WAYNESBORO, Pa. — Legendary former Waynesboro Area Senior High School girls’ volleyball coach Jay Heefner said Kim Saunders was destined to coach at her alma mater.
In 2012, Sauders realized that destiny. She led the Maidens as the head coach until 2025.
Waynesboro opens fall camp this Monday. However, the team will enter what would have been Saunders’ 15th season without her. Saunders died suddenly and unexpectedly on Monday, July 27.
She will be sorely missed by players, coaches, parents, administrators, teachers and students. Saunders’ legacy includes a 20-0 regular season record, multiple Mid-Penn Conference championships, as well as a Mid-Penn Coach of the Year honor.
Saunders was a 1991 WASHS graduate, then went to college at Morgan State University before transferring to Drexel.
“From the time Kim was a little kid, you could tell she was a special kind of athlete,” said Heefner, who coached the Maidens for 20 seasons and was said to have mentored Saunders.
“She had this tremendous overhand serve in tennis that transferred to volleyball. I got to know her in junior high. I was a guidance counselor at East Junior High. Kim was a seventh grader at the time. I coached against her and never beat her. It was her natural sport. She was like a coach on the court. She had this mindset and ability to read what was on the floor with our team and the other team.”
Saunders’ obituary states, “After a brief coaching hiatus, Kim returned to take over the helm of her beloved Maidens program in 2012, with the sole goal of restoring the ‘Magic’ in her alma mater.”
“I was not surprised that she applied for the job when she did,” Heefner said. “That was her destiny.”
After graduating from college, Saunders coached at the collegiate level at North Carolina Central University, North Carolina Agricultural & Technical State University and High Point University.
And then she returned to Waynesboro. Saunders also coached girls’ volleyball at Waynesboro Area Middle School prior to obtaining the varsity head coaching role.
When Saunders declared she wanted to bring back the MAGIC, Heefner gleefully translated it, saying, “(WASHS Athletic Director) Eric hired her. In the interview she stated her desire to bring back what Heefner recalled stood for Make A Great Individual Contribution.
The family will receive friends from 5-8 p.m. Friday in Grove-Bowersox Funeral Home at 50 S. Broad St., Waynesboro, and an hour prior to the services Saturday morning. The service begins at 11 a.m., at Trinity United Church of Christ in Waynesboro. For those unable to attend in person on Saturday, a livestream of the service may be viewed on the Trinity U.C.C. Facebook page at www.facebook.com/tuccwboro/.
The Rev. Dani Neff, a former Maiden volleyball player playing under Heefner, will officiate. Burial will follow at Green Hill Cemetery, Waynesboro.
In lieu of flowers, a donation may be made to the Kimberly Spottswood Saunders Foundation to support Waynesboro student athletes and Waynesboro Athletics. Readers may go to Kimberly Spottswood Saunders Foundation to donate
