USAV HP Names A1 Head Coaches

Bill Kauffman
Manager, Media Relations and Publications
Phone: 719-228-6800
E-Mail: bill.kauffman@usav.org

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (March 4, 2010) – USA Volleyball Indoor High Performance has announced its A1 head coaches for the 2010 season, according to USA Volleyball Managing Director of Indoor High Performance Tom Pingel.

Jim Stone has been selected to lead the U.S. Girls’ Youth National Team (GYNT) that will compete at the 2010 NORCECA Girls’ Youth Continental Championship April 25-May 3 in Guatemala City, Guatemala. Rob Browning will serve as head coach for the U.S. Women’s Junior National Team (WJNT) that will compete in the 2010 NORCECA Women’s Junior Continental Championship July 4-12 in Tijuana, Mexico. Anne Kordes will serve as head coach of the U.S. Girls’ Select National Teams (GSA1) that will compete during the 2010 USA Volleyball High Performance Championships July 27-31 in Sevierville, Tenn.

The assistant coaches for all three programs will be announced later this month.

Jim Stone Bio
Jim Stone will serve as the U.S. Girls’ Youth National Team at the 2010 NORCECA Girls’ Youth Continental Championship in Guatemala, which will serve as a qualifying tournament into the 2011 FIVB Girls’ Youth World Championship. He also served as the head coach of the U.S. Girls’ Youth National Team in 2008, which led to an undefeated run to the gold medal at the 2008 NORCECA Girls’ Youth Continental Championship in Puerto Rico. In the process, the team also qualified for the 2009 FIVB Girls’ Youth World Championship to be held in Thailand. At the 2009 FIVB Girls’ Youth World Championship, Stone was the head coach of the U.S. Girls’ Youth National Team that finished 12th in the tournament.

Stone served as the women’s volleyball head coach at The Ohio State University for 26 years before retiring after the 2007 collegiate season. Over his final 19 years with the Buckeye program, he established Ohio State as an annual Top 25 team. During that period, OSU had an overall record of 394-149 (.726) and a Big Ten Conference mark of 241-135 (.641). He won the Big Ten Conference championship three times, finishing second five times, third four times and fourth three times. The Buckeyes participated in 15 NCAA Tournaments, advancing to the NCAA Championship Semifinals in 1991 and 1994. His 26-year career record with Ohio State is 531-294 (573-257 per NCAA listing).

On the national and international scene, Stone was the head coach for one of the 2007 U.S. Women’s National A2 Teams that competed at the USA Volleyball Adult Open Championships. Also last summer, he served as the head coach for the 2007 U.S. Girls’ Youth A2 Team at the High Performance Championships in Fort Lauderdale, Fla.

Stone has been part of U.S. coaching staffs in each of the last three decades. He coached the men’s team which represented the South at the 1981 National Sports Festival at Syracuse, N.Y. In 1985, he coached the USA Junior National Team, which toured China and Japan. He served as coach of the East women in the 1986 Olympic Sports Festival. Additionally, he was selected to coach the men’s East team at the 1990 Olympic Sports Festival. In the summer of 1993, he was an assistant coach to the United States National “B” team that trained in San Diego and then played in Germany. In July of 1999, Stone was the head coach for the World University Games team, held in Palma de Mallorca, Spain.

During his collegiate career, Stone has coached 60 all-conference players, 15 Olympic Sports Festival participants, 37 all-region selections and 22 All-Americans. Four players have played for the Canadian and two for the United States National teams.

In 2004 Ohio State finished 30-4 overall, improving from a 11-17 mark in 2003. OSU advanced to the NCAA regional championship match. Buckeye Stacey Gordon was named the AVCA Co-National Player of the Year and the Asics/Volleyball Division I Player of the Year. In 1991 and 1994, the Buckeyes reached the NCAA semifinals. The 1991 squad had three freshman starters, which helped Stone earn National Coach of the Year by Volleyball Monthly. In 1994, Stone coached National Player of the Year Laura Davis.

Prior to Ohio State, Stone coached three years at Wyoming, taking a team that was 2-23 and posting winning records in two of his three years with the Cowboys. He had two 20-win seasons and in the 1981 season earned 18th place in the national polls. He was also named Intermountain Athletic Conference Coach of the Year for his 20-9 mark in 1981.

In addition to his coaching experience at Wyoming, Stone served as head coach of the 1976 Bowling Green State men’s volleyball club team. In 1975, he served as the assistant coach at Kellogg Community College, which won the junior college national championship that year.

During his playing career, Stone was named Ball State’s most valuable player in 1975. An All-America selection in 1974, he twice was named to the all-star team of the Midwest Intercollegiate Volleyball Association (MIVA). As a player, he participated in the 1974 Canada Cup, and he faced a strong Japanese men’s team in a series of matches throughout the United States in 1975. The following year, he faced the People’s Republic of China in a similar United States tour.

Rob Browning
Rob Browning recently completed his fifth season as the head women's volleyball coach at Saint Mary's College in California. He has accumulated an overall record of 88-50 and a conference record of 44-26. During the most recent 2009 campaign, Browning led the Gaels to their first-ever West Coast Conference Championship, going 13-1. The Gaels dominated the conference, leading in every statistical category by the end of the season, which has never happened in the history of the WCC. The Gaels went to the NCAA tournament for the second consecutive year and third in Browning's five years as coach, advancing to the second round in 2009.

Within the past five years Browning has had 22 of his players named to WCC All-Conference teams and five players named to the WCC All-Academic team. In addition, Browning helped guide Gael senior Alita Fisher to Saint Mary's first ever WCC Defensive Player of the Year honor and in 2007 freshman Megan York to Saint Mary's first ever WCC Co-Freshman of the Year honor. Saint Mary's has appeared in three NCAA tournaments under Browning and has won five pre-season tournaments over the past four seasons.

Last season, Browning's fifth year as head coach, five players received all-conference honors. Megan Burton, Alita Fisher, and Shannon Lowell were all named to the All-West Coast Conference 1st Team. Lauren Corp and Missy White were named to the 2009 WCC All-Freshman Team. Browning was also awarded 2009 WCC Coach of the Year as voted on by the other WCC head coaches, and AVCA Pacific Region Coach of the Year. The Gaels dominated the WCC, leading the conference in every statistical category.

Browning was an assistant coach for the U.S. Men's National Team for six years prior to joining Saint Mary's in March 2005. He has been to three Olympic Games with the USA men's team: 2000 in Sydney, 2004 in Athens, and 2008 in Beijing where the team won the gold medal. During the 2008 Olympic Games, Browning served as the team leader for the U.S. Olympic Men's Team.

Prior to coaching the men's national team, Browning served as a volunteer assistant on the BYU men's volleyball team for three years, culminating in BYU's first NCAA National Championship in 1999.

Anne Kordes
In six seasons at Saint Louis, Anne Kordes has led the Billiken volleyball program to unparalleled success with a 127-58 record in six years, including three NCAA Tournament appearances and Atlantic 10 regular-season titles in the last four seasons.

Kordes has been visible on the national coaching scene, serving as a coach for USA Volleyball High Performance programs. She was an assistant coach for the U.S. Girls' Youth National Team, which competed at the 2007 FIVB Girls' Youth World Championship in Mexico. In 2000, she was the assistant coach for the U.S. Girls’ Youth National Team, and in 2001 she was an assistant for the U.S. Women’s Junior National Team. Kordes served as an assistant in 2002 and 2003 for the U.S. Women’s National A2 Collegiate Program.

Kordes was the only college coach named as an assistant to the U.S. Women’s Junior National Team in 2004. She had an opportunity to coach some of the nation's best young players and accompanied the squad to the 2005 FIVB Women’s Junior World Championship played in Turkey. Kordes was also tabbed an assistant coach in 2006 and 2009 for the U.S. National Select Team. She helped with the team's training and competition at the USA High Performance Championships in Fort Lauderdale, Fla.

While with SLU, the Billikens broke into the American Volleyball Coaches Association (AVCA) top 25 for the first time Oct. 20, 2008, and have remained in the top 25 ever since. In 2008, Kordes led Saint Louis to another milestone - its first NCAA Tournament victory in only its second tournament match. That year, the Division I-AAA Athletics Directors Association selected her squad as the "All-Sports Trophy Champion" as the top I-AAA women's volleyball program in the nation.

In 2008, Kordes earned CVU.com (Collegiate Volleyball Update) National Coach of the Year honors and was named AVCA Northeast Region Coach of the Year. She is the only coach in Billiken volleyball annals to pilot her team to four consecutive 20-win campaigns.

One of the hallmarks of Kordes' teams is that they annually play one of the strongest schedules in the country. SLU finished the 2008 season No. 8 on the NCAA Women's Volleyball RPI, playing seven teams that finished among the RPI's top 25. The 2009 campaign was no different as the Billikens took on two-time defending national champion Penn State as well as four other teams that ranked among the top 11 in the final 2008 AVCA Coaches Poll.

In addition to their team success, Kordes' players have garnered numerous honors. Topping the list of individual plaudits is the selection of four Billikens to the 2008 AVCA All-America teams. Sammi McCloud became the first Billiken to garner a spot on one of the All-America teams when she was tabbed for the third team. Whitney Behrens, Bridget Fonke and Whitney Roth achieved honorable mention status. McCloud also went on to collect Under Armour Volleyball Magazine honorable mention laurels as well.

The Bills nearly swept the individual A-10 end-of-the-season awards. Kordes was named Coach of the Year for the second time in three seasons, Roth picked up her second straight Setter of the Year accolade and McCloud became the first Billiken volleyball student-athlete to be selected Player of the Year. SLU had a league-record four players named to the A-10 first team.

Kordes began her coaching career in 1999 when Indiana hired her as an assistant coach. However, her stay in Bloomington was short-lived. Before sitting on the bench with the Hoosiers, she had an opportunity to take a recruiting position at the University of Illinois. Kordes then spent the next five seasons with the Fighting Illini, serving as the top assistant from 1999-2003 and coaching two All-Americans. During her five-year stint, the Illini qualified for the NCAA Tournament three times and posted a 90-61 record.

Kordes' pursuit of coaching was influenced by her father, Ron, who coached at the grade school, high school and club levels in her hometown of Louisville, Ky. He coached his daughter at Assumption High School before she moved on to the University of Cincinnati. Kordes was named the 1994 Great Midwest Conference Newcomer of the Year, set the league record for assists by a sophomore with 1,575 and was named second-team All-Conference USA. After a two-year stint with the Bearcats, she transferred to the University of Louisville.

As a senior, Kordes led Louisville to the C-USA Tournament championship and the Sweet 16 of the NCAA Tournament. The Cardinals were ranked as high as No. 21 and finished with a 29-5 slate. She closed her career with 4,874 assists, 886 digs and 128 service aces and was a three-time All-Conference USA selection.

Tags: Anne Kordes, High Performance, High Performance Championships, Jim Stone, NORCECA, NORCECA Continental Girls' Youth Championship, NORCECA Women's Junior Continental Championship, Rob Browning, U.S. Girls' Youth National Team, U.S. Women's Junior National Team, USAV High Performance