Kent Steffes started playing indoor volleyball at the age of 12 before transitioning to beach volleyball where he advanced to become one of the most decorated players of all time. Kent’s talent emerged when a group of parents in Pacific Palisades, California, started a club team. He played in many USA Volleyball Junior National Championship...

Donna Friesen Wigton kept the volleyball score for over four decades in various leadership roles before retiring from the scorer’s table. While still playing at UNC Greensboro, Donna earned her state DGWS rating in 1972 and refereed at every collegiate level through 2016. She later got involved with the Southern Region, becoming a regional referee...

Michael Blalock’s extensive experience in officiating and training the next generation of referees may not have happened if not for a chance exposure to volleyball while walking across the University of North Carolina campus as a student in the early 1970s. He was fascinated with the game and joined the North Carolina club team in...

Kathy Ets-Hokin was a four-sport star playing at Kennedy Christian High School from 1983-87 before going on to become a setter/defensive specialist at Mercyhurst College. But Kathy’s proudest accomplishment was having her children grow into wonderful people, including her daughter Camryn who shares her mom’s love and passion for volleyball. Camryn has played five years...

Sam Nimpchaimanatham, born in Thailand and retired from the U.S. Air Force with 25 years service, began playing and coaching indoor and beach volleyball for USA Volleyball clubs and military teams three years into his military career. Since 1990 while serving in the Air Force in Okinawa, Japan and Florida, Sam has volunteered his off-duty...

Bethani Hincherick has devoted two decades to coaching youth players to become the best they can be. She used her experiences as a four-year letterwinner at Grand Valley State University from 1996-1999, including captain her senior year, to develop her own coaching skills for the next generation of players. Bethani has coached Elite Teams at...

Loren Paulozzi has made Ohio Valley Region’s Southwest VBC into a family affair with a history of success. He began his coaching and club director career almost 25 years ago when his daughters Charlotte and Amy were playing volleyball in grade school. Now both of his daughters are coaches on the Southwest staff serving northeastern...

John Nelson started playing volleyball in coed sand and indoor leagues as a teenager and later went on to play with his unit at Marine Corp Base Camp Lejeune in North Carolina. He joined USA Volleyball as an adult player in Yakima, Washington and became a regional referee in 1992. Ever since then, John has...

From the first time he stepped on the volleyball referee stand in 1979, Joe Campbell has loved the game. And that is from a football and baseball fan growing up never having followed volleyball until Japanese strangers asked him to try the sport in 1979 while in the U.S. Air Force serving in Japan. His...

Michelle Goodall has a habit of saying yes, and that has expanded her volleyball wings to nearly every discipline. While in college, Michelle coached her first high school volleyball team in Rocky Ford, Colorado. She moved back to her home state of Iowa in the early 1990s where she played on a women’s USA Volleyball...