1999 Tachikara/AVCA JC/CC Region Coaches of the Year

Southwest Region
Kerry Messersmith, Arizona Western College
Ending her third season at Arizona Western College, Kerry Messersmith has helped bring Matador volleyball into the national spotlight.  During the 1999 campaign, she led the Matadors to a school-record 38 wins and 13 losses, placing second in the NJCAA Region I Tournament, as well as finishing No. 10 on the NJCAA Final Women's Volleyball Poll.  Messersmith was named the 1999 NJCAA Region I Coach of the Year.  Messermith was named the head coach at AWC in 1997.  During that first year, she led the Matadors to a respectable 15-23 record.  The 1998 team, however, has experienced a great turnaround, as the Matadors posted a 33-19 record, breaking the existing school mark for season wins.  The team was also ranked as high as No. 10 in the NJCAA National Volleyball Poll.  As a coach, Messersmith has excelled at every institution.  In 12 years as a head coach, her teams have posted 20 or more wins six times, 30 or more wins four times and has had just two losing campaigns with an overall record of 318-189. Messersmith is a 1986 graduate of Chadron State, where she earned a bachelor of science degree in education.

Mary Ann Paz, San Joaquin Delta College
Mary Ann Paz is in her 19th season as head coach of the Delta College women's volleyball team.  During her reign at Delta, her teams have achieved the following: earned first place 10 times, second place three times and third place six times in conference play.  The Delta volleyball team has participated in the prestigious state championships five times, placing third, fifth (twice), fourth and seventh, respectively. Delta's League winning streak is 55 games.  In 1998, Delta placed first in the Bay Valley Conference (12-0) and was 29-7 overall.  In 1999, Delta placed first again (14-0), 2-0 in conference play-offs, with a total record (including tournaments) of 35-0.  Paz began coaching volleyball at the high school level in 1973 in the East Bay Area.  Her last years of high school coaching were at San Ramon High School, where all five years her teams won the league championships and advanced to State.

Northeast/Southeast Region
Jerry Hulla, CCBC-Catonsville
During the 1999 campaign, Jerry Hulla guided his team to a second consecutive Maryland JuCo Conference Championship and a second undefeated season, which marked the first time in more than a decade that any sports team at the college had captured back-to-back conference titles - and no one had done it going undefeated on the season.  Hulla's 1999 squad also won the Region XX Championship, remaining undefeated in the region (37-0 since 1998).  CCBC-Catonsville claimed the NJCAA District 4 title to advance to the 1999 NJCAA Division II National Tournament, where the team finished tied for seventh place.  Catonsville was nationally ranked for the entire 1999 campaign, reaching as high as No. 6.  Hulla is in his fourth year at the helm of the women's volleyball program at CCBC-Catsonsville.  The team finished the season 29-14-1 and 11-0 in the conference.  Hulla also serves as the director for coaching development in the Chesapeake Region (USAV) and works with the U.S. Disabled Standing National Volleyball Team, which recently qualified for the 2000 Paralympic Games in Sydney, Australia.

Tina Seals, Northwest Shoals Community College
Tina Seals just finished her eighth season at the helm of the Northwest Shoals Community College women's volleyball program.  Her team finished the regular season as the District F champions and were the No. 3 seed going into the national tournament.  The team garnered a 47-5 overall record and a 6-0 conference record.   Seals was appointed the college's first volleyball coach in 1992, and has led her teams to amazing success.  During her tenure, Northwest-Shoals has made four trips to the national junior college tournament, and is well-respected as a perennial power among Alabama teams.  Overall, she boasts a 322-96 record at the institution. Seals' coaching experience began at Mississippi State University, where she spent two seasons as an assistant coach.  She earned a bachelor's degree in civil engineering from Mississippi State and later earned her masters in math education from the University of North Alabama.

Midwest Region
Brenda Winkeler, Parkland College
Brenda Winkeler, in her ninth year at the helm of the Parkland College women's volleyball program, led the 1999 squad to a NJCAA Division II national championship and a 54-9 overall record.  Her team captured the District G title and was seeded No. 1 going into this year's national tournament.  The team defeated Phoenix College, 3-0, in the semifinals and were victorious over Elgin, 3-1, in the finals to claim the national title. Winkeler was named the Coach of the Tournament, while three of her athletes were named to the All-Tournament Team and one was honored as the MVP. Overall, Winkeler boasts a 427-163 record.  Over the years, Winkeler has had more than 30 players transfer to play at all levels in the NCAA.  She was named Coach of the Year for the past three years in the Collegiate Conference of Central Illinois, as well as Region 24 and District 15 Coach of the Year in 1991.  She also led the 1991 squad to a seventh-place finish at the NJCAA national tournament.  The Cobras have won the CCIC Conference Championship for the past four years.

Russ Kinningham, Barton County Community College
Russ Kinningham just finished his second season as the head women's volleyball coach at Barton County Community College.  In 1999, he led the team to a 49-8 record (14-2 in the Jayhawk Western Conference), a second-place conference finish, a Region VI Tournament championship (Barton's 15th in 16 seasons), a No. 7 seed in the national tournament and a No. 9 finish in the final NJCAA Poll.  In his first season as Barton County's head coach (1998), Kinningham guided his team to a 66-4 overall record and a fourth-place finish at the national tournament.  The 66 victories established a national NJCAA record.  Kinningham also founded Volleytech Sports Club, a USAV Junior Olympic organization which prepares Kansas girls 18 and under for state, regional and national volleyball competition.  Before coming to Barton County, Kinningham served as head girls' volleyball and basketball coach at Council Grove High School from 1977-84.  He then served two seasons as an assistant volleyball coach and basketball coach at Dodge City Community College from 1984-86.  He earned a bachelor's degree in education from Emporia State University in 1997 and earned a masters degree in education from Emporia in 1982.

West Region
John Patrick, Columbia Basin College
John Patrick has been the head women's volleyball coach at Columbia Basin College since 1987.  He was the CBC assistant coach from 1981-87.  In 1999, his team went undefeated (10-0) for the first time ever to win the league title and garnered a 43-4 overall record.  Patrick and his team were the 1999 NWAACC champions and have qualified for the NWAACC Tournament 10 of the last 12 years.  During the 1999 campaign, CBC defeated nationally ranked Spokane four times and Chemeketa Community College twice.  Patrick's overall record stands at 384-210, while his team has a 23-match win streak in progress.  Over the years, Patrick's teams have won the NWAACC championship in 1995 and '99, earned the Eastern Region title in 1994, '97 and '99, and are 89-40 in the Eastern Region.

Jean Widdison, Salt Lake Community College
In 1999, Jean Widdison took over as interim head coach of the Salt Lake Community College Bruins after serving as an assistant coach for the first three year's of the program's existence.  She and the Bruins earned a 45-4 overall record and a 15-1 mark in the Scenic West Athletic Conference.  Her team won the Southern Division Region 18 Championship, were co-champions of the SWAC and took second place in the NJCAA National Tournament.  Widdison was named the Region 18 Coach of the Year, as well as the District I Coach of the Year in 1999.  Prior to coming to SLCC, Widdison was at the University of Utah, where her teams were ranked as high as No. 4 in the Western Region.  Widdison earned a bachelor's degree from Brigham Young University in 1974 and her master's from the University of Utah in 1982.
 

L-R Jerry Hulla, Brenda Winkeler, John Patrick,
Russ Kinningham, Jean Widdison