| Bio's |
This will be 10 years of local club coaching and the sixth season as a director for Kelly. She is the mother of Kila, who was the setter for our 18 black team 3 years ago. Kelly played volleyball & basketball at Evergreen High school in Vancouver. She then played at Clark College. After Clark, she transferred to Western Oregon, were she played middle blocker and led the league in stuff blocks and kills, named All-American NAIA and went on to Nationals her senior year in Wisconsin were they placed 8th. She has played/coached club and school ball for more than 20 years in Hawaii, Texas, and here in the great northwest. Currently she is the head coach of Seton Catholic High School in Vancouver, which she is enjoying alot. As a coach, you can make a huge difference in a player's life, and that makes her very happy. Kelly would like to report that daughter Kila is attending college and playing volleyball in the big Sky country at University of Great Falls.
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Brad Elliott - Co-Director/Webmaster
Brad played volleyball for Oregon State University from 1980 to 1983 and ran the volleyball club for OSU in 1983. After college he continued to play both indoor and outdoor until 1993 when he retired to focus on raising his family. Brad rediscovered his passion for the game in March of 2008 and decided to come out of retirement. Brad still plays often in the sand during the summer, but limits his indoor play mostly to practicing with the Excel kids in order to protect the knees and shoulder. Brad's career includes 6 Coed Seaside Doubles championships (2 Open and 4 Masters) and one appearance at USA Nationals. Brad and his wife Dianne are longtime outdoor doubles partners and still enjoy competing with the "youngins" a few times a year. Brad enjoys all aspects of the game and is inspired by the passion that he sees in youth volleyball. Brad has a strong belief that youth sports carries life lessons for kids that are difficult to achieve through other experiences. In his spare time Brad also commutes to Beaverton for his full time job at Nike. |
Jessie Uribe - 17 Black Head Coach/General Advisor
This year, Jessie is cooaching the 17 black team for Excel. Jessie is also the Head Coach at Clark College and has coached volleyball for over 20 years at all levels and ages groups for several club programs. He has also coached at Gonzaga Preparatory in Spokane, WA at the freshman and JV levels and worked as an assistant coach for 3 separate seasons at the varsity level. Jessie’s experience also includes playing volleyball for over 10 years at both national and international levels.
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Sabrina graduated from Glencoe High School in Hillsboro, Oregon. She started volleyball in the 8th grade and played for Tualatin Valley Juniors as a defensive specialist. She was named 1st team all league for three years in a row. After high school she went to Western Oregon University and receive a degree in Criminal Justice. Sabrina is currenty a police officer for the Portland Police Bureau. Sabrina has been coaching club volleyball for nine years. She has coached for Greater Columbia, Bridgetown, and has returned for her fifth year for Excel NW. She also coached for Lincoln High School as JV coach, where she lead her teams to 1st place finishes for three seasons in a row. She is currently the head coach for Ridgefield High School. Sabrina is looking forward to having another fun and successful season with Excel NW!
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| Lisa VanSickle - 15 Black Head Coach/Administration
With both coaching and playing experience, Lisa will coach the 15 Black team this season with husband Gary. Lisa went to high school in Hawaii, lettering in both volleyball and basketball. She was an All State basketball player in high school. She played volleyball for Hawaii Pacific University, earning all district honors. After college, she played international volleyball professionally in Argentina. When she returned to Hawaii, she began competing in beach volleyball and soon became a top ranked beach volleyball player in the state. Lisa also played for a professional indoor team called “Hawaii Waves” Coaching experience includes: Assistant Coach for Hawaii Pacific University, and JV coach for University High School in Hawaii. She has had success coaching 12’s and 14’s club volleyball. Her 14 Black team won the prestigious “Arizona Festival”, a national tournament this past summer. Lisa and Gary have a 16-year-old son and a 13-year-old daughter who play’s for Excel. Lisa has been on the Board of Directors for Excel NW for the last 3 seasons as the clubs Administrator.
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Kristin Robinson - 14 Black Head Coach
Kristin graduated locally from Ridgefield High School where she lettered 4 years in Basketball and 2 years in Volleyball, coming in 2nd and 4th place in State. She received a scholarship for volleyball at Clark College where she was Captain her sophomore year and played as a setter and outside hitter. Kristin then received a scholarship to play for Hawaii Pacific University where she was voted captain her senior year and the team ranked as high as 7th in the nation that year. Kristin spent one year as a graduate assistant coach for HPU and most recently coached the Excel 12 Black to a 3rd place finish in 2010, which the team earned the club’s 1st bid for Nationals. Kristin has one daughter Kaila who is 12 years old who has “volleyball fever”. Kristin is excited to be back coaching with Excel this year to continue to encourage the game of volleyball. |
Denise Riggins - 12 Black Head Coach
Denise started playing volleyball in 9th grade and has had a passion and appreciation for it ever since. She was a three sport athlete at Corvallis High School, with 1st team all league honors Volleyball, Basketball and Track. In high school she was a setter and outside hitter on her varsity team that won three consecutive Oregon state championships, and was the only unanimous pick for 1st team all league and 1st team all state honors her junior and senior year. During high school she was also honored by being in Sports Illustrated “Faces in the Crowd “for her athletic achievements. She earned a full scholarship at Oregon State and played for Gerald Gregory and Jim Iams until knee injuries shorted her college career. After college, she moved to California and played on various indoor club teams, than gravitated to beach volleyball, which was more forgiving on the knees. There she played and won various beach and grass tournaments, most notable win was women’s doubles at Estero Beach in 1994 one of the largest beach volleyball tournaments anywhere. Since moving back to the Northwest, she has been playing women’s and coed softball on some highly competitive teams. Denise has had the benefit of very good coaches throughout her sports career and all of them had a focus on strong fundamentals, which has been the core of her own coaching philosophy. She has coached various sports at all levels and believes that kids benefit from participating in sports in so many ways.
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Nichelle Bethune - 18 Silver Head Coach
Nichelle has been playing volleyball for 9 years. She played for Clark College for 2 years and in her first year was awarded the MVP and All-Star at the Crossover Tournament. In her second year she finished at Clark College on the second team All League and an All-Star. Nichelle started coaching in 2005 as a top 16 assistant coach. In following years she coached a second 16's team as head coach, then 14 blue head coach, and then co-coached a top 18's team. For 4 years she coached at Evergreen High School as the head coach for the JV team. Her specialty is hitting and blocking and she has an all around love of the sport. She enjoy's helping kids set goals and achieve them. |
Jessica Scott - 16 Silver Head Coach
Jessica is entering her 9th season coaching volleyball. Jessica started her coaching career at Cascade Juniors VBC where she spent three years coaching at both the U-14 and U-16 levels. While coaching for Cascade she competed on an intramural team at Western Oregon University. After graduating college, she moved up to Seattle, WA for graduate school. There Jessica spent two years coaching and running volleyball camps for Northwest Juniors VBC. After receiving her Masters in Industrial/Organizational Psychology, Jessica moved back home to her Portland roots. Jessica has been working as the JV coach at Milwaukie High School for three years and is now entering her fourth season with Excel NW. When she is not in the gym coaching, she is usually in the classroom teaching as a full time Psychology instructor at Everest College. Jessica is looking forward to her fourth season at Excel NW! |
Hayden Sweet - 14 Silver Head Coach
Hayden Sweet was born and raised in Corvallis, Oregon and played varsity volleyball for Corvallis High School from 1998-2001 where she was trained as a setter and an outside hitter. She competed in the 18's level of club for three years, under Emerald City Volleyball Club for two of those seasons. She graduated from the University of Portland in 2005 with a Communications Degree and is currently pursuing her Master's Degree at Concordia University. She has been the Junior Varsity Head Coach at Sam Barlow High School for the last three seasons, and has previously coached 15's, 16's and 18's at Alpine Volleyball Club. Currently, she plays sand volleyball (both coed and women's) and has coached juniors sand volleyball for the past two summers under NP Beach Club. Hayden is very excited to join Excel NW this season and looks forward to lending her skills to the 14 Silver team! |
Gregg Parker - 16 Blue Head Coach
Gregg played as an outside hitter with men’s traveling volleyball team in the Air Force for a few years overseas. He has also played in both outdoor sand & grass doubles competitions through the 90’s in Hawaii and the Northwest & also played in Portland Volleyball Association’s (PVA) men’s indoor 6’s league, upper division, in Portland, OR, winning several league championships in the 90’s. Gregg has been involved with the Portland men’s club for several years as a player-coach and in 1998 completed the first level of CAP (Coaching Accreditation Program). In 1999, with the Gulf War heating up, Gregg returned to active military duty. In 2010 Gregg recertified for his CAP in Honolulu, Hawaii & attended a setting clinic with former USAVB national team setter Charlene Tagaloa Johnson. This is Gregg's 3rd consecutive season coaching in the juniors program. Gregg still actively competes in outdoor doubles & quads competitions as well as an indoor coed 6’s league. Currently Gregg and Nyra (16 Blue assistant) are co-captains on an upper division coed team, which sits atop of their division at 15-1. In May of 2011 Gregg attended an all skills coaches clinic with several other Excel NW coaches at Portland State University, featuring Russ Rose, Penn State University head coach & John Dunning, Stanford University head coach. Both coaches are 4-time Division-I national championship winners in women’s’ volleyball.
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Brandon Lee Hannula - 14 Blue Head Coach
Brandon started playing volleyball in 1991 on a junior boys team at Columbia River. He started the Angels Volleyball Club in 1999 which ran until 2007. Brandon's coaching experience includes: Fort Vancouver in 2000, Ridgefield High School from 2003-2005, and volunteer assistant coach at University of Portland from 2000-2005. Brandon earned his AAA rating as an indoor player in 1999 and has been a rated amateur pro beach player since 1998. Brandon still has an "Open" rating in both the indoor and outdoor game. Brandon has also been a Certified Federation and International referee since 1992. |
Dianne Elliott - 14 White Head Caoch/Treasurer
Dianne grew up in Corvallis Oregon and has been playing and coaching volleyball for more than 35 years. She started her playing career in high school and her senior year had an undefeated season and her team won the Oregon State Championship. She earned a volleyball scholarship at Portland State University where her team attended the National Collegiate tournaments every year placing as high as second. She played club Volleyball earned a Club National Championship in 1988. She began playing outdoor co-ed sand doubles at age 16. She eventually met her husband and they became not only partners in the sand but partners in life. They have played sand and grass doubles in the Northwest as well as the Southeastern United States with many top finishes including 6 co-ed doubles championships at Seaside in three different divisions. She played women’s doubles as well on both coasts, and had the pleasure of playing in the Jose Cuervo National tournaments in Fort Lauderdale Florida, and one professional tournament in Myrtle Beach South Carolina. Dianne was an assistant coach at PSU when they won their first NCAA Division II Championship. She has coached a high school CAN AM team, a youth boy’s team, a men’s team and was a player coach on several women’s teams. She has coached junior girls in the Camas Ohana Volleyball club as well as Excel NW Volleyball Club. She has been on the Board of Directors for Excel NW Volleyball Club for the last three seasons as the Treasurer.
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| Diana Baiar - 12 Silver Head Coach
Diana is in love with the sport of volleyball and it has been a part of her life for over 30 years! She played at Evergreen High School making captains honors and district All-Star teams. She then went on to play three years in college on scholarship; two years at Mt. Hood Community College and a year at Warner Pacific College. All three years she played middle blocker and defensive specialist. After her third year, she blew her ACL out in a skiing accident and had reconstructive surgery. After recouping, she continued playing in leagues and in the sand. Eventually she started coaching at Camas High School for two years until the birth of her first daughter, Nattali. Now she has two daughters who both played club volleyball last year. These past few years she has been getting more involved in the beach volleyball scene and has seen what a tremendous benefit it is to any player looking to improve. She is looking forward to coaching this year at Excel!"
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| Jason Hubert - 18 Black Assistant Coach
Jason started playing volleyball in 1986, were he played 9 years for various clubs in the Gresham/Salem area. In 1991 he landed a spot as assistant coach at Western Oregon University. He coached for Bridgetown at the 16's level for 2 years and has coached for Excel for the past 4 seasons. He is currently an officer with the Portland Police Bureau. Jason has two sons and a daughter, Alli, who also plays volleyball for Lewis and Clark College.
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| Dani Kent - 17 Black Assistant Coach
Dani is entering her seventh year as a coach. Currently she is an assistant coach with the Clark College volleyball team. She started coaching with Bridgetown VBC and this is her fifth year coaching for Excel NW. Her experience also includes playing volleyball for over 13 years. She began playing at the age of 8 and was the starting setter for Clark College during her time there. Her passion and knowledge of volleyball as a player offers invaluable leadership guidance to her players.
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| Gary VanSickle - 15 Black Assistant Coach
Gary played college volleyball for University of Hawaii men’s volleyball program which was ranked #1 in the nation in 1991. He was also a member of the prestigious “Outrigger Canoe Club” men’s open 30 division national championship team. He enjoys competing & playing beach volleyball. Gary has experience coaching in the women’s open division and will assist his wife, Lisa, in coaching Excel NW volleyball’s 15 Black team this year. Gary was the head coach for Excel 16 Silver last year and has assisted with 12’s and 14’s club division in the past. Gary helped the Excel 14 Black team to a first place finish at the “Arizona Festival” this past summer.
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Nyra Gallardo - 16 Blue Assistant Coach
With over 12 years of playing volleyball for Nyra, this will be her first year as a coach. Her passion for volleyball and mentoring younger kids had led her to coaching. She attending and played for Hudson’s Bay, here in Vancouver, and graduated in 08’. Currently she is pursuing the pre-med program at Washington State University Vancouver, and majoring in biology. Nyra has been very active at WSUV, for she has been a previous student-ambassador and a peer-mentor on campus. The rewarding experience and thrill that comes with coaching has Nyra enthusiastic for this upcoming season with Excel!
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Katie Bishop-Smith - 12 Black Assistant Coach
Katie grew up in Southern California and moved to Eugene to play volleyball for the University of Oregon Ducks, ending her collegiate career with a trip to the National collegiate tournament. Katie has coached both boys and girls volleyball at the high school level and most recently coached 5th and 6th graders for the Ridgefield Community Education volleyball league. Katie is a retired professor from the University of San Diego and currently teaches half time in a specialized program at Ridgefield High School.
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Cymany O’Brien - Communications Manager
Cymany grew up in LaCenter, Washington and played competitive volleyball, basketball and softball through high school. She was a 2-year letterman in basketball, 4-year in softball and 3-year in volleyball. She was captain of the volleyball team her senior year, leading them to a 3rd place finish at State. The softball team earned a 4th place finish at State. Cymany earned various recognition and honors throughout her high school career: MVP (basketball); Coach's Award (volleyball, basketball); Most Inspirational (volleyball, basketball); as well as a 2nd Team All League nod for softball. Cymany played college softball at Lower Columbia where she helped her team earn a 2nd place finish at the NWAACC tournament (1995). In addition to her successes with school teams, Cymany has also been a member of several competitive teams that have captured various tournament, State and National titles. Most recently her women’s slow-pitch team took 5th at Nationals in 2007. She is married with a 8-year-old son (DUKE, who is really cute, smart, nice, and, of course, athletic and very competitive!) and still enjoys participating in competitive slow-pitch softball and city league volleyball. Her first year coaching club she assisted Kelly Adams in Camas for the 14’s black team. She has also coached for Excel at the 16's and 12's age groups as well as with CYO. Volleyball is a zone that Cymany enjoys being a part of and is striving to improve her coaching game year after year. She is looking forward to the upcoming club season with Excel!
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Allison Lee - Coach
Allison has played at various clubs from 5th grade up through the end of her high school career. She also played 2 years at Clark College and won the award for most inspirational in her sophomore year. She has coached for several clubs in the area and is very excited to return to coaching. Her philosophy on coaching stems from her strong belief on developing fundamentals as well as creating a love for the game in her players. |
