
We're thinking that we should build a new house here and then you can move to Nashville and
live in our basement and use Nashville as your hub.
That would be fun.
That would be amazing.
But I think we might get some fights.
Probably true.
Yeah.
Steve and the rest of the team.
We can take them.
We would have fun though.
We would have nonstop fun.
We would.
But I worry that we would eat way too much good food.
We eat a lot of barbecue.
I know.
You want chocolate?

Yes, because yesterday I kind of overdid it.
Didn't want to be the pot calling the kettle black.
That's it.
It's not your fault.
We did feed you very good chocolate.
It's very good.
We ate chocolate yesterday.
I did.
The coffee chocolate.
Oh, that's it.
And I abstained but made up for it tonight with my Mexican Coca-Cola.
You only abstained because you don't eat coffee and so you don't like coffee.
Still an abstinence when I'm calling you that.
All right, for those of you who may not know, John and Carol, if you listen to this podcast,
you will have heard us talk about them a lot. John and Carol are pastors in Toronto and
remarkably in 1994, and I'm going to tell you the story in a second, but in 1994,
the Holy Spirit visited their church and without any exaggeration or sense of hyperbole,
literally brought worldwide revival, which you guys have been stewarding for 21 years now.
I haven't had a job for twenty one years in terms of consistency.
I just think that's amazing.
And I'm sure that this story has been told over and over, but I would love to hear you guys tell
the story in your own words.
So take us back to January 20th.
It's a Thursday night, 1994.
Tells what happened.
We were excited and poised for something because we just returned from our
Argentina, where we had both been prayed for and received a powerful download, plus we'd
had three amazing prophetic words such as, "You're going to the moon."
"Power fire for the literal people out there."
It didn't literally say you're going to the moon.
No, it said that such preposterous things were about to happen, that they might as well have
said something as far out as, "You're going to the moon."
Thank you for clarifying that.
So when Randy Clark was invited and accepted to come, he came in a bit of fear and trembling,
thinking, "You know, it's only ever happened once before."
And we're like, "Well, whatever happens."
But he shared about how he had been rescued by the Lord from very discouraging bordering
on depression and the Holy Spirit came into his life through successive seeking more of
God at Rodney our Brown meetings.
You're in there and he received an impartation.
And so I invited Randy to come and shared his heart and in the end gave an invitation
for those who would like him to pray for them to come forward and he would pray.
And that's when it all happened.
It just...
are we talking about? This is a Thursday night. About 1.30 I would guess.
Okay, so 130 hungry people, Thursday night, non-normal night you'd come out,
just a regular altar call. Yeah, I don't know how hungry but certainly curious and
trusting enough to come along and see what's going on. All right, so far so
good with being in church churches like that, 100 times and what happens?
It's the dead of winter. It's cold, snowy, and there we are in there. And in the midst of that,
when Randy said, "Come, people, endeavor to get up, and that's when God's power hit them and
virtually flatten the room." And this great commotion arose, people wailing, crying, laughing,
shaking, falling, etc. And we're all there. A bit bewildered. And Carolyn, I'm not sure
what your recollection is. I was just thinking, Oh my gosh, this is fantastic. Lord, Holy
Spirit, you have come. And then I remember looking at Mary Audrey, who was our women's
pastor and she was in another room, came through the door. Her mouth went open and she fell
flat in her face and couldn't speak for 45 minutes, which is unheard of. But the whole
room was just in chaos. It was just like a bomb drop for 40 minutes on the floor.
Yeah, she was. It was incredible.
Has you guys ever seen anything like that before? Never.
not to that degree. I mean, in our team now.
- One's and two's.
- Yeah, we're sorry.
- So describe for people who weren't there,
you know, 'cause we're so accustomed
to the terminology right now,
but some people, you know, who are listening to this,
they may have never, they might not have a grid
or a paradigm for what it means to,
for when the Holy Spirit showed up.
So what was happening that night,
if you were to describe what was happening to people,
what did it look like?
- People got so filled and overflowing
the presence of God that they were debilitated and unable to not only stand, they were unable
to stay sitting in their chair for the most part. And people were just all over the place,
totally overcome by God's power, presence and love.
So bodies on the floor? Yeah, people laughing,
Criks up in the air, legs up in the air shaking, just bouncing up and down on their
seats. I mean, somewhere running. And it was just like a bomb dropped. And, you know,
in the scriptures that says like the Holy Spirit fell. Right. Well, we had before this,
we had no grid for that. Right. But boy, we sure had it after that night.
And Randy at this point is just super nervous, super meek.
But it sounds like Randy was a super nervous about speaking.
Yes, he was.
He doesn't sound like it was very hyped up.

That's exactly right.
And then the Holy Spirit showed up.
So how do you like talk me through what happens next?
That's Thursday night.
It's the most glorious thing that's ever happened.
Then what do you do?
How do you go home from that meeting?
excited and excited about what's going to happen the next night is God going to show up again
because we didn't know like it happened once and but sure enough it happened again the second
night and by then the word had started to filter out a little bit so there was more there on the
Friday night and the same sort of thing happened at which point I said Randy you know we need to
to keep going with these meetings because we had only planned four nights.
So I think by the time we got to Sunday, we called his wife and she agreed that he could
stay two more days.
Am I, remember this correctly, but when you asked him to come for four days, he didn't
want to because he only had three messages?
Yeah, he wanted to bring his youth pastor with him because he said, "I only have two
messages."
Two messages.
He needed someone else to bring the other two, but an actual, actually what happened was
he brought one of those messages and ran into the other three because obviously things had
exploded for him also.
And he came sort of wondering, "Oh gosh, we don't know if anything will happen," but
He had a profound prophetic word that he was to trust me now says the Lord because I'm
going to begin to really use you.
So this is it.
And at home it was really funny because we would get home really late.
Because we didn't want to miss it because we didn't know whether God was going to come
again to more night or what.
So, they'd be jot on a phone and Randy on another phone and they'd be calling everybody
that they knew and they were just like for hours.
We got a couple of hours sleep and they were up on the phone.
They were just excited.
We didn't have two lines for a while.
No, but you know.
That took a week or so to get that second.
Right, that's true.
And then how do you go from 130 people to like when did you start getting running into
problems with space?
Because word spread really quick.
Really quick.
I would say within two weeks we were maxed.
Yeah.
And we started then to move to the banquet hall, which could hold many more about 7 or
hundred in the main room versus our 400. And so when we couldn't have the banquet hall,
we'd use our overflow via closed circuit TV.
 Like your church at the end of a runway
on Dixie Road in Toronto? How many people are coming here?
If you counted them all, including the ones who didn't come about 400.
the one you didn't have. I only came once a month or something.
And then within, I mean, correct me if I'm wrong, but within a month or so,
you have thousands of people trying to come to your church. Yes.
And our people can't get in Sunday morning. There's a line up, like starting,
couldn't get a chair, couldn't get a chair, couldn't get a parking spot.
At what point were you guys saying, this is bigger than us? Do you remember the first time we were
like, oh my God, like when people started coming from England and Australia, like at what point
did it tip you over to think this could be something? Well, I think by the time we'd gone into our
second week, we had a team meeting in our favorite restaurant. We had a back room in the restaurant.
The lady was a Christian and a very good friend and that was our war room in there.
And I remember saying, guys, we need to plan because this could go on for a long time.
And Azusa Street went for three and a half years.

We can't possibly do this for three and a half years.
You're having meetings every night at this point.
Yeah.
And I said, hang on, we will plan to rotate in and out on and off.
This will have to be a team effort, but we are not stopping.
Now, at this point have, I mean, you hear me out on this one, but at this point, have miracles
started happening. Of course, the very manifest presence of God is a miracle, but our people
are getting healed, are there signs of wonders happening, or is it just unbelievable glory at this
point? Mostly glory, but there, there were miracles happening. One guy who came in totally deaf,
It's like a boom and both busy or so.
Nobody prayed for me.
Just walk in the room.
News like that will spread.
Yeah.
I've been in conferences with you guys around the world.
And when we do passes, conferences, people are often asking, you know, what did you guys do to get the nations to your church?
The very notion that you guys had some sort of slick marketing plan for this is just absurd.
Just God showed up and people were hungry and he just responded.
It was amazing because we didn't have the internet at that point.
We didn't have YouTube.
We didn't have anything, but just word of mouth.
It was incredible.
How fast it's bringing.
We had facts.
We had phone and a fax and phone word of mouth.
And I remember getting a fax from Roger Mitchell from England.
So he sent me a fax, John, what's going on?
Um, we're hearing a stuff going on in your church.
And I took his facts and wrote on it, Roger, God is moving.
Get over here as soon as you can.
Send it back.
And when he received the facts, he read it and immediately fell out under the power.
That's awesome.

So let me fast forward.
So this is going on one year, two years, three years, four years.
At some point you were Toronto's most visited tourist attraction.
So the customs and agent guys came to the church because everybody was coming
through Pearson Airport saying I'm here for the Toronto Revival.
I'm here for the Toronto Revival.
I'm here for the Toronto Revival.
And then news cameras start showing up and you start getting global
I mean, I heard about it in Scotland.   No, but were you prepared for that? No. No. And then what happened when
you were in the Sunday times, you know, the British broadsheet newspaper in the Sunday
times. In Time magazine, we're in Newsweek, Merv Griffin show, all that kind of stuff.
And then inevitably criticism shows up.
This isn't God.
This is all fake.
You're kind of at revival leaders.
This is the devil.
When did you become aware that you were an international sensation and a potential tool
for the devil?
Do you remember the date?
Did your team bring you headlines?
Were you guys just having such a good time?
Well, you know, I think that that sort of stuff was mixed in from almost from the very
beginning, it was all proportionate, you know, so one or two percent of the comments contained
I don't believe that.
It's all emotional.
It's just, you know, but it was far outweighed by all the glowing testimonies of things that
had happened to people.
So we didn't really pay a whole lot of attention.
I found in my own life and in the lives of people that I pastor that God deliberately
the offensive mind to reveal the heart.
So, you know, the whole message of salvation
is offensive to the lost, right?
And the cross is a stumbling block.
- Right.
- And you get over that fence on the other side
of the revelation, it's glorious.
You think, how did I ever find this offensive?

And for me, that was offensive.
Like, why would you raise their hands?
You need to go to the bathroom.
Do you have a question?
It's offensive.
And then, you know, for me, I started the Bible
and realized, oh, it's in the Bible.
It's totally fine.
So I start raising my hands and worship.

My point there is we all get comfortable with a certain level of
offense till it's no longer offensive until God does something else.

I mean, we've all been there where you're comfortable with God's doing this.
Yeah.
What do you remember some of the thresholds where you're like, okay, God,
I love you, but you have to help me with this.
Is this you?
Do you remember any of the thresholds that got caught and caught offensive for you?
Well, I think in the very beginning, people falling down sort of en masse, like groups
of them, with piles of people, men and women piled on the floor.
And it just, it was chaotic in a sense, and you're wondering, "God, why do you like this?
I know it's you, but I don't understand why."
And that led us to sort of, let's get lines on the floor and make it at least a little
more organized. It helped in many ways. It was like, if you want prayer, come put your toes on
one of the tape lines, and that's just people organize themselves at that point, and then we
could work with catchers. If you have hundreds of people a night, one of prayer, hundreds of people.
We made a point of they've come for his presence. We want them to be touched by God.
What about when gold teeth start happening? Because I got used to people falling down,
but I remember the night I saw gold teeth and I just thought this is, I mean this is just offensive,
it's absurd, it's ridiculous, oh come on. And then I saw, you know, with my own eyes, amalgam
fillings turning to gold. And you know, you don't have any box to put it in, but you're just like,
I just witnessed a miracle. Did that trouble you? Was that offensive? Was that, or were you guys
just so happy that God could do whatever he wanted? Well, you go first, Carol.
I just think it's first started in South Africa and
It was like oh my gosh Lord
This is incredible and I remember he filled like a dentist
mouth with
gold and
And then we just kept seeing these amazing
Miracles and and and then the young people like you know 12 to 16
I mean, instead of gold, it would turn white.
And the parents would say, "Nope, I'm sure they had,
I paid for a Malcolm Feelings."
And they did it white.
And then they started happening at home.
And we were just like blown away by God's absolute mercy.
And when Heidi Baker got one, that was the,
that was awesome.
That was awesome.
- Tell us story.

And so, you know, she would give her,
but she had this toothache this night
and she was just asking for a prayer for her toothache.
So John started to minister
and he started to minister with, you know,
anybody has a tooth problem
because tooth decay all over the world is a major.
- Health problem. - Yeah.
And so Heidi says, "Well, I've got a bad tooth."
And so we don't put your hand on your tooth and whatever.
Show it to the person next to you
and see if God's done anything.

She was just astounded.
So she quickly, you know,
anybody got a mirror?
Anybody got a mirror here?
Sure enough, she had this grand, massive, gold tooth
where I had no pain.
It was just really wonderful.
one after the other after the other.
- It was astounding.
We saw it in Argentina and thought,
"Fair enough, they probably need dental work down there."
And then like Carol said, South Africa,
that's where it got going for us,
a little bit in Mexico before that.
And then exploded in South Africa.
We brought video footage home,
showed it to a conference in Toronto,
and then we had like 150 people get gold crowns,
gold teeth, whatever that night.
And it was mind blowing.
- Right.
- And the Lord really spoke to me
'cause it was just,
it got a hold of my unbelief
that I didn't really appreciate that I had.
- Right.
- And He's reminding me,
"How is it okay in Argentina?"
But you don't think I can do stuff like that here.
And so, we just had to realize
nothing is impossible with you.
- For me, the gold teeth was one of the ways
that I won some people to the Lord from national
because they wanted to come over and see it
'cause I've been talking about it.
And then one of the VPs got a gold tooth
and gave his life back to the Lord, which was amazing.
But it was quite, you know, it was quite funny.
I brought six people in and, you know,
one of them got a gold tooth and the rest,
they were all unsaved and none of them were offended at all.

The people on the floor, nothing.
They were just like, "Sure.
Why not? Why couldn't God do that? You know, so I thought it was quite funny.
Well, it is amazing, isn't it? And the criticism and the surprise often comes from
Christian people or religious people who are into it only up to a certain level.
So when you go deeper or the supernatural becomes more obvious and evident, then
They're shocked, really, and they're trying to find reasons why that couldn't be because it's not part of their experience.
Yeah, help me justify my uncomfortableness.
It's crazy.
Randy described it so well one time when he talked about many evangelicals live in a culture of unbelief.
Right.
Yeah, that was my experience, my whole life growing up.
Have to be wary of anything to do with emotion anything that can't be tested or assessed and how do you quantify what God's doing when he doesn't want to be in a box when he's deliberately purposing to offend the mind.
That's a tricky one.
Yeah, but the child I believe it's intentionally there's a booby trap.
And if you stumble at it you lose because the whole thing is designed to cater to.
The child like tell us what the Lord said to you when you said Lord I know that you like it when people fall down.
We talked about the two conditions of the human heart I love that yes because he said well.
The conditions of the human heart or fear on the one hand and pride on the other.
And so when he overwhelms someone in the Holy Spirit, they have to trust him to a certain degree and that deals with fear.
Pride on the other hand is saying things like, well, I want God, but I don't want that.
And so now there's a certain.
Stigma, if you will, or a certain humility that must go along with that.
And so it's very much something that deals with incorrect attitudes of the heart.
Teaches is to trust, get over a fear in the one hand, because people don't want to fall down.

On the other hand, if they're macho and...
Full of pride.
Pride. I'm not going to want to fall down in front of these people.
I've seen many people kind of...Carol's come along, "Can I pray for you?"

And then she would pray for them and yell over them or something.
would just go over with their eyes wide open and unbelief.
- Right, that's something happened.
- What on earth is happening to me?
And so it's just a whole range of people
who are very keen to have a spiritual experience,
but others that were very skeptical.
And he touches them too many times, so it's all good.
- I think the biggest thing was the change in people's hearts.
- Right.

But when you talk to the people and you hear what God did with them, oh my gosh, it was
just one testimony after another after another.
And that's what we loved was the change in their hearts.
And they loved Jesus more than they ever had loved him before.
And they wanted to share their faith more than they ever had before.
According to...
Some marriages were better.
Yeah.
Yeah.
The relationship with Jesus was better.
Kids' relationship was better with their parents.
It was wonderful.
You know, after 21 years, it's hard to quantify the fruit because it's so exponential.
You know, if you just take two people like Heidi Baker, what happened to Heidi when she
He came and the whole fruit that came from Iris, which is absolutely rooted in her visit
being stuck to the floor for seven days and seven nights.
He takes someone like Bill and Benny who came hungry for God and realized we'll give
the rest of our life for this.
Everything that's happened out of Bethel.
Our lives, like A.G. and I, just haven't caused to reflect that in one very, very real sense,
I wouldn't have the wife I have if it wasn't for the revival, if it wasn't for you guys.
And so we're just one couple.
I'm pretty sure I'd be dead.
Right.
If it wasn't for you.
But then, you know, we just graduated all these students this year.
That would never have happened.
Right.
Had God not put, you know, it's just this amazing outflow of what God's done and the knock on
effect in people's lives.
And for 21 years, talk to me about how you guys didn't screw it up.
Oh, God, oh God.
Right, but seriously, can you imagine if the Lord just woke you up on the 19th, it was like,
"Hi guys, how are you? I don't want to freak you out, speaking to you audibly and everything,
but just so you know, tomorrow I'm going to give you the longest running revival in church history.
 Like you would have freaked out.  But what would you say are some of the things you learned,
how not to screw up an international revival? Give us some of the things.
Because there's not a handbook written for that.
I think John, his love for people.
And I mean, he just so loved to see the testimonies.
And so it was testimony driven rather than a person driven.
And he would share his platform all the time and, you know,
encourage me to speak and encourage others to speak.
And so it wasn't sort of a one man show.
It was everybody and people would come
and they would say, "Well, John and Carol weren't even there."
And there was some kind of worship team that was okay,
but I don't remember what the speaker's name was,
but God met me.
And that just, we just loved that
because it was, you know, it took the pressure of it,
was all about what he was doing, not our own striving.
And again and again, I think your love, John,
for sharing his pulpit and sharing,
having people share their testimonies.
- Love. - Two of the things that--
- That's a huge lack of control.
- Yeah.
Well, I really have a desire to see it be kingdom-wide and global.

And He's graciously given us a portion.
But it's so much bigger than us.
So part of our job is raising up people and giving them visibility, those that we feel good about.
We want them on our platform so that hopefully they'll catch fire and go home with it.
And many, many did.
And so you named a couple.
But there's so many of them, like David Campbell from England and Terriapel from Australia
and Frank Houston from Australia.
These guys went home with it and it all erupted in their churches and they, you know, to go on a ship for it and kept it going and going and going and going.
And so that's what we want to see.
So our motto on the church, even before it broke out, was that we may walk in God's love and then give it away.
And so we just kept giving it away as much as we could.
"Hey, more on you, fire on you, have more."
And people would get so touched
and it was not uncommon to see people
out under the power for two or three hours.
Unbelievable.
We had a guy just two months ago at our leaders conference.
He was out for seven hours.
Wow.
When he came around.
He really had to go to the.
He had a revelation of God.
So I'm sure.
And I'm sure he had to go the bathroom too.
But he never said that part in his testimony.
I probably wouldn't have either.
So what we want to do is fill the earth with his glory.
And Carol and I learned early on
that we could proactively facilitate that
by praying for a person and then continuing to pray for that person.
So the blessing that they were getting went deeper and deeper and more intense and stronger.
And so they were ready to explode.
And so as overgains the light touch, there was a profound touch of God that ignited something
within them and then they would go home with it.
So it is like a fire in as much as it's very, very contagious and still is to this day.
Thank you, Lord.
As you reflect back on 21 years, is there anything you would do differently if you could
do it all again?

Is there anything you would change?
This is only one thing that comes to mind.
I think I would be much more proactive in communicating with John Wimber and making sure
that if a relationship there had to come to an end, it would be much more of a congenial
thing rather than an abrupt year out because I think that set the revival back at one level.
I think it frightened a lot of people, embarrassed a lot of people, and many were saying, "Well,
Maybe it's not God, maybe we better just slow down.
- 'Cause at the time the vineyard were the
- Cutting edge.
- - The brainage people.
So if they're rejecting this thing, dear Lord, how crazy must this be?
Is that what the feeling was?
- That's the effect.
You know, all that was unfortunate, but you know, God's doing it his way
and things beyond our control, I suppose.
hindsight is great, but we were over our heads
with trying to stay up with what was going on around us.
And so many of those guys were already on board
that we just never anticipated that one really.
John Wimber had a very, very profound
and godly healthy impact on our lives for the most part.
And he was one of our heroes.
We loved him, we learned so much from him and everything else.
I think he got caught in a crossfire about a number of issues pertaining to it, the strength
of it and particularly the manifestations were a bit off the chart for him and many around
him.
And so all of that needs to be talked through.
But it was moving really fast and rapidly and more and more, you know, videotapes and
on and on.

Can you imagine if YouTube was around back then?
Oh, I know.
Yes.
And that's what excites me about another wave coming because it's going to be just so viral,
almost immediately it's going to be amazing because everyone will be able to watch the
intensity of it all.  So I say a name and then you just say the first word that comes to mind when you think
of that person. Okay. Are you ready? Bill Johnson. Awesome. Fantastic. Pope Francis. Amazingly humble.
 Intensely full of prayer lover of Jesus
Lou angle prayer warrior Heidi Baker awesome lover of Jesus
Well guys we I mean we could have gone in any direction tonight
I feel like I could just sit here and mine your brains which I've done over the years
But I'm jealous for everybody to hear about those things before I ask you to pray for our listeners
For an impartation for more of the Holy Ghost
John you head off to Australia in a couple of days. Where are you going in Australia?
We're doing one of our leader schools in Sydney and then I'll be visiting a church in Adelaide, Australia
For two days on the weekend and then going to Melbourne, Australia and
being being there with the other John Arnett in catch the fire Australia in that can be confusing at all in catch the fire
Melbourne. Yeah. And from there flying over to Stuart and Lindley, it catch the fire
Auckland in New Zealand. Or Jealous, of course, because you can see all the people who love this
thing. I know. I know. And so, yes. For our Australian and our Kiwi listeners, you can see
John live.  Tell us who you have coming this year.
Kenneth Copeland, who we had a wonderful connection with 10 months ago when we were over to see Pope Francis.
He was there also, of course.
A whole other story we didn't have time for.
Yeah, but anyway, we really, really liked him and hit it off and invited him to come and lo and
behold, he accepted so. That's great. He's coming. Reinhard Bonke, who's been with us a couple of
times is coming back to be a part of that. They are good friends. And Marcus Lamb from
Dayspring Television will be there also. So it is going to be a blockbuster for conference.
The Holy Spirit will be there as well. As a headlight, as a guest.
And if people want more information about Australia, they can go to john and carol.org.
And if they want more information about catch the fire conference, you can go to catchafire.com
and get tickets, all the information about that conference too.
Yes.
Well, guys, thank you so much.
I know that you guys are here on a mini vacation, many rest,
and we've put you through the ringer tonight.
But what you do is one last favor.
Would you just welcome the Holy Spirit to come into the lives
of our listeners, whether they're at work, in the car.

Oh, Holy Spirit, we just so thank you for your faithfulness.
And Lord for these wonderful listeners
that are tuned into this podcast,
I just ask that your presence would come upon them now,
come and fill them like you love to do,
come and let them fall more in love with Jesus.
Let them know how wonderful the Father is.
Just let your presence increase and increase and increase.
Lord in your presence, there is fullness of joy.
At your right hand, pleasure forevermore.
The joy of being with you is unsurpassed.
And so I pray that your presence would draw very near
and fall upon us before us, the inward journey for us,
the upward journey that is worshiping and blessing you.
And then the outward journey for others,
which is our mission in life.
And Lord, as we get filled up with you with your love
and your amazing presence,
now we have something both to worship you with
and to share with a broken, hurting, needy world.
And so come Holy Spirit
and fall upon your dear people right now
and just let them know that this is within their reach.
This is available.
It is the Father's will, His good pleasure to give us the kingdom.
And we want that kingdom to come in power and love and fill us, Lord,
and equip us so that we can rise to our full potential in Christ,
that our ministry would be fruitful and would bring you honor and glory.
So granted in Jesus name,
Come and let your fire fall in Jesus name.
[BLANK_AUDIO]


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After a long school year filled with hard work and little sleep, the urge of any student may be to take it easy. But keeping busy over the summer can prove to be beneficial not only by improving your overall breadth of life experiences, but also by boosting your application in the minds of college or graduate-school admissions officers. Consider these four options for summer: internships, academic programs, study-abroad programs, and volunteering.
Internships With the current downswing in the job market, internships have become a key element of the competitive student's resume. These work experiences bring a real-world perspective to a course of study while also empowering students with practical job skills. Furthermore, the mentors and networking contacts acquired over an internship are invaluable resources when looking for that first career opportunity. There are plenty of options for structuring an internship. It might be full-time or part-time, paid or unpaid--it might even offer course credit. No matter the permutation, an internship can provide a leg up on job hunting or winning admission to graduate or professional school. Before applying to or accepting any position, you should know the internship's responsibilities thoroughly. While most internships include some degree of grunt-work (filing, answering phones, etc.), many companies go to great lengths to ensure their interns gain a good understanding of the business by conducting seminars, arranging participation in industry events, and assigning special intern-managed projects. Establish your goals for your internship experience beforehand and choose the opportunity that best enhances your knowledge of a particular business while helping you build the skills you'll need to distinguish yourself in a the job market. Summer academic programs Although the thought of extending school through the summer months may not appeal to many individuals, it can be a great source of enrichment. Summer academic programs offer a host of benefits for students who are willing to make the sacrifice. While summer programs at four-year colleges can be quite expensive, students also have the option to take coursework at community colleges where costs might be a bit less prohibitive. Summer academic programs provide students the opportunity to study a particular field in more depth than during the regular school year, and also to get introduced to subjects that are not available in many schools. Trying out a particular field of interest without making a long-term commitment can help shape a student's career choices. Finally, academic programs strengthen college and graduate-school admissions applications by showing a student's passion for and commitment to a subject. Thoroughly evaluate the academic, social, and intellectual environment before applying to any academic program. While attending a summer program at a large and prestigious university may look impressive on your transcript, a smaller, more intimate setting at another college or university may give you the hands-on environment you need to thrive in a particular specialty. Summer study-abroad and travel programs The education you can gain in a study-abroad program reaches far beyond the confines of a classroom or a course of study. Study-abroad programs can give you an acute awareness of your role in a global community. Master a foreign language, conduct historical research, or volunteer in a hospital, while taking in the wonders of the world and immersing yourself in new cultures--all for college credit. Knowledge and appreciation of the world's unique societies not only enhances your perspective on a number of issues, but also provides rich material for admissions essays. With so many varieties of summer study abroad available, it is key that you determine which type of program best fits your goals and your personality. Some students prefer a more academic and structured university setting that groups them together with other visiting students. Other individuals thrive in a looser environment that allows them to interact more freely with the local population and learn independently. Is academic study your primary goal, or are you looking to participate in an foreign adventure? These are issues that must be worked out before you embark on your trip. Despite the many educational and social benefits, the one major drawback to summer-abroad programs is the cost. With some programs costing as much as $7,500 for the summer, students can be discouraged from even pursuing these opportunities. However, financial aid and scholarships--as well as grants and fellowships--are available for most programs. Weigh the overall benefits of any study-abroad opportunity against the potential costs. An experience of a lifetime may be well worth a temporary financial inconvenience. Volunteering Community service projects allow students to use practical skills to address social, economic, and/or environmental needs of society. You might consider volunteering as an opportunity to engage in cultural exchange, to protect the environment, to work for social justice, or to practice the principles of your religion. Think about the kind of summer experience you're seeking and the way you want to incorporate volunteer efforts into your daily life; this will help you select the best program for your needs and interests. Volunteering in a community service program can be invaluable in developing leadership skills. When complemented by the cultural interaction with community residents and the personal satisfaction of completing a difficult and meaningful project, you'll have much to talk about when applying to college or grad school. Research your options These are only a few of options available to you this summer. Do your research and find the option that fits your priorities. Whatever you choose to do over your summer vacation, remember that this break is a unique opportunity for you to pursue your passions. Don't try to second-guess what college recruiters may want to see when making your decision. Instead, plan your summer according to what will enhance your experience as a student and as a human being. Colleges don't look for candidates who fit a particular academic or social mold, but who will bring something exceptional and enriching to their campuses. Find out what sets you apart from others. Any summer initiative in which you participate should develop that quality to the fullest. Good luck and have a fun and rewarding summer! Article provided by Kaplan Test Prep & Admissions |
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The Nightmare Before Christmas A film review by Max Messier Copyright 2000 filmcritic.com
Just in time for Halloween and Christmas, the reissue of The Nightmare Before Christmas couldn't be more appropriate. With all of the attention thrown to "family films" in recent years, namely those starring pocket monsters and Nickelodeon characters, it's high time we raised the intellectual level of children's fare as well as the animation achievements of the movie studios. With that in mind, it was refreshing to revisit an animation classic on the big screen that still retains the originality and freshness it had seven years ago.
Nightmare is the story of one man's quest to discover his true purpose in life -- to look beyond the accolades of his peers, the achievements of his years, and the praise of his ego. Jack Skellington, the pumpkin king of Halloweentown, is the main dude behind the Halloween holiday for kids everywhere. But during his reign as pumpkin king, Jack has somehow lost his understanding of his place in the world and the magic he creates with his Halloween holiday. After the completion of one particular Halloween season, Jack walks with a heavy heart and ends up discovering in the woods outside Halloweentown a grove of trees with doors to all of the other holidays in the world. Imagine his surprise to discover Christmastown, a far more impressive and uplifting holiday than Halloween, surrounded by happy elves making toys, and with good cheer all around.
Upon his return to Halloweentown, Jack decides to combine Halloween and Christmas together by kidnapping "Sandy Claws," employing all the residents of Halloweentown to build toys for children. He then aims to take over the role as primary joy-provider and gift-bearer to the children of the world, in the hopes of rediscovering the zest for life he once had. Alas, the co-mingling of Halloween and Christmas creates disastrous results involving shrunken heads, psychotic wooden ducks, a sleigh pulled by a phantom dog with a lighted nose, and a large, sinister, singing bag named Oogie Boogie
Tim Burton -- the man behind such great films as Ed Wood, Beetlejuice, Pee-Wee's Big Adventure, and Edward Scissorhands -- is the creative force behind Nightmare. Originally, Burton authored a poem that became the basis of the storyline, and he was jointly involved in the production design of the film (though many mistakenly assume he directed the picture). The stamp of Burton is clearly everywhere in the film -- with bold colors, imaginative character design, and it's simple yet compelling story. The direction of Harry Selick, who also directed James and the Giant Peach, is strong, offering intimate views of the strange collection of characters. Also memorable are the songs in the film, written by former Oingo Boingo lead singer Danny Elfman, the next John Williams of film composing.
The Nightmare Before Christmas is intended for both the kid and adult in everyone. It's not just child's play for the holidays; it's a movie about how to be truly happy in a tough world, saying that all you need to do is just be exactly who you are, without compromise. What better message is there for Christmas?
Four stars out of five
Director: Harry Selick Writers: Caroline Thompson Starring: Chris Saradon, Danny Elfman, Catherine O'Hara, William Hickey, Paul Ruebens Producers: Tim Burton, Denise Di Novi
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/redirect?tag=filmcriticcom&path=subst/video/sellers/amazon-top-100-dvd.html Movie Fiends: Check out Amazon.com's Top 100 Hot DVDs!
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DECONSTRUCTING HARRY (Fine Line Features) Directed by Woody Allen After such recent frothy forays as "Everyone Says I Love You" and "Mighty Aphrodite," it comes as a shock to see Woody Allen deliver "Deconstructing Harry," a vicious black comedy that calls to mind such earlier Allen as "Crimes and Misdemeanors" and "Stardust Memories." Set against those two, "Harry" has a more singular focus than "Crimes" and is a much more successful examination of a writer's psyche than "Stardust." By turns clever, devestating, bitter and delightful, this challenging piece of work is easily one of Allen's most mature efforts to date. It also offers him an opportunity to play one of his least sympathetic characters. Harry Block is a self-loathing post-middle-age novelist whose fiction recalls the work of Philip Roth. But Harry has also written a savage roman a clef about the faithless, superficial types in his life. "You take everyone's suffering and turn it into gold!" accuses Lucy (Judy Davis), one of Harry's several neurotic ex-lovers. Unable to cope with the demands of loving relationships any longer, Harry now hires prostitutes, such as the streetwise Cookie Williams (the delightful Hazelle Goodman), a weary vixen in pink spandex cut-offs and a tie-dyed tank-top who Harry recruits as his date for a ceremony his former college --he was thrown out before graduation, so it's not technically his alma mater-- is holding to honor him. Harry doesn't feel much like celebrating, however, since he's suffering from crippling writer's block. During the course of the film, often at unexpected moments, Harry's stories come to life and we can see for ourselves how Harry combined personality traits from both a chilly ex-wife (a knockout Kirstie Alley) and his rigidly religious sister (Caroline Aaron) to create the character of Helen, who describes herself as "the shrewish Jewish hybrid," and is marvelously played by an imaginatively cast Demi Moore. Harry's isolationism also comes through in his tale of a movie actor (Robin Williams) who realizes he's somehow become permanently out-of-focus, and is destined to drift through life as a blur. "Deconstructing Harry" features many such inspired bits. It also continues Allen's experimentation with offbeat camerawork and editing. He's previously utilized a weaving hand-held camera in "Husbands and Wives" and attempted Bergmanesque imagery in "Interiors" and "September," and in "Harry," he tries out the kind of jump-cut editing popularized by Godard and Truffaut in such films as "Breathless" and "Shoot The Piano Player." Though the technique sometimes comes off as slightly self-conscious, it effectively points up Harry's fragmented, chaotic world. More off-putting to some of Allen's fans may be the harshness of the language used by many of the characters, although again, it's perfectly in keeping with the rage most of these people are feeling. In previous films, Allen concentrated on the lighter side of divorce: When Meryl Streep left him and wrote a tell-all book about their failed marriage in "Manhattan," Allen played the idea for easy laughs. But Harry's thinly veiled portraits of his friends and family do some real damage and almost inspire one of his subjects to kill him. The humor cuts deeper and the laughter is sometimes tinged with a gasp of disbelief. The brilliance of "Deconstructing Harry" lies in Allen's deft blending of its many tones: sardonic, sarcastic and sentimental.
James Sanford
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