AVCA Announces Thirty Under 30 Recipients
2/23/2011
LEXINGTON, Ky. - The American Volleyball Coaches Association (AVCA) is pleased to announce its Thirty Under 30 Awards. This award was created in 2009 to honor up-and-coming coaching talent at all levels of the sport. To qualify for the award nominees had to be younger than 30 years old in 2010. The list of winners will be featured in the upcoming April/May edition of Coaching Volleyball magazine.
"The most exciting thing about this award is how difficult it is getting to select just 30 winners from the hundreds of nominations," said AVCA Executive Director, Kathy DeBoer. "Congratulations to this outstanding class. The future of our sport is in good hands."
Of the thirty recipients, 18 are head coaches and 12 are assistant coaches. Eight are NCAA Division I women's coaches, four coach NAIA women's squads, three are NCAA Division II women's coaches, three are NCAA Division III women's coaches, two are club coaches, two are from Two-Year Colleges, two coach high school girls programs, one is a high school boys coach and one is an NAIA men's coach.
Also, one of the recipients doubles-up a club coach, while one is the head coach of both the men's and women's teams at the Division III level. Five of this year's recipients - Casey Dale (2010), Coley Pawlikowski (2009), Barrett Schitka (2010), Lauren Steinbrecher (2009) and Erin Virtue (2010) - are repeat recipients, while Giovana Melo has received the award in each of the three years since the program's inception.
Thirty Under 30 Award Recipients
Ashley Allen, Head Coach
Henry M. Jackson High School, Mill Creek, WA (High School)
Tanya Allen, Head Coach
Frank Phillips College, Borger, TX (NJCAA Division I)
Lauren Amundson, Head Coach
Stonehill College, Easton, MA (NCAA Division II)
Matthew Buttemore, Assistant Coach
Bellevue University, Bellevue, NE (NAIA)
Andy Cole, Assistant Coach
Lewis University (Women's and Men's), Romeoville, IL (NCAA Division II)
Matthew Cribbin, Head Coach
Sarah Lawrence College, Bronxville, NY (4-Year Independent)
Casey Dale, Head Coach
Transylvania University, Lexington, KY (NCAA Division III)
Sloane Dill, Club Director/Head Coach
Lower Hudson Volleyball Association, Mount Vernon, NY (NCAA Division I)
Bill Gleeson, Head Coach
St. Ambrose University (Men's), Davenport, IA (NAIA)
Anna Monsen Howle, Head Coach
Oklahoma Baptist University, Shawnee, OK (NAIA)
Haley Janicek, Head Coach
Austin Peay State University, Clarksville, TN (NCAA Division I)
Joseph Lind, Assistant Coach
Sam Houston State University, Huntsville, TX (NCAA Division I)
Daniel Mahy, Assistant Coach/Head Coach
Florida Gulf Coast University, Ft. Myers, FL / USA South Volleyball Club (NCAA Division I/Club)
Giovana Melo, Head Coach
Western Nebraska Community College, Scottsbluff, NE (NJCAA Division I)
Robert Mullowney, Head Coach
US Coast Guard Acad. (Women's)/Wentworth Inst. of Tech. (Men's), Allston, MA (NCAA Division III)
Shellane Ogoshi, Head Coach
Long Island University - CW Post, Brookville, NY (NCAA Division II)
Coley Pawlikowski, Assistant Coach
Northern Illinois University, DeKalb, IL (NCAA Division I)
Malama Peniata, Assistant Coach
St. Cloud State University, St. Cloud, MN (NCAA Division II)
Randi Raff, Assistant Coach
Christopher Newport University, Newport News, VA (NCAA Division III)
Roberta Santos, Assistant Coach
University of Texas at Brownsville, Brownsville, TX (NAIA)
Barrett Schitka, Head Coach and Program Coordinator
Kitchener-Waterloo Predators Volleyball Club (Boys and Girls), Ontario, Canada (Club)
Krissy Schmidt, Head Coach
Martin County High School, Stuart, FL (High School)
Keith Schunzel, Assistant Coach
University of North Texas, Denton, TX (NCAA Division I)
Kirsta Solberg, Head Coach
Indiana Institute of Technology, Ft. Wayne, IN (NAIA)
Robert St. Leger, Head Coach
Marist High School (Boys), Chicago, IL (High School)
Lauren Steinbrecher, Head Coach
James Madison University, Harrisonburg, VA (NCAA Division I)
Erin Virtue, Assistant Coach
University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, OH (NCAA Division I)
Kyle Weindel, Assistant Coach
Ohio University, Athens,OH (NCAA Division I)
Nick Wolf, Associate Club Director/Head Coach
Indy Juniors Volleyball Club, Indianapolis, IN (Club)
Michele Zabinski, Head Coach
De Sales University, Center Valley, PA (NCAA Division III)
