Author Archive: vballhall

Dr. Joan Barbarich

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Joan began her volleyball coaching career at Carnegie Mellon University where she coached from 1967-72. She had her first undefeated season there in 1970. Soon after that she received a Doctoral Teaching Fellowship at Springfield College to coach the women’s volleyball team. She coached Springfield from 1972-74 where she had a 24-0 season and competed in the AIAW national tournament in 1972, and a 26-1 season in 1973 with the only loss coming at the hands of SCSU and Louise Albrecht.

In 1976 Joan began her career at SCSU where she coached for 10 years. During that time, her teams competed against Penn St, University of Pittsburgh, University of Maryland, UConn and URI.

During her first five years as coach at Southern, her teams were considered the reigning volleyball power in the east. This is astounding considering that she did not have one scholarship athlete on any of her teams. Her overall record at SCSU was 264-124 (64%).

While at Southern, Joan also started a USVBA team call the New Haven Dippers which she coached for eight years. While this team competed on the national level, no records were kept at that time.

Joan also coached at summer camps and presented clinics at high schools throughout the state.

She completed the USVBA coaching certification for Level I and Level II in California in ’77 and ’78.

 

Christine Kenyon O’Connor

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Christine started her volleyball career at Farmington High School where she played from 1965 to 1968. Her team won state championships in 1966, 1967 and 1968. They were undefeated in regional format during those seasons.

After graduation from Farmington High, Christine went on to Ursinas College and then Central Connecticut State University where she competed on the volleyball team and graduated with a BS in Physical Education.

She coached volleyball at Farmington High School from 1974-79 and ’81, accumulating a record of 80-37. Her teams were four time Northwest Conference champions and they won the Class S state title in 1979.

Christine was the 1978 Connecticut High School Volleyball Coach of the Year.

She is presently the physical education coordinator at Irving Robbins Middle School.

 

Dr. Winnie Hamilton

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Winnie began her sports career as an outstanding athlete at Laurelton Hall High School. There she participated on the field hockey, basketball, softball and tennis teams. Upon graduation, she continued her education at SCSC where she majored in physical education.  It was at SCSC that Winnie had her first experience of being cut from a  sports team when she tried out for the volleyball team. They were looking for a middle blocker and Winnie, at 5’2”, did not fit the bill for the Owls. Winnie really believed that she could have been successful on that team.  Thus, upon graduation from Southern, when the opportunity arose to coach volleyball at Westhill, Winnie took the position. There she coached using her philosophy, formed by her experience at Southern, which was and is “you can be anything you believe you can be- and don’t let anyone tell you that you can’t.”

From that start of her 14-year volleyball coaching career at Westhill, her teams qualified for every state tournament and always achieved a minimum of a quarterfinal appearance. During her tenure as coach, her tems accumulated 10 league championships, 2 state titles with 7 appearances in the finals. These accomplishments coming from a team whose tallest player during those years was 5’9”.

Winnie was recognized for her achievements by the Connecticut High School Coaches Association as the Volleyball Coach of the Year in 1977 and the  New England HS Coaches Assoc. as the Volleyball Coach of the Year in 1984.  She was elected as the second woman to serve as president of the CHSCA in 1985. Winnie received the Stamford YWCA You Make a Difference Award for all her work with the children of Stamford.

Winnie is presently serving as principal of Dolan Middle School in Stamford.

Bonnie Jean Kenny

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2010Kenney

(no high school data available)

Bonnie moved on to the University of Tennessee in 1981 where she captained the Lady Vol’s nationally ranked volleyball team. That team enjoyed much success with three appearances in the NCAA tournament, two Southeastern Conference titles and two SEC runner up titles. Bonnie herself was named to the Southeastern Conference all-tournament team in 1982.

Bonnie also excelled academically while at Tennessee.  She was named an Academic All-American in 1984 and remained on the Dean’s list for seven academic quarters.

Upon graduation from the University of Tennessee, bonnie was named head volleyball coach at the University of South Carolina in Columbia. She continued there until 1993 when she took on the position as head coach at the University of Massachusetts where she continues to coach at present.

Form 1980 until the present time, Bonnie has worked as instructor, clinician and director for numerous volleyball camps.

She is a content contributor in both the AVCA Handbook and Championship Volleyball Drills Vol I & II.

Edna Fraser

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Edna graduated from West Haven High School and SCSU with a BS and MS in Health and Physical Education.

She played softball for the Raybeston  Brakettes during the 1950’s and 1960’s.  Her teaching and coaching began at Milford High School and in 1973 she moved to Foran High School. It was there that she coached volleyball (1973-1978), basketball (1973-1986), and softball (1973-1991). Her teams won 399 games in the three sports over a 33-year career.  In 1986, she took the position of athletic director at Foran. She served in that position until 1992. She served as CIAC volleyball tournament director from 1992-1996.

Edna was a pioneer in establishing sports for girls in the state of Connecticut. she began her career at a time when there were few if any sport opportunities as well as establishing herself and her programs as models of excellence.

Aside from her award presented tonight, Edna has also been inducted into the SCSU Alumni Hall of Fame. She is a member of the Softball Hall of Fame, the Conn. Coach Association Hall of Fame and will be inducted into the Connecticut High School Basketball Hall of Fame in April. Edna was also honored by the town of Milford with the renaming of the gymnasium at Foran High School as the Edna I. Fraser Gymnasium.

Gail Lackey

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Currently in her 33rd year at Wesleyan University, Gale Lackey will complete her 26th season as the Head Coach of the Cardinal Volleyball team in 2010. Gale has compiled a 429-334 mark over 25 seasons at Wesleyan. Gale joined the Wesleyan staff in 1978 after spending a year coaching volleyball at the University of Bridgeport. With 13 wins there, Gale has 442 victories in her volleyball college coaching career as of the 2009 season, which ranks among the national leaders in Division III and ranks her as the second all-time winning coach in the history of Wesleyan University Athletics.

Prior to her stint at the University of Bridgeport, Gale coached girl’s volleyball for seven years at Spring Grove High School in York County, Pennsylvania, an area of Pennsylvania with a long and impressive volleyball tradition. In four of her seven seasons at Spring Grove, Gale’s teams were Western Division Champs and played for the prestigious York County Championships. She coached members of her high school squad at the Girls’ Junior National Tournament in Chicago in 1977, after her team won the Middle Atlantic Regional Championship that spring.

Gale is a 1970 graduate of West Chester University in Pennsylvania with a B.S. in Health and Physical Education and earned her M. ED degree there, as well. At Wesleyan University, Gale’s team won the coveted Little Three Championship in 1992 with wins over Williams College and Amherst College. At Wesleyan she has coached seven All-Americans, one NESCAC Rookie of the Year, one NESCAC Defensive Player of the Year and three NESCAC Players of the Year. She was named 2001 NESCAC Coach of the Year after guiding her squad to a 30-6 record, a NESCAC Regular -season Championship with a 9-1 mark, and an invitation to the NCAA Division III tournament. Gale also coached her 2000 squad to an ECAC North Region Division III Championship. In between the 2000 and 2001 seasons, Gale arranged for her squad to take a memorable trip to Cuba during the winter break in January 2001. There, her team competed against a Cuban Junior National team in Havana. Her Wesleyan teams are consistently presented with the American Volleyball Coaches Association’s “Team Academic Award,” which requires a Team Cumulative GPA of 3.4 or higher. Gale has mentored and given free volleyball clinics to residents and students at the Children’s Home of Cromwell. She has given free clinics to underprivileged girls in the Cape Henlopen, DE area. Gale provided volleyball instruction in the Cape Town region of South Africa during a People to People Sports Exchange tour in 1997. She served as a Deputy Commissioner of Volleyball for the Special Olympics World Games in New Haven in 1995, scheduling over 150 contests over the course of that competition.

Gale, who holds the rank of Adjunct Professor of Physical Education and Feminist and Gender Studies at the University, teaches a fencing class and a course entitled “Gender and Sport.” Gale served as Head Coach of Field Hockey from 1978 to 1984, be-fore taking over the volleyball helm in 1985. She was also the Head Coach of Women’s Lacrosse at Wesleyan from 1979 to 1997. She is the athletic department’s Senior Woman Administrator and Associate Director of Athletics. Gale earned Stage I International Coaching Certification from the FIVB at Texas A&M in 1978.

Wesleyan

Class of 2012

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Brenton Graveley  AD Hebron

Gemetta Neal Player Norwich

Maribol Santana  Official Hartford

William McCaffrey

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Bill McCaffrey grew up in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He started playing volleyball in his early twenties at the urging of this brother Dick, at the YMCA. While playing, he played with and against all the best volleyball players in the Western Pennsylvania and Eastern Ohio..

Bill graduated from the University of Notre Dame in 1959 with a B.S. Degree in Aeronautical Engineering. In 1960 he married his wife Betty and they have three children.

The Lewis family moved to Connecticut as he began work at Pratt and Whitney Aviation. Bill started playing volleyball again at the Hartford YMCA. There he met Jim Welch and he convinced Bill to attend the New Haven YMCA. He played there and led the men’s Open Program for 25 years. They played in about 15 tournaments a year in Massachusetts, New York, Pennsylvania, and Virginia. He also started an adult league in South Windsor that is still in existence with 25 to 30 teams playing.

Bill eventually became the United States Volleyball Association commissioner in New England for five states. He served in that capacity for about five years working with other commissioners to form an East Coast volleyball region. During that time he also began officiating at the end of his tenure, became the chief officials of the New England Region.
Bill also became the United States Volleyball association national official. For the next 25 to 30 years, he worked many USVBA tournaments all over the east coast and in many women’s college matches. Still went to the nationals every year and was on the USVBA national rating team for 10 years.

Bill retired from Pratt and Whitney after 40 years as a vice president and marketing and customer support. After his retirement, he continued to appreciate both girls and boys high school volleyball matches.

Richard Langer

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Richard Langer started playing volleyball around 1970 in the old Southern New England YMCA league. He played in various tournaments in both New York and New England.

Five years later, Rich started coaching volleyball at Haddam-Killingworth. During his career, his teams have been to the finals of the Connecticut state volleyball tournament seven times. In 1991, his team was the Class S state volleyball champion.

Also during his career, in 2001 Rich was named the Connecticut High School Coaches’ Association Volleyball Coach of the Year.

In addition, Rich coached at the University of Rhode Island’s volleyball camp for three years, was selected Teacher of the Year for Regional School District 17 in 1998 and was inducted into the Haddam-Killingworth Hall of Fame and 2009.

Rich continues to play volleyball having played in the United States Volleyball Association’s nationals three times in the past five years. He also has played in various charity tournaments as a family with his two sons, daughter, son in law, and daughter in law.

The 2014 season is rich reminders 40th year of an outstanding volleyball career.

Middletown Press:  A memorable final season

Paul Thees

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Photo by Peter Casolino/Register Paul Thees is back as the head coach of the Amity volleyball team. Thees coached Amity for 16 seasons before resigning in 2007.

Photo by Peter Casolino/Register
Paul Thees is back as the head coach of the Amity volleyball team. Thees coached Amity for 16 seasons before resigning in 2007.

Paul played in the recreation /club volleyball program back in the late 70s at SCSU, and from his love for the game of volleyball. A few years later after graduating, he pursued his first head coaching job in 1982 at North Branford High School. He applied and was asked to meet Athletic Director Don Knickerbocker, who has since passed. Don started his career, and taught him the ropes as a beginner. Paul coached at North Bradford until 1985. His last three years at North Branford, his team 13 conference titles, played once in the quarterfinals of the state tournament and twice in the semifinals. That was just the beginning.

From 1989 through 1991 toll coached Platt High School in Meriden where his teams played once in the quarterfinals, wants in the state finals and won the state championship. Then in 1992, Paul was hired to coach at Amity Regional High School. For the next 15 years, his teams won 11 conference titles, played in the quarterfinals of the state tournament six times, the semifinals three times, the finals twice and won three state championships. After after two years coaching of trouble high school, Paul return to an 80 and 11 more conference title and played in the quarterfinals wants more.

In total, falls high school coaching record stands at 512 wins and 157 losses and 31 years. In five different schools, Paul Stevens won 15 of the titles, qualified for the state tournament 29 out of 31 seasons, played in the quarterfinals nine times, the semifinals five times, the final seven times and won four state championships. He is the only high school coach to win state championships at two different schools. He had multiple Allstate players and two Gatorade Players of the Year.

The Orange Times:  A Coaching Legend Retires After 31 Years