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 is currently the assistant coach of the 17’s and 18’s.  He was the 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 6 times. He has coached 73 athletes that have gone on to play in college including 43 D1 athletes. He has coached at the CYO, Regional, National and Open level. He also serves as the Business Development,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 “Skip” is one of the founders and owners of AVC along with Brian Highfield. He is the Club Director for the 14 and under American and Regional teams. He has 25+ years of playing and 16+ years of coaching experience. He has coached national teams for the past 12 years and qualified 11 of them to USAV Nationals. One of them at the Open level. He has a passion for training, developing and inspiring the younger players setting them up to be successful not only in volleyball but in life. He takes a lot of what he learned from his Track and Cross Country coaches while in HS and uses those same principles to coach his players. Brian is IMPACT, ASEP, CAP I and CAP II certified.

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

Michael Antonucci

Michael joined AVC in 2019. He played at Archbishop Hoban-Graduated 2006. Went to Mercyhurst to play libero. Moved to Phoenix, AZ in October 2012 and began coaching at Revolution Volleyball Academy (RVA). Over the next six years he had the privilege of being a part of many team and individual achievements. Qualifying twice in 18 Open, and four times in National ages 16-18.  He has been lucky enough to train over 40 Division 1 athletes during that time; with a few now even playing professionally overseas. He has been married ed for two years to his beautiful wife, Emily. He is very excited to be part of AVC and it’s culture and looks forward to bringing his passion for the game to the club.”

Mark Bandza

Jason Bednar

Jason joined AVC as a coach in 2017.Two years ago he coached a successful 11R team and last year  coached 12 Blue. This season Jason will be coaching 13 Blue. Jason has 5 years of coaching experience with Kenston Rec Volleyball. Jason also has had 22 years experience of coaching both high school and college football. He has two daughters that played for AVC. Maddie is a junior at Baldwin Wallace University where she plays volleyball and Abby, who played on a National team since 11, is a freshman at the University of Southern Indiana and plays volleyball.  

Maddie Bednar

Maddie started her coaching career with AVC in 2018 after seven years of playing for the club. Two years ago she coached a successful 11R team and last year helped with 12 Blue. This season Maddie will be helping 13 Blue. 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. 

Briana Benge
Briana joined AVC in 2020, prior to AVC she was the Head Volleyball Coach of SMAQ, 12's,13's,14's,15's teams. Briana is currently the Assistant Varsity Coach at Kenston High School and has been giving private lessons and running large camps since 2016. Briana played high school volleyball in Michigan where she was a setter and heavily recruited until she tore her ACL her Junior year, at which time she decided to change her route and played College Softball at Ursuline College in Cleveland. She graduated in 2018 and has switched her focus back to Volleyball ever since. Professionally outside of volleyball, she is in Graduate School at Notre Dame College studying National Security and Intelligence Analysis as well as working full time as the Lead Technical Services Engineer for the Midwest Region of Lifestance at Fit Technologies. She has an incredible passion for the game, teamwork and mental toughness and cannot wait to share that with her team.

Delaney Bentley

Bob Burrows

Bob started playing volleyball in 2004.   In 2009 a fire started inside him to really learn the game.  That drive he found to learn, grow, improve and share that knowledge has never stopped.  In 2011 he started an adult doubles volleyball pickup group and later took over the Cleveland Volleyball Meetup Group, which he still runs, growing it to over 4000 members for 2s, 4s, & 6s indoor & beach volleyball.  By 2015 he was playing 12 months a year on 7 simultaneous teams (captaining 5 of them), plus substituted for countless other teams each and every night, ran & played in 2 large 5hr weekly pickup sessions, plus played tournaments most weekends.  A typical Sunday in the summer involved 11-13hr of active court play and he was almost always the first one on & the last one off the courts.  His passion for the game and helping others become the best they can be, continues.  In 2019 he was invited to coach at AVC as the Assistant Coach for 13 National Blue.  This summer he coached nearly every session of Skills Training camps, JVC, and Fall Ball and is pumped & honored to be the 2020-21 Head Coach for the 13 National White team.  His philosophy is that life is a long path, and volleyball is a great way to learn how to become a confident, skilled team player who helps raise the bar of everyone around them while becoming the very best possible you.

Cassandra Carlo

Kelly Christy

Linda Dixon

Dawn Doran

Mary Duffy
Mary joined the AVC coaching staff in 2020. Prior to AVC, she was the Head Volleyball Coach of CVC’s 13 White team. Mary has been a Head Volleyball Coach at St. Christopher School for 6 seasons coaching CYO 4 th , 5 th , 6 th  and 8 th grade teams.  She is also currently a Board Member and League Director of adult AA/Open leagues at Cleveland Eastside Turners.  From 2011 through 2019, Mary was the Supervisor of the adult volleyball program at the City of Rocky River managing 80+ teams and officials 4 nights per week.  Mary is IMPACT, Safesport, First Aid, CPR, and Concussion certified.  She has also trained with USAV and OHSAA as a volleyball official. 

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.

Sydney Fecko

Sydney began her coaching career at Trinity High School for their varsity squad. She joined the AVC coaching staff in 2020. She played club volleyball for 8 years starting her volleyball career at AVC and ending at Maverick. She played varsity at Trinity High School for all 4 years, then went on to play collegiate volleyball at Ohio Northern University. She graduated undergrad in May of 2020 and is currently in grad school at Kent State University. She looks forward to sharing her knowledge and experience with the team and parents.

Timothy Frederick

Liz George
Liz started coaching at AVC in 2018. Prior to AVC, Liz coached at Memphis Metro in Tennessee and has over 7 years of coaching experience at various age levels and divisions. Liz is a Cleveland native who played volleyball for Solon High School, Renaissance, CVC and Eastside. Liz currently teaches history at Saint Martin de Porres High School where she is also the assistant volleyball coach. 

Brian Gold

Megan Green

Charlene Gruhn

Char started with AVC in 2017 after many years involved with volleyball, both as a coach and as a player. She coached the 8th grade team for two seasons at the Daniel Island School in Charleston, SC where she specialized in teaching offense execution and decision making, defensive positioning as well as blocking technique. As a two year starter at Tri-C and current player for the past 30+ years (hard court and beach) in USA Volleyball, Char brings her experience to her teaching and game management. Professionally, Char leads technology delivery and operation teams and strives to share her experiences beyond volleyball to help her players grow both athletically and personally.  

Mike Hanson

Mike Hanzak

Sean Hayes

Shelby Hostetler

Michael Jackson
Michael has been with AVC since 2011. 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, Safesport, FirstAid, CPR and Concussion.  certified.

Milly Laury

Maggie Lombardi

Marissa Lopez

Nicolette Mauer

Nicolette began with AVC in 2018 and has spent 8 seasons coaching at Independence High School as the JV Coach and 1 year at Twinsburgh. Nicolette was a 4 year letter winner in at Cuyahoga Heights High School as the teams Libero where she earned many awards in the area and conference.

Mike Maurer

Michael began coaching for AVC in 2018 after spending 4 years coaching at Maverick and Eastside. Michael has also coached at Ledgemont HS as the varsity Head Coach, Kenston High School as the JV coach, Laurel as the JV coach and most recently Independence High School as an assistant where they lost in the State Semifinals. Michael is a certified HS referee as well. Michael has been playing competitve Volleyball for the past 12 years and is very active in private lessons where he enjoys sharing his knowledge of the sport. Last year Michael took his JO team to Nationals for the first time where they finished with a 4th place finish in their division.

Jessica McCabe

Melissa McClelland

Melissa began coaching at AVC in 2016. She was the head volleyball coach at Bedford High School for 5 years, and has also coached for CYO. Melissa played collegiate volleyball at Kent State University, where she was a setter. She was a three-year Varsity starter at Hoban High School in Akron, where she earned 1st team All-Ohio honors her senior year. She was inducted into the Hoban High School Athletic Hall of Fame in 2014.

Dan Mihacevich

Dan joined AVC in 2017 to coach with the best talent and best coaching staff in the area.  Dan's coaching philosophy is to "always be competing!" 
Dan played volleyball at The Ohio State University where he earned 2 team MVP awards, 3 all conference awards and holds the all time kill record and points record for a single match.  Dan is also in the Buckeye record books for service aces and digs.  In 1996 Dan was selected for the Olympic Festival training program where he trained with the National Team coaching staff and the best players in the country.  Dan has won 10 Ohio Valley Region Adult championships and in 2018, Dan finished 2nd in the adult 40+ USA Volleyball National championship. Dan loves the "intense, competitive, forward thinking training environment at AVC.  This is truly a place where players can reach their full potential" Dan has coached youth sports since 2007 including soccer and volleyball.  Dan still plays soccer and volleyball competitively. Dan's wife Kristen also coaches at AVC, and his 3 daughters all play club/college volleyball.

Kristen Mihacevich

Kristen came to AVC in 2020, after coaching club for 8 years in the Cleveland area.  She has had a lifelong love for the game of volleyball and enjoys personally competing and coaching young ladies to become great players.  She specializes in training 10-12 year old teams, and has taken several teams to the USAV GJNC after performing well locally.  She first began playing volleyball in 7th grade and continues to this day in women's 6's indoor and 2's sand leagues.  She played for Midview High School and Cleveland State University, coached at Beachwood Middle School, where she taught for 7 years, and even met her husband at a sand tournament 20+ years ago!  Kristen is "thrilled to be directing the littles" at the club this year.  Her enthusiasm and energy coupled with her application of teaching the foundational volleyball skills to all players are her strengths that will benefit the players and marry well with the great culture of this club.

Nicole Moses

Katelyn Mueller

Katelyn joined AVC in 2020. AVC. She also coaches volleyball for Lawrence School and youth development camps in the Cleveland area. Katelyn loves coaching young players and helping them develop their volleyball skills as well as helping them learn to be a good friend and teammate. Her coaching experience also includes basketball and softball!

Dave Olson

This will be Dave’s fourth year coaching at AVC,  his first three years he was an assistant coach at the 12’s, 13's and 14's levels.  Dave is also the Fairview freshman girls volleyball coach..  Before coming to AVC, he was a head coach at another club were he coached 11's and 12's teams along with coaching CYO. Dave played over 10 year in Men's USAV, mostly at the A level along with many indoor and outdoor local volleyball leagues.

Kara Oster

Cassie Owens

McKennzie Papp

McKennzie is new to AVC’s coaching staff in 2020. McKennzie played Varisty volleyball at Parma Senior High all 4 years as well as playing travel 3 years at Maverick and 2 years at AVC. She is also a 2nd year college player who achieved first team all conference last season! McKennzie has experience from every position on the court and she is very excited to begin a great first season with her team.

Kim Patton

Jason Schellenberger

Jeffrey Shafer

Jeff has been coaching at AVC since 2020.  He also coaches the Freshman volleyball team at Hathaway Brown School.   In addition to coaching, Jeff teaches courses in entrepreneurship at Ursuline College.

Kara Schiffer

Kara has been coaching with AVC since 2017.  She played for Walsh Jesuit HS and was on an AVC team during their inaugural season.  She also played D1 volleyball at Loyola University Maryland where she was a libero/DS for 4 years.  Kara works professionally as a financial business analyst, and she is currently an assistant coach for 17 Red and 18 Red. 

Anna Shuppe

Darek Sierko

Abby Singleton

Erika Snyder
Erika began coaching for AVC in 2020. She has played volleyball since second grade and has also played JO and Sand. She is also the Head 7th grade Coach at Claggett Middle School in Medina. Erika loves helping players develop their volleyball skills as well as helping them develop life skills. Erika has a passion for volleyball and helping to develop young minds and help them achieve their volleyball goals.

Matthew Snyder

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.

Bethany Sugar

Bethany has been apart of the volleyball world for over 13 years. She started playing in Middle School, continued into High School playing on Varsity for all 4 years, and currently plays on a competitive women’s league as well. She’s coached a few years of summer leagues and women’s leagues too. She specializes in setting skills and defense specialist skills, but overall is well diverse. Bethany joined AVC in 2020 is SO excited to meet her team. She is looking forward to an amazing season! 

Kevin Troyer
Kevin started coaching at AVC in 2019 and has coached more than 10 seasons of juniors club volleyball as well as 3 seasons of varsity and jv volleyball.  Kevin has a passion for the sport and for teaching and developing players in all areas of their performance.  He has coached all ages from 11 year old beginners to 18 year old college prep players.  In addition to coaching, Kevin played more than 15 yrs on competitive teams in high school, college, and beyond.  He also played many seasons of beach volleyball and is a certified USA volleyball referee.

Olivia Vandemotter

Olivia started her coaching career last year with ignite and this will be her first year at AVC. She played 6 years of JO one of them being with AVC.Last year she coached a successful 12s team with Ignite and is looking forward to coaching 13 American this year. She is a graduade of Twinsburg high school where she played varsity volleyball all four years. She is very excited to share her volleyball experience with young girls.

Allison Vincent

Mary Vincent

Kendall Werschey

Julia Wright

Olivia Yee

Heather Zehel

Marcy Zoeckler

Marci came to AVC in 2017 with over 20 years coaching and leadership experience. She has been the Volleyball Coordinator at St Barnabas Parish for 16 years where she leads and organizes all aspects of the girls teams in 3rd-8th grade, boys teams in 5th-8th grade, and co-ed high school teams. She has coached CYO girls and boys since 1996.  She also works for CYO as a Site Director. Her commitment to CYO comes from a passion of teaching volleyball fundamentals to youth players and making the game of volleyball available to young athletes of all skill levels.  At the club level, she has coached Regional, American, and National teams. Marci is the head JV coach and Varsity assistant coach at Trinity High School. She is the head coach of the Cleveland State Men's Volleyball Team. Marci and her husband John have 7 children and live in Sagamore Hills. She is IMPACT, Safesport, First Aid, CPR, Concussion, and Cardiac Arrest certified.