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| Team | Coaches |
|---|---|
| 13s - Blue | John Ginty (HC), Cindy McBride (AC), Sarah Brenner (AC), Carol Anderson (AC) |
| 13s - Black | Chris Ann Strahan (HC), Steve Stotler (AC) |
| 14s | Tom Leney (HC), Paul Bernett (AC), Betsy Schroeder (AC) |
| 15s | Kim Sears (HC), Pete Mathis (AC), Kacy Sellers (AC) |
| 16s | Jake Lawerence (HC), Melanie Bradshaw (AC), Gary White (AC) |
| 17s | Michael Burch (HC), Christa Carnduff (AC), Chris Plummer (AC) |
| 18s | Claudio Borgiotti (HC), Ray Chen (AC), Nicolette Taylor (AC) |
Floater Coaches
Sherrilyn Hanna
Thomas Lowrey
Joe Murach
Dave Sears
Clinic Coaches
Julie Young-Sturans - Head Coach
Bret Chen
Steve Drumm
Ben Glon
Kelley Kaplan
Kanasha Trent
Carrol has been involved with coaching volleyball for the past seven years. While this is her first year with Virginia Elite, Carrol is currently the Varsity Head Coach at Flint Hill School and was the assistant coach to NVVA Select 15s in 2007. She helped begin the volleyball program at Flint Hill in 2003 and the program has developed into one of the best high school teams in the DC Metropolitan area. Her teams have won two straight VIS state championships, two conference championships, and a City Championship. This past season her team was ranked #2 in the Washington Post among private and public high schools. Prepvolleyball also ranked Flint Hill as the top high school team in the state of Virginia. Impact certified, Carrol was named VIS Coach of the Year for 2008 and 2009.
Carrol, a high school math teacher at Flint Hill School, has two children. Her daughter, Gracie is a member of the 13s Blue Team. Over the past 5 years, she has directed several middle school volleyball clinics and camps.
Coach Bernett is entering his fourth year of coaching for Virginia Elite all at the 14’s level. He brings five years of volleyball experience playing at Mens A, Co-Ed and doubles. He has a passion for the sport and enjoys working with the younger girls focusing on proper technique and knowing the game. Preparing the girls for their high school careers is one of his goals and over the last three years all of the Virginia Elite 14’s girls have made their high school teams with the majority of them making varsity as a freshman.
As a parent of four children including a daughter who plays club volleyball, Paul brings that experience to his coaching. It enables him to better understand the concerns of the girls and parents involved in club volleyball.
A CAP 2 certified coach and avid competitive volleyball player since the early 80's, Claudio has played at the highest levels domestically as well as in a collection of notable international competitions.
Based on a long and recognized career competing against Division 1 college teams as well as many US Open tournaments for many years thereafter, he has established a strong reputation and broad collection of volleyball friendships and relationships with some of the most notable athletes and coaches around the country.
Though retired from competitive indoor ball, he continues to enjoy AVP and other open level sand tournaments during the summer season, and makes efforts to practices at many of the beaches in the Mid-Atlantic when the weather is nice.
In the past several years, Claudio has filled a variety of roles with Virginia Elite, while at the same time continuing to work with work with other local teams and coaches in a variety of mentoring and direct instruction roles.
Moving forward, he continues to focus his efforts on teaching volleyball for high commitment and high potential athletes starting at a young age, and continuing thorough high school and beyond. A desire to teach a broad appreciation for volleyball specific skills, athleticism, sportsmanship, fitness and fun will drive the drills and tactics that will be integral to the 18s curriculum for the upcoming season.
The team's goals this year will not only include the best possible preparation for success in collegiate competition, but also beyond this to the higher level competition that is available for those who so desire.
He looks forward to contributing to the Virginia Elite program, and to building teams of successful athletes who are passionate about the sport.
Melanie is in her third year with VA Elite. She brings over 18 years of playing experience and a love and passion for the sport. After playing in middle school and high school club, she played as a right side hitter at Bluefield College (NAIA Division I).
After graduating college, Coach Bradshaw assisted with an NVVA boys team for two years. She then became a head coach for the Metro VA Girls 15s and 16s teams as well as the NVVA Select 15s. She has assisted several high school programs, including Westfield, Edison, and Paul VI high schools. Her first year of assisting at Paul VI was a major highlight, since they won the state championship that year.
Sara Brenner joined the VA Elite coaching staff in 2009 as an assistant 13s coach, bringing with her more than 30 years of experience at the Division I, USAV open, and pro beach doubles level.
In college, Sara played for Bowling Green State University in Ohio. Since then, she has played on USAV teams for more than 20 years, competing in 14 national indoor tournaments. Her top finishes include 4th place in the Women’s Open Division at the 1994 USAV Nationals, and 2nd place in the Women’s 40s Division (for which she was a First Team All-Tourney Selection) at the 2000 USAV Nationals. More recently, Sara played for and served as Vice President of the Washington DC Pro Women’s Volleyball Tour (2004).
Outdoors, Sara has played both sand and grass doubles tournaments for more than 20 years throughout the US and Canada. She has won national championships in both sand and grass, including the 1989 National Sand Open Championship in California, the FOVA National Sand Open Championship (1990), the FOVA National Grass Open Championship (1992), the Bud Light National Sand Championship (1993), and – most recently – the USAV Sand Open National Championship (2000). She played several tournaments on the WPVA (now AVP) pro beach circuit, finishing as high as seventh place (Chicago). Sara has played in televised finals more than a dozen times; past sponsors include Mizuno, Speedo and Bolle.
Sara is married with two children, and lives in McLean, Virginia.
As a volleyball coach, Christa brings over 9 years of club, middle school, and high school coaching experience to her first season with Virginia Elite. She began her career in volleyball in 1994 as a player and went on to play Division I volleyball for Birmingham Southern College. Her coaching career began in 2000 as a Head Coach for Panama City Juniors 16s club team. In addition to being the Assistant Coach for Lewis Middle School in Florida and Head Coach at Village Christian Academy in North Carolina, her club coaching experience includes Head Coaching positions for both Northwest Florida Juniors 16s and Fayetteville Area Volleyball Association 18s.
Ray brings almost ten years of volleyball experience to Virginia Elite
as he returns for his third season. He has experience coaching
volleyball at many different levels, from Division III collegiate
(Marymount University), to intercollegiate club (University of
Maryland), to varsity high school (Paul VI High School) where he began his coaching career. He is currently CAP II certified, and has
attended Gold Medal Squared clinics to ensure his knowledge of
teaching the game is current.
As the founder and faculty advisor for the recreational volleyball
group at the University of Maryland, Ray remains heavily involved in
the sport as a player as well. He has played indoor volleyball since
high school, and is an avid beach/grass doubles player.
John (“G”) is entering his fourth year of coaching club volleyball. This year he will serve as the head coach of our 12s team. He adds 13 years of volleyball experience, as a player and a coach. After being a 4-year varsity starting setter in high school, he went on to play 4 years with the Canisius College Men’s Volleyball Club (Buffalo, NY). While at Canisius he served as a defensive specialist and backup setter, as well as coach and captain for 2 years. He studied Health and Physical Education and is now an elementary school PE teacher. He has also played in several adult volleyball leagues and has 6 years experience of beach volleyball with Long Island Volleyball Association.
John was the assistant JV and assistant Varsity coach at George Mason High School for 1 year, and the head JV coach and assistant Varsity coach at Marshall High School for 2 years. He is currently the head JV coach and assistant varsity coach at Oakton High School. John is USAV IMPACT and CAP II certified.
Ben has over 12 years of volleyball experience, as a player, coach, and an official. His coaching experience includes girls high school, girls club, and men's adult club volleyball.
As a student at US Air Force Academy, Ben played three years on the men's club team. He played as the back-up setter & defensive specialist as a sophomore, his first year ever playing the sport. The following year he earned the starting defensive specialist position and as a senior he won the starting setting position to lead the team to a #25 National Ranking during the 1999 Men's Club Volleyball Season. After graduation from college, he served seven years as an Air Force Officer and participated in the Air Force's World Class athlete program. He was invited to the Air Force Men's Volleyball Training Camp from 2002-2004, having made the roster in 2004. He participated in the Armed Forces Volleyball Championships, started as the libero and also the back-up setter. In the spring of 2006 he was honorably discharged from the Air Force and moved to the Northern Virginia Area where he is a deputy program manager for the US Navy Reserve where he is the Deputy Director of Finance and Programming.
In 2007, he was the head coach for Virginia Elite 16's Team, leading them to the Chesapeake Regional Championship and finishing 61st out of 124 Teams at the National Championships in Minneapolis, MN and finishing with a 74-17 overall record for the season. In 2008, he repeated as the head coach for the Virginia Elite 16's Team, leading them to the Chesapeake Regional Championship, finishing the season with a 31-0 record in the region, and finishing the season 67th out of 124 teams at the National Championships in Dallas, TX.
Sherrilyn has coached several seasons of youth basketball and middle school volleyball, a season of high school volleyball, and is beginning her 7th season as a club volleyball coach. Last year she coached the inaugural season of VA Elite's 12s age division. She is a USAV Impact certified coach and also has her CAP I certification.
Coach and President of Virginia Elite, Tom is starting his 5th year with the club. This year will be the first year that Tom is not head coaching a team, but will be providing direction and coaching mentoring to all the staff at VA Elite.
Tom has over 15 years of volleyball experience as a player and as a coach, including 7 years of Club coaching as well as 3 years of coaching high school volleyball. Tom has coached every age group from the 12s through the 18s. Since starting VA Elite, each of Tom's teams has reached the national tournament. He has also coached soccer and swimming and has worked to turn programs around, capturing 2 U-14 boys league championships in soccer, as well as helping the Bren Mar Marlins swim club, with an 18 year history of winless seasons, to their first victory and later their first division championship.
As a student at Penn State, Tom worked as an assistant with the Penn State Women's club team, under the tutelage of Lori Duncan, current Eastern Kentucky University Head Coach. Each of his past club teams has finished in the "Open" division (Top 10) in the CHRVA region. In addition to coaching club volleyball, he has coached with the Marshall HS JV squad helping develop their first winning season. Tom has also worked as the McLean HS Varsity Head Coach. Tom currently holds a CAP 1 certification and is working towards CAP level II certification.
Tom continues to strive to bring excellence to VA Elite and is looking forward to working with all coaches.
Pete Mathis started playing volleyball in upstate NY. He played all though out high school and for Pace Bootlegger a Rochester based club travel team. He continued to play volleyball in college. The first two years he played for Kent State University in Ohio. Then he studied in Bedford, England for a year and played at DeMontfort University. Upon graduating from college he started teaching and coaching a JV team in Fairfax County Public Schools. Since then he has become CAP 1 certified, working on his CAP 2 certification and is also Gold Medal Square certified. He has been coaching for 3 years now and has previously coached a 16’s and 18’s club travel team. When he is not coaching or attending graduate school Pete enjoys running, biking and hiking. He is looking forward to spreading his knowledge to VA Elite players and coaches.
Joe started playing Volleyball at age 10. He was a member of the 1979 Empire State Games New York City region Boy’s Division being the only representative from the Borough of Brooklyn. He was Captain of his High School Volleyball team which won the New York City Boy’s Volleyball Championship, and selected in 1987 to Xaverian High School’s Hall of Fame. Joe was commissioned an officer in the Navy and has played on numerous military base/regional championship teams as well as many club championship teams in Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Virginia, South Carolina, and California. He was Assistant Coach for Providence High School Girl’s Varsity team in Rhode Island, Assistant Coach for Virginia Elite 14’s in its inaugural year, Head Coach for the Robinson High School Boy’s Volleyball club, and recently, Floater Coach for various Virginia Elite teams.
Chris is entering his second year with VA Elite. Last year he served as the 17's assistant coach helping the 17's win Regionals and East Coast Championships. Chris has been involved with volleyball as a player for 20 years and as a coach for 8 years. Chris has coached with several clubs and in high school programs. Chris will be continuing his coaching education by getting his CAP 2 certification this season.
Betsy is new to VA Elite and the metro area. Originally from Louisville, Kentucky, she played for numerous clubs including MidAmerica Volleyball Association (MAVA), Derby City, and Louisville Thunder. She graduated from Ballard High School in 2003 and went on to play for two more years as a right-side hitter at Fordham University in New York City.
Upon graduating, Betsy returned to Louisville to coach Ballard High School’s freshman and JV teams, as well as assist on varsity.. She also served some coaching time with MidAmerica’s clinics and camps. Betsy looks forward to learning the volleyball world of northern Virginia and the Chesapeake region.
Betsy caught the coaching bug in 2001 when she started volunteering with her oldest daughter’s 6th grade middle school volleyball team. She has continued coaching in various capacities ever since, including three seasons as an LYV Select head coach, seven seasons assistant coaching for area club juniors teams, and three seasons as Broad Run High School’s Junior Varsity Head Coach. She joined Virginia Elite in the 2006-07 season as an assistant for the 14’s "Pulse" team, and assisted at the 13s and 12s levels as well. Betsy is USAV CAP-I and IMPACT certified.
Betsy is a physical therapist with Loudoun County Public Schools, working with special needs children. Prior to this she worked in outpatient orthopedic and sports physical therapy clinics, with advanced certification in spinal pain rehabilitation and special interest in volleyball injury prevention. She published an article in the March 2004 issue of the CHRVA “Digs” Newsletter entitled “Volleyball Injuries: Just A.S.K.” She is currently enrolled in the Doctor of Physical Therapy graduate program at the Medical College of Virginia at VCU.
Betsy lives in Ashburn with her husband and three daughters. She plays both indoor and beach volleyball whenever she has the opportunity.
Sears brings an impressive resume of both playing and coaching experience to VA Elite. As a teacher/coach at heart, Kim has a real passion to pass on her knowledge and enthusiasm for the sport of volleyball. She has accumulated 30 + yrs., through a variety of all age levels, boys, girls, collegiate women and men, and adult women and men USAV teams as well as numerous camps/clinics.
She began her playing career at Tulane University and was the first female athlete ever to receive a volleyball scholarship while participating in 2 collegiate sports, volleyball and basketball, at the time. After she transferred to another D1 school; Missouri State ranked 13th in the country at the time, to finish playing and she began her coaching experience. The Missouri State men’s volleyball club was her first coaching challenge. Upon graduating with a BS ED double major in physical education and biology she pursued a high school teaching a coaching job in Ohio. While she was the head volleyball coach she started a boy’s high school club program.
Shortly after Ohio she took over the volleyball head coaching position at George Mason University improving their program. She brought a new philosophy and techniques from the Midwest to take the program to a new level. Kim also started the GMU summer volleyball camp and it continues to run today. While coaching at GMU she continued to play on a top level women’s USAV team made up of players from up and down the east coast. During that time she also assisted coaching her husband’s, Dave, men’s club at the University of Maryland.
Kim retired from coaching in the collegiate ranks, to start a family, but continued to play and coach women’s AA and men’s A level USAV teams. Later she took a short sabbatical from coaching until her daughters started playing volleyball in LYV middle school program. Kim was Chairman of Loudoun Youth Volleyball for 3 years and head coached all of her young daughter’s teams for several years, continuing to coach for 5 yrs. in NVVA.
She and her husband, Dave of 27 years, met while playing volleyball. Dave played volleyball at The Ohio State and all three daughters play volleyball presently: Sarah at Stetson University, Lauren at Southern Miss and Emily at Broad Run HS.
Coach Sears is excited to step back into the role of head coach this year after being an asst. coach with VA Elite while her daughters prepared for college. Kim is also Impact and CAP 1 certified.
Kacy finished her playing career at Villanova University in Philadelphia last year where she set many single season and career records. In her senior year Kacy helped her team to an overall 3rd place finish in the Big East Conference and earned First Team All-Big East Conference honors. Kacy is originally from Battle Creek, MI where she played for numerous clubs including USA Michigan, Team Deer, and Courthouse.
Kacy's coaching experience includes being Head Coach for the 15s Team for the Philadelphia Volleyball Academy, coaching numerous camps in the Philadelphia area, and helping with her former High School team.
When she's not coaching Kacy enjoys riding her bike, rollerblading, and playing basketball. Kacy is also currently working toward her Master's Degree in Public Policy at George Washington University.
Bio coming soon.
Chris Ann is entering her fourth season with Virginia Elite, 3 seasons as Head Coach for the 13s team and one as an Assistant Coach to the 14s team. As the Head Coach for George Marshall High School, Chris Ann works with high school volleyball programs at all levels.
Her passion for volleyball and educating youth started when she began organized sports as early as middle school while growing up in Oil City, PA. Chris Ann started her volleyball career in at Oil City High School and was recruited to play at Marymount University located in Arlington, VA. While at Marymount, Chris Ann served as a Captain and earned a number of all-tournament selections, conference awards and all-state achievements.
As the Director of Recruiting for Sport & Health Clubs, she remains active by competing in local road races, triathlons and volleyball leagues. She believes that health & fitness are necessities in life!
Nicolette is in her 2nd year coaching with VA Elite. She brings over 12 years of volleyball experience to Elite. After playing middle school and high school volleyball and basketball as well as 3 years of USAV Juniors, Nicolette continued on to play Division I volleyball at George Mason University where she helped lead her team as an outside/right side hitter to back-to-back conference championships in 2002 and 2003 as well as serving as a captain her senior season.
Nicolette's coaching experience includes coaching 6 years summer camps as well as her experience as an assistant coach to VA Elite's 18's team last year. She is a USAV IMPACT certified coach and continues to play competitively in AA Women's USAV.
Gary is entering his second season as a coach with Virginia Elite, Gary spent his first year with Virginia Elite as the 18's Assistant Coach. During his first year, Gary's emphasis was on development of the team's setters. Gary's team finished first in the Chesapeake Region, qualifying the team for Nationals.
Gary's background brings over 9 years of volleyball experience to the club. After starting his high school career as a defensive specialist, Gary transitioned his following years to outside hitter and eventually setter and co-captain of the program by his junior and senior year. While in high school, Gary also played three years of club volleyball. His first years were with the Indian Valley Volleyball Club and as the setter for the BuxMont VBC in Southeastern Pennsylvania. Collegiently, Gary was a two-year co-captain for the Penn State University club volleyball program playing as the starting setter. While setting for the club, Gary helped the program to Top 5 rankings in the nation in each year he was with the club. The team also played in the NIRSA Club Nationals Tournament each year in the Division I bracket.
Gary is currently IMPACT and CAP I certified. Gary will be CAP II certified after this fall. During the summer, Gary frequently plays in outdoor doubles tournaments throughout Virginia, Maryland, and Pennsylvania."
julie.youngsturans@vaelite.com
Julie is joining the coaching staff of VA Elite this year with over 25 years experience with youth and women’s volleyball, as both a player and coach. Julie began her volleyball career in Nova Scotia, Canada, where she became an early (14-year old) recruit for the Canadian Junior National Team. Upon graduating from high school, following 6 years of middle, high school, club, and Canadian Junior team volleyball, Julie joined the Canadian Olympic Team where she competed internationally for 4 years. Following her stint with the Canadian team, Julie returned to college full time at Western Michigan University, in Kalamazoo, MI, to play under Rob Buck, where she served as the team captain for 2 of her 3 years. At Western Michigan University Julie earned Mid-America Conference (MAC) honors each of her 3 years, earned Academic All American honors in her final 2 years, as well as Woman of the Year Honors for Western Michigan University in her senior year as a Bronco.