Brian Highfield - ClubDirector@avcvolleyball.com

Brian is the Academy's Executive Leader in charge of Administration and Finance. 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, and CAP I certified.

Sheree Harvey - Sheree@avcvolleyball.com

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 of the past 5 years.

Deborah Wordell - deb@avcvolleyball.com

Deborah is a familiar face to many volleyball enthusiasts. Deb has 23 years of combined coaching experience between high school, JO and college and also served as Club Director of The SURGE for 6 years. Prior to her coaching career she played volleyball locally at Garfield HS and Hiram College. Deb is IMPACT and ASEP certified and will serve as Chief of Staff and Equipment for AVC this season.

Paul Schiffer - Paul@avcvolleyball.com

Paul Schiffer, who is in his third year at AVC, brings 5 years of coaching experience from the Renaissance and St. Rita programs. Paul also contributes to AVC at the organizational level, with skills derived from his former experience as a JO club director and volleyball coordinator for St. Rita.

Brian Scipione - Skip@avcvolleyball.com

Brian currently serves the club as Chief of Club Operations, handling scheduling for practices and tournaments for each team and also as Head Coach for one of the AVC 17’s teams. 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, and CAP I certified.

Rob Cline - Rob@avcvolleyball.com

Rob has been the Varsity Head Coach at Brecksville Broadview Heights High School for the past three years. In 2008 his team made it to the the state semifinals in Division 1. Prior to that, he was assistant head coach at Beaumont High School. He also spent two years at VASJ as an assistant Varsity coach and was part of the team that won the 2001 D3 state championship. He has coached JO volleyball for 7 years and is IMPACT certified. Rob's 16s National Team qualified for Naitonals last season.

Pat Royer - Pat@avcvolleyball.com

"The most interesting coach in the world"

For the past 10 years Pat has been the head varsity coach at Beaumont High School where he has amassed over 150 wins with an .800 winning percentage. He has twice been named District 2 Coach of the year. Pat played collegiately at BGSU and in competitive men’s leagues. Pat has 8 years of JO coaching experience at Renaissance, Jump Serve and Leva. He is IMPACT certified. He once had an awkward moment just to see what it felt like.

Adam Evans - Adam@avcvolleyball.com

Adam is in his 5th season as the Girl’s Varsity Head Coach for Norton High School, near Akron. Adam has also been active on the JO circuit working with 6 clubs in various roles, including 2 years as a Club Director for Club Impact. He has played for 14 years in Men’s USAV mostly at the A and Open levels as a middle blocker. Adam is a CAP I certified volleyball coach, a USAV Regional Official and is presently the Ohio Valley Region Adult Co-Ed Program Director.

Club Nutritionist

Christine Polisena -MS,MBA,RD  GoodNutrition@avcvolleyball.com

Christine Polisena is a registered dietitian with over 20 years experience helping individuals live a healthier life. Christine has seen and experienced first hand the impact that good nutrition or the lack of it can have upon the athletic performance of both children and adults. Christine will be providing advice to our coaching staff, will conduct nutrition classes for our athletes and parents, answer questions that you may have, and provide nutrition articles/recipes for our newsletter. In addition to volunteering to provide nutrition advice for Academy Volleyball Cleveland, Christine also gives of her time to teach nutrition to the dancers of the Great Lakes Youth Ballet Company.

Her experience includes providing nutrition counseling at the Cleveland Clinic Foundation in the cancer area and NASA Glenn Research Center working with employees. She has spent the last 5 years at the Oswald Companies, an insurance brokerage and risk management firm where she develops strategies for clients to improve the health of their employees and control health care costs.

Lori Brookins - Head Coach coachBrookins@avcvolleyball.com

After playing volleyball at Clemson University, Lori served as a Grad Assistant at the University of Iowa. Since then, Lori has coached volleyball and basketball at various levels for 15 years and will continue coaching this year in her 3rd season with AVC.

Shaina Bryan - Co-Head Coach coachBryan@avcvolleyball.com

Shaina Bryan coached a AVC 16’s Hiram team last season. She is a sophmore volleyball player this season at Hiram College. Shaina brings 9 years of playing experience, including her involvement with extremely competitive teams for Eastside Cleveland Juniors and PVC.

Tim Cain - Asst Coach -coachCain@avcvolleyball.com

Since Tim Cain played club volleyball at BGSU, he has tallied up 15 years of coaching, assisting at both Twinsburg and Solon high schools. Tim started his JO coaching career with Cannon and returns to AVC this season.

Fady Chehade - Assistant Coach - coachChehade@avcvolleyball.com 

Fady Chehade brings valuable experience, as he played volleyball at KSU and adult USVBA. This is Fady’s third season coaching JO.

Andrea Ciavarelli - Head Coach Andrea@avcvolleyball.com

Andrea comes to AVC this season after 6 seasons with Renaissance. Andrea started coaching through CYO at St. Anthony of Padua in Parma. She has been the JV/Assistant Varsity coach at Cuyahoga Heights High School for the past four years, where her efforts have yielded two conference championships and a district championship. She is a class II certified official. Andrea is IMPACT and CAP I certified.

coachCowan@avcvolleyball.com

Jessica has played JO for 7 years (Cannon, The SUGE and PVC), 4 years of varsity at Crestwood HS and 1 year at Hiram College. She also has several years of coaching experience, working camps and clinics and assisting at Crestwood High School. She will coach her 3rd season of JO as AVC’s 13’s Elite coach.

Alyssa Coundourides - Co-Head Coach

coachCoundourides@avcvolleyball.com

Brad Disandis - Head Coach coachDisandis@avcvolleyball.com

Sharri Durdel - Head Coach - coachDurdel@avcvolleyball.com

Sharri Durdel has coached with both AVC and The SURGE. She has assisted at St. Ursula (Toledo) and more recently took the position as Twinsburg’s 7th grade coach. She has coached many camps and clinics, while still finding time to play adult USVBA for the past 20 years.

Jodi Evans - Head Coach - jodievans@avcvolleyball.com

Jodi Evans begins her first season coaching at AVC. Upon graduating from Eastwood High School, Jodi accepted a volleyball scholarship to play for the University of Akron. Jodi is still among the top ten all time in many kill and block catagories UofA. In January of 2003, Jodi was honored with her induction to the University of Akron Athletic Hall of Fame. Jodi has been the varsity volleyball coach at three high schools: Our Lady of the Elms, Kenston and Shelby. Jodi has previously coached USA Volleyball with Club NET, Richland Volleyball Club and Renaissance Cleveland.

Chelsea Harvey - Head Coach - chelsea@avcvolleyball.com

Angela Heagy - Co-Head Coach

coachHeagy@avcvolleyball.com

Paul Hengle - Head Coach - coachHengle@avcvolleyball.com

Paul Hengle’s brings 25 years of playing experience to the Academy, including 8 years of adult USVBA. His 14s Regional team finished 3rd at the Regional Championship in 2009.

Wanda Hoffman - Head Coach - coachHoffman@avcvolleyball.com

Wanda Hoffman brings a lot of coaching experience to the Academy. A former PVC coach, Wanda has been Crestwood's Head Volleyball Coach for 23 years, posting over 300 wins. While many of her players have been named Player of the Year, she shares in the honor being named the same as a student-athlete at both Crestwood HS and Hiram College. Wanda has also been honored as PTC Coach of the Year.

George Kambic - Head Coach - coachKambic@avcvolleyball.com

AVC appreciates the experience and knowledge that George Kambic has drawn from 23 years of coaching volleyball. George, who originally coached JO for Cannon, then Renaissance, enters his third year with the Academy. Coach Kambic, both IMPACT and CAP I certified, has also contributed many years of time and dedication to the St. Rita volleyball program in Solon.

Mike Laffey - Head Coach laffey@avcvolleyball.com

Mike joins the AVC coaching ranks this season, bringing with him a decade of coaching and 30+ years of playing experience. Mike's 8th grade team has made it to the City semi-finals or finals for the last four CYO seasons.

Marisa Martin - Head Coach coachmartin@avcvolleyball.com

Jim Moore - Head Coach - coachmoore@avcvolleyball.com

Jim Moore joins the AVC staff this season, bringing with him 22 years of both coaching and officiating high school and JO volleyball in Ohio and Maryland. Jim has taken his team to Nationals 3 of those seasons.

Steve Muniak - Head Coach - SteveMuniak@avcvolleyball.com

Dave Opfer - Head Coach - coachDaveOpfer@avcvolleyball.com

Dave Opfer brings to AVC many years of coaching experience at Garfield, Orange and Maple Heights High Schools.

Kristi Opfer - Co-Head Coach - coachOpfer@avcvolleyball.com

Kristi Opfer is playing in her 2nd season for Hiram College this fall. While attending James A Garfield High School, Kristi earned All-Ohio honors and played for PVC for four years.

Glen Osoteo

gosoteo@avcvolleyball.com

Michael Passarelli - pass@avcvolleyball.com

Michael is completing his 2nd year as coach of the women's J/V volleyball team at Stow Monroe Falls and an assistant for the Varsity team. Prior coaching experience also includes Tallmadge 7th Grade team, Northcoast 16's men's team, Kent State men's club team, and working as intern and student assistant with the Kent State Women's volleyball team for 4 seasons. Playing experience includes 4 years on the varsity mens team at Hoban high school, 4 seasons for Northcoast men's 18's team, 5 years on the Kent State men's club team and 4 years of USAV volleyball.

Angela Roberts

coachRoberts@avcvolleyball.com

Tricia Sanborn - Head Coach sanborn@avcvolleyball.com

As a new face to AVC, Tricia is excited to share her playing and coaching experiences. She was an All Conference collegiate player for Fredonia State and continues to play adult USAVB. While head coach at VASJ, she was named Division II Coach of the Year and has also worked with the St. Rita and SSCD programs. Tricia is certified in both CPR and first aid.

Kim Sage - Head Coach

coachSage@avcvolleyball.com

This is Kim Sage’s 3rd year coaching for AVC. She is the Head Coach of a 17’s team this season. Kim hails from Bellevue High School and played volleyball for Hiram her freshmen year, when she was voted as Newcomer of the Year on the All-NCAC Team. Unfortunately, due to injury, Kim’s playing career was cut short but she continues to contribute by sharing her knowledge and love of volleyball through coaching at Hiram.

Sarah Schoenhagen

coachschoenhagen@avcvolleyball.com

Amanda Somerville - Head Coach coachSomerville@avcvolleyball.com

Amanda adds both playing and coaching experience to the mix. Playing both interscholastically and JO during high school, Amanda continued with volleyball in college by playing and coaching intramurals at Kent State. She has coached at both Solon MS and Ravenna HS and continues to play on co-ed leagues. Amanda has also enjoyed the same years of experience in playing and coaching softball.

Betsy Smerglia - Head Coach - coachSmerglia@avcvolleyball.com

Touting the distinct honor of earning over 300 wins as a varsity high school coach, Betsy Smerglia clearly brings a wealth of volleyball knowledge and experience to the Academy. Between serving as Head Coach for Maple Heights and coaching JO for LEVA, Eastside and PVC, Betsy has tallied 29 years of coaching experience.

Bill Smerglia - Head Coach billsmerglia@avcvolleyball.com

Bill joins AVC with extensive JO coaching experience and recently was the club director of PVC. He has coached at the varsity high school level with over 200 victories to his credit while at Kenston, Field, Laurel and Streetsboro schools. While at Streetsboro Bill’s teams have been a regional qualifier and won 5 league titles in a row.

Ken Uveges - Asst Coach

coachuveges@avcvolleyball.com

Christine Walker - Asst. Coach

coachWalker@avcvolleyball.com

Dale Walter - Co-Head Coach - coachWalter@avcvolleyball.com

Dale Walter has assisted Betsy Smerglia at Maple Heights HS for the last 14 years. Besides his HS coaching experience, Dale brings 11 years of JO experience having coached for AVC, Eastside and PVC.

Jeff Walters - Head Coach JeffWalters@avcvolleyball.com

Jeff was a starting strong side hitter in college, and has continued to play in different volleyball leagues for the past 20 years. He has been coaching JO at Lakeland Ice and Eastside for the past 4 years, which include qualifying his teams for the National Championships the past 2 years. Jeff will be coaching a 16’s national team.

Lindsey Watson - Assistant Coach

 Amaris Woodland - Asst Coach - coachAmaris@avcvolleyball.com

We are pleased to have Amaris Woodland back on the AVC coaching staff for another JO season. Amaris started her volleyball career playing JO for five years for Club Net, LEVA and Nova and also played during her four years of high school for Solon.