Coaches and Staff

Paul Schiffer – Club Director
Paul is one of the founders of AVC. He is the Club Director for day to day business. He most recently served as Assistant Coach on the 2015 AAU National Championship 17 National team. He has coached several teams to OVR Championships as well as leading his teams to the Nationals 6 times. He has served as the Assistant Coach for teams have qualified open 3 times. He has coached 32 athletes that have gone on to play in college including 20 D1 athletes. He has coached at the CYO, Regional, National and Open level. He also serves as the Business Development, Recruiting Director, Transportation Coordinator, and Housing Director for the club.

Brian Highfield
Brian is the Academy's co-founder and co-owner. He is in charge of AVC’s administration and finances. Before his 6 year varsity coaching career began at Aurora High School, Brian participated on Case Western Reserve University Men’s Club Volleyball Team, who were two-time NCAC Champions in 1993 and 1994. Brian is well known in the volleyball community and has 20 years of playing experience as a USA Volleyball player. Brian is IMPACT, ASEP, CAP I and CAP II certified.

Brian Scipione
Brian is one of the founders of AVC along with Brian Highfield. He is the Club Director for the 14 and under Regional and American teams. After coaching older players the first 3 years of AVC, he moved to coaching younger national teams in the 12 - 14’s age groups and has qualified 4 of his 5 teams to nationals. His teams best finishes are 13th in the country in 2013 and 11th in the National division in 2014. He also coached beach in 2014 and his players finished 9th in the country for the 14’s Open division. He really has a passion to coach and train the players in these age groups. Besides Brian’s coaching experience, he also brings valuable playing experience to the table, having participated in Men’s USAVB and in local volleyball leagues. Brian is IMPACT, ASEP, CAP I and CAP II certified.

Sheree Harvey
Sheree Harvey is the Academy's National Program Director. As a scholar-athlete at Ohio State University, Sheree helped the Buckeyes capture a Big 10 Championship and participated in two trips to the NCAA National Championships. Sheree has more than 25 years of coaching experience, including positions at Kent State University and Stow High School. She has extensive club coaching experience in Northeast Ohio and participated as a coach for USA Volleyball's High Performance program in 2004 and 2005. Her teams have qualified for Nationals each year and her teams are ranked among the best in the country.

Jeff Reaser
This will be Jeff's 4th season with AVC. He has 8 seasons of coaching experience with three area clubs, as well as 3 years experience with St Joseph's Academy as varsity assistant. He has 3 USAV national qualifications. 2013 17-2 open class as the only club in the OVR to qualify 2 Open teams in the same age class, 2014 15-1 national class 5th place, 2015 16-1 open class 5th place. In addition to coaching Jeff will be heading up a new position of Director of Player Development for the National Program. Jeff is also Impact Certified.

Meredith Gromala

This will be Meredith's 5th season with AVC. A native from Los Angeles, Meredith has 11 years of coaching experience. In Meredith's first year at AVC her 17-2 team qualified Open as the only club in the OVR to qualify 2 Open teams in the same age group. Out of her four seasons at AVC, coaching teams ranging from 15s to 17s, she has qualified open three times, including a 5th place finish in the 2015 season.
This year she will be the head coach of our 17-1 National team. In addition to coaching, Meredith will continue to assist Jeff Reaser in Player Development and Positional Training as well as the Club Recruiting Coordinator. Meredith is married to Kent State Head Coach, Don Gromala.

Elizabeth Balser
This is Elizabeth's fifth year coaching at AVC. She has played volleyball since she was 8-years-old and is excited to continue to share her knowledge of the game. Elizabeth graduated from Strongsville High School in 2008, Ashland University in 2012 with a degree in Child Development and Family Studies and with her Masters in Clinical Mental Health Counseling from The University of Akron in 2018. She works as a Mental Health Therapist for an agency in Cleveland. Elizabeth played on JO national teams and at the club level in college. She likes to play sand and indoor leagues in her spare time. Elizabeth is IMPACT certified. 

Christiana Blakeslee
This is Christiana’s first season coaching at AVC, but this will be her second year coaching as a JO head coach. Christiana completed her first year of Junior Olympic coaching in 2015 at Club Ashtabula, where she coached an 18 Regional Team. Christiana was a three year varsity volleyball starter at Lakeside High School in Ashtabula. Christiana was a Junior Olympic player for six years and played at the National Level for four years. JO clubs included Club Ashtabula (2 years), Renaissance (1 year), and Maverick (3 years). During high school, Christiana attended the Sports Performance Setters Academy and was chosen for the 2008 USA Volleyball camp in San Francisco California. Christiana went on to play collegiate volleyball at the Division I level at the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, Massachusetts. Christiana was recruited as a Setter/Right Side and completed three seasons. Currently, Christiana competes in beach and indoor volleyball leagues. Christiana is looking forward to the upcoming season at AVC.

Kim Bauchens

Jason Bednar

Christiana Blakeslee

Liddia Costello

This is Liddia Costello’s second year coaching at AVC. She was very successful in her first year with AVC with both her teams qualifying for the top 32 Gold bracket at Regionals along with multiple tournament wins. She played JO for 7 years, one of those being at AVC. Liddia is graduating this year from The University of Akron with her degree in Early Childhood Education/Intervention Specialist. Liddia’s past knowledge of volleyball and current knowledge of teaching translates very well into the success of her teams. She is excited for another successful season. 

Karol Coundourides 

Karol has over 20 years experience coaching volleyball at She has taken many CYO girls' and boys' teams on to win City Championships and has a very high level of success in the USAV circuit, as well. She was inducted into the Magnificat High School Athletic Hall of Fame, as well as the Baldwin Wallace University Athletic Hall of Fame and was elected Senior Female Athlete of the Year in both high school and college. Her children, Alyssa, Alex and Kyra are all Collegiate Volleyball Players. Her son Eli plays USAV National Volleyball.

Stacy Coundourides
Stacey was a 4 year starter for the Baldwin-Wallace Men's Club Team. He has over 15 years of coaching experience with boys and girls CYO and club teams. He has coached at both Northcoast Volleyball Club, Southwest Volleyball Club and for the last 3 years has been with AVC. He is IMPACT certified.

Adam Evans
Adam Evans has coached nine seasons of Varsity Volleyball between both Norton High School and Massillon Washington High School. Adam has also been active in USA Volleyball as a club coach, working with 8 clubs in various roles, including 7 years as a club Director. He has been the head coach or assistant coach of six teams that have qualified for the USAV Girls' Junior Championships, including five for AVC. One team qualified after the 2009, 2010, 2013 and 2015 seasons and two teams qualified after the 2014 season. Adam played for 17 years in Men's USAV mostly at the A and Open levels as a middle blocker. Adam is a CAP II certified volleyball coach, a USAV Regional Official and is serving a third term on the Ohio Valley Region Board of Directors.

Jodi Evans
Jodi Evans has been coaching USAV Volleyball teams for twenty years, beginning in 1994. Upon graduating from Eastwood High School in 1986, Jodi accepted a volleyball scolarship to play for the University of Akron. She's still among the top ten all time in many kill and block categories for Akron U. In January of 2003, Jodi was honored with her induction to the University of Akron Athletic Hall of Fame for her accomplishements on the court. Jodi has been the Varsity Volleyball coach at three high schools; Our Lady of the Elms, Kenston and Shelby and has previously coached USA Volleyball with Club NET, Richland Volleyball Club and Renaissance Cleveland.

Liz George
Liz started coaching at AVC in 2018, after 5 years of coaching club volleyball outside the Ohio area. She started playing volleyball at age 10, played at Solon High School and a variety of area clubs, such as Renaissance, CVC and Eastside.
Liz spent her first three years coaching for Memphis Metro Volleyball Club in Tennessee and is very excited to be back in the Cleveland area with AVC. 
Liz currently teaches and coaches volleyball at Saint Martin de Porres High School.

Charlene Gruhn
 

Sara Haldi
 

Larmar Hicks

Kailey Holland

Kalli Holdash
This is Kalli's first season of coaching at AVC. She was a two year varsity starter at Trinity High School. Along with volleyball Kalli has played softball, basketball and racquetball at the varsity level. Kalli has continued to keep volleyball close to her life by being involved in intramural's since high school. Kalli is an alumni of Baldwin Wallace University where she received her Bachelor of Arts with focuses in Communication Sciences & Disorders, along with Psychology. Kalli has been working with adolescents for the past 7+ years and is currently a nanny. IMPACT, SafeSport and Concussion certified.

Kristina Jackson
 

Melyssa Jackson

Melyssa joined AVC in 2018 with years of competitive playing experience at Jump Serve Volleyball Club and St. Joseph Academy. She successfully coached a top 20 team her first year and was awarded Rookie Coach the Year for her first season as a coach. Along with volleyball, Melyssa also ran varsity level track and cross country so she fully understands the importance of athlete health, endurance and good sportsmanship. 
She is an alumni of the University of Cincinnati where she studied Communications and today works full time for ASM International as the Chapter Retention Specilaist.
She is IMPACT, SafeSport and Concussion certified. 

Michael Jackson
Michael has been with AVC since 2012. He has coached both boys and girls teams with AVC and at Jump Serve Volleyball Club. His teams consistently place in the top 20 in the OVR. Michael was the JV coachBrecksville Broadview Hts. High School for 5 years and was then the Head coach Hathaway Brown.He has a passion for the sport and is driven to teach success in team unity as well as individual improvement. He is IMPACT certified.

Meaghan Jacobs

Denise Johnson

Christian Jolley

This is Christian’s second year at AVC. He has coached club volleyball for eight years, six years at the national level, and at the high school level for four years. Christian played high school volleyball for Centerville High School and played for the Ohio University’ men’s club team while serving as a practice player for the OU women’s team. He is currently a special education teacher at Cleveland Heights High School.

Maggie Lombardi

Mike Maurer

John Matsumoto
This is John's second year coaching for AVC. John (Motts) brings with him over 20 years volleyball coaching experience including at the high school junior varsity head coach and varsity assistant coach levels as well as JO. He has previously served as a JO Volleyball club director and head coach for LEVA as well as being a head coach for 12 years at CVC.

Mike Passarelli

Tom Ray

Carly Rittwage

Arielle Sanders
 

Erick Sopata
Erick was the Head volleyball coach at Strongsville High School for 16 years and has won over 300 varsity matches. He was named conference coach of the year 4 times and District coach of the year twice. In 2013 Erick led the Mustangs to their first ever District Championship and Regional finals. Erick has coached 16 athletes who have gone on to play at the collegiate level, 9 of those athletes played at the DI level.  Erick has coached at a few volleyball clubs over the years including: Southwest, Players Choice and Ignite. Many of his teams have finished the season as Regional Champions. Erick has been with AVC for the last three years coaching the top 11’s teams and finding great success. In addition to coaching indoor at AVC, Erick has also coached the AVC 12U teams on the beach. In 2015 Erick helped qualify 4 teams to the USA Beach National Championships. Erick played volleyball for the Kent State Men’s MIVA Volleyball team. After college he played USA volleyball at the AA/Open levels and has won 2 regional championships.

Kelly Swope

Kelly began coaching at AVC in 2017. She brings 15 years of volleyball and leadership experience to the club and looks forward to sharing that knowledge with her team. In high school, she played as a defensive specialist for Willoughby South and later graduated from Kent State University. Kelly currently works as the event manager for private aviation company, Flexjet. She is IMPACT, SafeSport and Concussion certified.

Grayson Szczepaniak

Mary Vincent

Sonja Williams
Sonja Williams was the head coach at Ursuline College. The former Shaw University standout started her coaching career as a junior varsity coach at Beaumont School in 2004 and she served in that capacity for three seasons. Williams then became the head coach at Saint Peter Chanel High School from 2008-09 before leaving to coach freshmen at North Royalton High School.Before coming to Pepper Pike, Williams was the head coach at Warrensville Heights High School for two seasons. She also coached junior Olympic volleyball for Renaissance Cleveland, Cleveland Volleyball Company and Academy Volleyball (Cleveland). At the club level, Williams tutored players that ranged from 11 to 18 years old. A former star athlete in her own right, Williams was named the Shaw University ‘Freshman of the Year’ and ‘Player of the Year’ during her days as a Bear. The Central Intercollegiate Athletic Association also named her to its all-conference team. She now lives in Broadview Heights with her husband Brian. The couple has three children, Shannon, Brian Jr. and Bryndan.

Rich Woodland

Rich has been with AVC since it's inception. He has coached girls and boys teams ranging in age from 12 to 18 years old for the last 24 years. He has also coached at other JO and CYO programs, including Renaissance Cleveland and St. Rita. Rich has certifications in SafeSport, Concussion, IMPACT, ASEP, CAP I and CAP II.

Michelle Zahursky
Michelle is in her 2nd year coaching at AVC. Michelle was a 3 year varsity starter at Wayne High School in Fort Wayne, Indiana. Michelle was a 1st team all conference middle hitter her junior and senior year. She earned 9 varsity letters in high school in tennis, volleyball and basketball. Michelle played for the Fort Wayne Volleyball Club for 3 years. Michelle received a scholarship to Kent State University where she was an outside hitter for 4 years for the Golden Flashes. Michelle graduated with an undergraduate degree in Speech Pathology and a Master's in Early Intervention. She is eager to share her love and knowledge of volleyball with young players. 

Marcy Zoeckler

Amanda Artbauer
 

Maddie Bednar

Maddie started her coaching career with AVC in 2018 after seven of years of playing for the club. She is a graduate of Kenston high school where she played volleyball all four years. Currently she is pursuing a Biology degree at Baldwin Wallace College while playing volleyball. She is very excited to share her volleyball experience with young girls.

Alissa Coundorides
 

George Kambic
George has coached in the St. Rita's CYO program for 26 years primarily at the 8th grade level. He has been with AVC since its inception where he has coached most often 14 year old teams. He has also coached with a number of other JO programs over the years, such as Cannon and Renaissance. He is CAP 1 certified.

Jesus Perez

Jesus begins his coaching career with AVC for the 2019 season.

Jesus played club volleyball for Borinquen Coqui in San Juan PR and then went on to play at the collegiate level both at Concordia College in New York and then at USC. He also has experience at the professional level playing both in Puerto Rico and overseas. He was a member of both the Junior and Senior National team.

Jason Schellenburger
Jason Schellenberger coached at Medina High School from 1999-2011. While at Medina he coached his team to a 21-4 record in 2007 and was named both District 3 and N.O.C coach of the year. In 2010 he lead the Bees to the its first Regional appearance since 1984. This is his third year coaching club volleyball. One year at Ignite and the past two years here with AVC. He also played 3 years on Kent State Mens Club Volleyball.

Amaris Scipione