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New faces and winning perspectives for Bradley volleyball

Bradley volleyball has added two new assistant coaches ahead of the 2020 season. 

Kaysie Shebeneck and Dylan Ross have both joined the coaching staff following the departures of Jon Wong, Matt Sprague and volunteer assistant Niatha Cullen. Shebeneck was most recently an assistant at the University of Buffalo in 2019. 

“Volleyball has always been a main part of my life,” Shebeneck, a former setter, said “I love the sport, I love being able to give back to the sport now that I’ve chosen coaching as my career path. It all started at Texas A&M … I learned a lot from that program.”

Shebeneck played under Lisa and John Corbelli, who also coached current Bradley head coach Carol Price-Torok during her playing days at Texas A&M. After realizing that she wanted to make a career in volleyball following her playing days, Shebeneck joined the staff at Washington State before the 2017 season. 

While with the Cougars for two seasons as the director of operations, the team reached the NCAA Tournament twice. She will take an offensive approach to coaching at Bradley.

“We have some of the same technical background and coaching points which make it easy to transition with a new staff,” Price-Torok said. “[Shebeneck] knows what it takes to be great and I know she wants to pass those experiences and lessons she learned at A&M to our student athletes.”

Ross was a volunteer assistant at Houston last season and has a background rooted in his playing days on the court with Loras College in Dubuque, Iowa.  

“I was blessed that Loras was making a new program right as I was coming out, so I was in the inaugural [class] there,” Ross said. “We struggled for the first couple of years, obviously, just being all young playing against juniors and seniors and established programs and stuff like that. But then by my senior year, we were playing against the number one team in the country for a conference championship, so we obviously made a lot of progression there.”

While still playing, Ross began coaching as an assistant with the women’s team during his junior year. Later, he became a graduate assistant at Arkansas State and then spent last season as a volunteer with Houston. He has turned much of his attention to the outside hitters. 

At Bradley, his focus will be more defensive.

Price-Torok said she is excited about what they will bring and said they’ve already rejuvenated the program through passion.

“Dylan has a great court presence and does a great job breaking the game down and teaching the athletes,” Price-Torok said. “He has great passion for the game and gives great ideas to improve our athletes court presence and volleyball IQ. Kaysie has amazing energy and brings a big personality to our gym every day. Her passion for volleyball and the student athletes is second to none. She brings a lot of experience from different positions and it will help improve our culture.”   

As the COVID-19 pandemic continues to impact the global sporting landscape, coaches across the NCAA find themselves in a unique situation. With the spring season canceled, the two new coaches cannot fully adjust to the Hilltop as they would have during the exhibition season.

Unable to personally meet with the players or hit the recruiting trail, the coming weeks will force Bradley’s newest volleyball coaches to get creative. 

In terms of recruiting, teams including Bradley have been forced to utilize phone calls, emails and texts to reach athletes due to an NCAA mandated period not allowing in-person visits until at least May 31.

“Typically right now we would be going to these big qualifiers and these big tournaments through USA Volleyball,” Shebeneck said. “They just hosted these big qualifiers. We would be assessing talent and looking for future Braves, but as of right now clearly those have all been canceled or postponed due to the coronavirus.” 

While today’s players have little issue making game tape available via digital platforms, Ross said the lack of in-person recruiting can make scouting certain qualities more difficult.

“I can see someone on film and kinda get a really good idea of what they do,” Ross said. “It would be like a three-step check. If I like them on film, if I like them in person … the energy behind it and kinda like the in-between plays and stuff like that–and then coming on a visit. We kind of miss the second two boxes right now.”

The bizarre circumstances shouldn’t faze the duo, who both bring winning pedigrees to the Bradley program. Ross eventually helped lead the Duhawks to their first-ever winning season in 2015, while Shebeneck made four NCAA Tournament appearances at Texas A&M and two while on the staff at Washington State. 

“I think being involved in six NCAA [Tournament] appearances, it’s first of all really special and really great,” Shebeneck said. “I was able to have that experience as a player but also see it as a staff member … I think it just allows me to bring more focus and say ‘hey you guys, we can get there. It’s not that far off.’”

An NCAA Tournament appearance isn’t out of the realm of possibility for the Braves, who qualified for the National Invitation Volleyball Championship in 2018 and finished 11-7 in conference play a year ago. 

The Braves will look to return to the court later this year when non-conference is scheduled to open the regular season. The team returns its top six attackers and both liberos.

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