Leadership
Stephanie Johnson has been the club director since it was founded in 2021. She started her volleyball coaching career in 2001 as the assistant high school volleyball coach at Waterford High School and spent many years coaching at Waterford Junior High. She has also coached for multiple volleyball clubs who were out of the area but utilized the option of satellite teams. .
Stephanie saw a need for a club in her area that focused on refining skills and competitive play. She is known for finding talented athletes and forming teams who compete at a higher level. She focuses on pushing players to be better people first, then better athletes. In 2023, Stephanie made the hard decision to give up coaching and focus on building the club into the successful program it is today. The partnership she has built with Marietta College Volleyball and its coaching staff is like nothing else being offered in southeast Ohio. Stephanie enjoys watching each of her teams compete and can often be found mingling with parents during tournaments.
Stephanie is a graduate of Marietta College, where she was on the women’s basketball team. She has a BA in Corporate Communications and is a Digital Marketing Account Manager at Offenberger & White. She has two children, Alec and Kendyl.
COACHING DIRECTOR
Kristy Newman enters her seventh year as head volleyball coach at Marietta College in 2024 and her second year with Pioneer Volleyball Club as the Coaching Director. Coach Newman runs all coaches and player clinics, spending time with each team to work on development of skills as well as fostering a positive club culture.
Newman came to Marietta after serving as the top assistant coach for two seasons at Covenant College, an NCAA Division III member of the USA South Conference, in Lookout Mountain, Georgia.
In her two years with the Scots, Covenant won a pair of USA South West Division Championships. This past fall, Newman helped the Scots to a 25-8 overall record and a perfect 12-0 conference slate. Covenant won the USA South Tournament title and earned a spot in the NCAA Tournament. The Scots set a school record with 17-straight wins and the program’s first-ever regional ranking.
Prior to Covenant, Newman spent one year as an assistant coach at St. Andrews University, an NAIA member of the Appalachian Athletic Conference, in Laurinburg, North Carolina. She assisted with the day-to-day operation of the volleyball program and served as the Knights’ head junior varsity coach.
In addition to her collegiate coaching background, Newman has extensive club experience. She served as head coach for A5 Chattanooga Volleyball, The Academy of Volleyball (Chattanooga, Tenn.), C4 Explosive (Cleveland, Tenn.), and K2 Volleyball Club (Louisville, Tenn.).
A native of Chattanooga, Tennessee, Newman received a Bachelor of Arts degree in Business Management from Maryville College in 2014. She accumulated over 300 kills in her career as an outside hitter for the Scots.