Getting up to speed on offseason happenings

OK. My D-III focus returns to volleyball now that the baseball season is complete. I last posted about new head coaches around the region in late February. It stands to reason that there have been other head coach announcements in the interim. Allow me to get up to speed with those.

• Wheaton (Ill.) named Brittany Smith as its new head coach. Smith was most recently the head coach at Taylor University.

• Loras named Jenna Ness as its new head coach. Ness was most recently an assistant coach at Saint Mary’s (Minn.). Ness replaces Teresa Kehe, who stepped down to accept a high school teaching and coaching position in Iowa.

• Finlandia named Kristan Schuster as its [interim] head coach. Schuster had been the Hancock (Mich.) High School head coach since 1997.

• Hamline named Becky Egan as its new head coach. Egan had been the head coach at Eastview (Minn.) High School since 2001.

• Alverno named Jimmy Muñoz as its new head coach. Muñoz was most recently an assistant at Bradley University. Muñoz replaces Paul Lawson, who coached the Inferno for three seasons.

• Concordia Wisconsin named Janelle Gabrielsen as its new head coach. Gabrielsen was most recently a graduate assistant at CUW.

• Crown named Joy Johnston as its new head coach. Johnston was most recently a club coach in Minnesota.

• Stacey White resigned as head coach at UW-Stevens Point in order to be closer to family in the Twin Cities area. A national search is underway.

Happy recruiting and camp season, coaches, players and parents. I’ll pop back in before the season starts if news warrants. I still have not been hired to work in a sports information department, so it’s looking like I’ll be around to watch plenty of volleyball again this season. I’m an optimist, so more volleyball is an awesome silver lining.

-Ricky Nelson