Meet the Legends Volleyball Staff!

Kristen Althouse
Executive Director of Volleyball
Head Coach 17 Adidas

Phone: 810.231.9288

Kristen Althouse is a native of Mentor, OH, a suburb of Cleveland. She grew up playing for one of the top clubs in the area, CVC. From there, she was recruited to play volleyball at Eastern Michigan University. While there, she was a 4 year, starting middle blocker, tallied over 1,000 kills in her career and is still within the top 10 all time for blocks at Eastern. She loved her time there and it was her coach who helped her fall in love with coaching the game. She received her degree in Physical Education from Eastern Michigan University along with a minor in Health Education. While doing her student teaching, she also was the JV and Varsity assistant coach at Canton High School in Michigan and then went on to coach at Cleveland State University where she started her College Coaching Career. After being with Cleveland State for a Spring season, she then went on to be the first assistant at Loyola University Maryland in Baltimore for 3 years. During her time there, her focus was to train the blockers and hitters. She also helped club teams in the area and coached summer camps at the Naval academy and ran the camp at Georgetown University. ⁣
⁣
After 3 years of college coaching, she knew her passion was helping young athletes and girls learn to love the game of volleyball! She moved back to Michigan to coach club volleyball for the past two years with Legacy Volleyball Club and with Legends Volleyball Organization. Kristen is now very thankful for the opportunity to live out her dream of being the Director of Volleyball at the Legacy Center Sports Complex! She resides in Novi with her husband, Drew, and their dog Dusty.⁣

Kristie Drinkhahn
Director of Volleyball Operations
Head Coach 14 Travel and 15 State

Phone: 810.231.9288

Kristie Drinkhahn grew up in Plymouth, MI attending Canton High School. She had amazing opportunities to be a part of many school activities/programs and playing multiple sports. After high school she played volleyball on an academic and athletic scholarship at Henry Ford and Michigan State University, with a degree in Biology and Chemistry. While at MSU, she was also on the crew team, a member of Kappa Delta Sorority and their Junior Panhellenic President.

After college her past high school coach got her into coaching and it stuck! So now, Kristie has coached volleyball “the sport she loves” over 15 years. She has coached all levels and ages. Her first coaching position was coaching freshman and then Varsity at Canton High School. Adding on to that she started girls playing club volleyball out in Canton when there wasn’t the opportunities there are now….like Legends Volleyball! From there she went on to Greenhill’s to win their first conference, district, and regional title since the 70’s. Next, she started her college coaching career as an assistant at Concordia University for 3 years. While there she got to experience a program grow and be a part of many player and team accolades. All during this time, she got to coach for USAV HP and for 3 different club volleyball programs. Her teams had the privilege of winning state championships and national tournament championships.

Recently she has found herself happily coaching JV volleyball at Skyline High School, working at the Legacy Center Sports Complex and Legends Volleyball. Kristie is so grateful for the opportunity to work at an incredible facility with Kristen, the best staff, and her fellow coaches. They, alongside all of the volleyball players, parents, and her team, inspire her every day!

Hailey Wilson
Head Coach – 13 Travel Black

Professional Experience
– Coached at Legends Volleyball for 4 years
– Coached U12 National Lite and finished 2nd place at power league
– Coached U13 State and placed 3rd at States
– Coached U13 State and placed 7th at States
– Coached the 7th Grade Orange team at Scranton Middle School 2016 where we lost 3 matches

Athlete Experience
– Played 4 years at Brighton High School
– Named All-region 1x
– All-conference 1x
– Team MVP and Miss Offense her senior year
– Was a walk on at Mott Community College and was an all around outside and middle hitter
– Helped team win districts her junior and senior year for the first time in 8 years
– Placed second at conferences in 2010

Personal Information
-I have a Golden Retriever and two cats that we rescued
– My younger brother is a swimmer at Brighton High School and we are super close
– My parents have supported me and still come to my women’s league matches

Elizabeth Ahola
15 National Assistant

Phone: 810.231.9288

Bio coming soon!

Stephanie Oliver
Team TBD

Phone: 810.231.9288

Steph played at Rochester University as an All-American libero and won many awards including libero of the year and first team all conference.

She was the Brighton High School Head Coach from 2017 to 2018 and will be coaching for Legends starting this 2021 club season.

During her volleyball career, Steph collected many awards:

• – AII Conference/NAIA First Team All-Conference (2016)
• – AII Conference/NAIA Libero of the Year (2016)
• – NAIA Academic All-American (2016)
• – USCAA Academic All-American (2016)
• – USCAA First Team All-American (2016)
• – USCAA 1 st in the nation for digs (2016)
• – NAIA Finished 5 th in the nation for digs (2016)
• – Placed Fourth Nationally for USCAA volleyball (2016)
• – Placed Third Nationally for USCAA Volleyball (2015)
• – Volleyball Academic All-American (2015)

Cori Crocker
Team TBD

Phone: 810.231.9288

Bio coming soon!

Aaricka McCracken
Head Coach – 15 Travel

Phone: 810.231.9288

Bio coming soon!

Candace Salliotte
Head Coach – 13 Travel Royal

Candace Salliotte grew up in Monroe, MI attending Monroe Jefferson High School. She was a multi-sport athlete since 7th grade, but was a year-round volleyball player. She played AAU local to the area and played travel volleyball in the Ohio Valley Region during high school.

After high school, Candace attended Central Michigan University and graduated with a degree in Integrated Public Relations and Sports Management. While new to coaching, she’s completed her first season assisting with the Brighton High School Freshman volleyball team in 2019. In her first year of coaching with Legends, Candace was the coach of the 13 Travel Royal team.

Candace has recently moved to the area and resides in Novi. She is excited to be a part of Legends Volleyball and looks forward to coaching in the sport that she loves!

Thayne Bilicki
Head Coach – 12 State

Bio coming soon!

Lindsey Hiemstra
Head Coach – 16 Adidas

Lindsey has been playing volleyball since she was 10-years-old and has never stopped! She played throughout her High School years playing for Dead Frog Volleyball Club in Kalamazoo and then played a little club ball when she went to the University of Michigan for undergrad. She majored in psychology, Spanish, and business. Lindsey has always been driven by her desire to understand what motivates individuals, which has helped in her coaching career. She later went on to get her MBA, where she focused on managing people and change, finance, and entrepreneurship.

She has been coaching since her undergraduate days at UofM. Lindsey started her club coaching career at the Huron Valley Volleyball Club and has been their Head Coach for:

• Two top 15’s team
• One 16’s teams
• S&C Coach

Since coaching for Legends, Lindsey has been the Head Coach for a 14 State Team and has led camps and clinics for the club. This year, she will be the Head Coach for the 16 Adidas team.

Picture coming soon.

Bradley Holman
Team TBD

Growing up as a dedicated multi-sport athlete, there has never been a time he hasn’t been a part of a team or ‘off-season’. Brad caught the volleyball bug while being recruited for the Eastern Michigan Club Volleyball as an Outside and Middle during his MBA program. He continues to play competitive basketball, local volleyball leagues, and travel softball which adds to his trophy collection of championships. As an assistant coach, he instills a winner’s mentality where his teams are always confident to make the extra play, extra point.

Sam Siddall
Assistant Coach – 13 Travel Black

Bio coming soon!

Rick Scott
Head Coach – 13 State Black and Assistant Coach 13 State Royal

Bio coming soon!

Kathleen Campbell
Head Coach – 14 State Black and 13 State Royal

Bio coming soon!

Jayson Oliver
Head Coach – 15 National

Jayson grew up in Perrysburg, Ohio. He was a varsity athlete in soccer and basketball at Perrysburg High School. Volleyball was considered a club sport in Ohio at the time. As a Freshman, he was a member of the Volleyball State Runner Up team. During his high school career he was selected to many all tournament teams, won MVP honors several times at those same tournaments, was an All State Player 2x and all state MVP as a senior. In 1990, his club team also finished 19th overall at the USA 18U Junior National Tournament in Albuquerque NM.

He was recruited for his ability to play all the positions and was a big versatile hitter touching 11’-3”. After a redshirt season at IPFW, he decided to transfer to The Ohio State University where he played a season of Varsity and then played Club. As a Club player he received several Big Ten All Tournament team honors as a rightside. During his time on the team, OSU Club Volleyball was one of the top Club teams in the country. Jayson Graduated from OSU in 1998 with a degree in Visual Communication Design.

Jayson was a highly rated Beach player who competed in the AVP, MPVA, Pepsi ProAm, and the EVP tournaments around the Midwest and Florida. The AA men’s team he played with, consisted mostly of OSU Alumni, dominated the USA Ohio Valley Region from 1998-2001.

He began his coaching career with Glass City Volleyball Club in Toledo. He also started coaching High School where he ended up at his Alma Mater coaching the girls JV team and the Boys team. After moving to Michigan, he got back into coaching club in 2016. In 2019, he joined the Legends family. He is excited for the new facility and the direction the club is headed. He is also now entering his 3rd year as the Varsity Assistant Coach at South Lyon East High School. Last season marked the first year SLE Volleyball won a Conference Title in school history. They were also LVC Tournament Champions. He is looking forward to seeing continued success for the program.

Jayson resides in South Lyon with his wife Tammy, and two children – Ayden and Ellie.

Savannah Turner
Head Coach – 16 Travel

Bio coming soon!

Kaitlin Burgess
Head Coach – 16 National

Kaitlin Burgess grew up in Kingston, Massachusetts graduating from Silver Lake Regional High School. She was a multi-sport athlete earning four varsity letters each in volleyball and track & field. She was middle hitter and played all around for four years earning all-state honors (1x), all-region (2x) and league all-star (3x). She led the state and New England region in blocks her junior and senior year and was also top five in kills each season. She played a year of volleyball at the U16 level and then three years of U18 club at the highest level. After her senior year she played for a US national team that toured Austria, Germany and Italy. Kaitlin also plays in adult leagues and has been rated as a B Middle Hitter, B+ Right Side and B+ Setter.

Kaitlin played collegiately for Baldwin Wallace University in Berea, Ohio where she played middle and right side. Kaitlin graduated from Baldwin Wallace with a BA in Athletic Training and Exercise Science and then earned her MS in Strength and Conditioning Studies from Arkansas Tech University.

Kaitlin’s coaching experience covers all levels from junior high to adult. She attended a Pat Powers Volleyball Camp (Pat is an indoor & beach Olympic gold medal winner) as a freshman and sophomore in high school and the following years Pat asked her to join and attend the camps as a coach. This is where she learned her love for coaching the sport. She has continued to work Pat’s camps in New England, California and the Midwest over the last ten years whenever possible. Kaitlin also created her own volleyball camps and clinics while attending undergrad in Ohio for local volleyball clubs in the Cleveland area. She also assisted with camps and provided private instruction to high performing high school players in the San Francisco area.

After grad school Kaitlin moved to Michigan after accepting a position with the University of Michigan as a Research Strength and Conditioning Coach. She gets to work with elite athletes in Olympic Sports weight room and is working on a multi-year project to explore ways to reduce concussions.

Kaitlin is available to do Private Lessons! She is available to coach hitters/blockers, setters and liberos/DS. Kaitlin will teach you how to perform all tasks for any position on the court that you are looking for and teach you how to read the defense for that position. She is looking forward to helping each player achieve their dreams and goals. Please feel free to contact Kaitlin with any questions about Private Lessons with her! Email – kburgess13@mail.bw.edu

Outside of volleyball and work, Kaitlin has a puppy named Athena (Bernese Mountain Dog) and spends a lot of time doing outdoor activities such as fishing, biking, hiking, golf, and more!

Picture coming soon.

Scott Oakes
Beach Coach

Scott has been coaching volleyball since 2009 but has been around this game since he was a child. He learned by watching his parents play in leagues and tournaments all over southeast Michigan but honed his skills and solidified his love for the game in high school. His dad built a sand court in the front yard on Crooked Lake in Brighton and everyone came there to play on the weekends.

Scott started coaching at St Mary’s School in Pinckney as a volunteer and hasn’t stopped. He has coached at Legacy, Michigan Elite for the last 5 seasons and is also the JV Coach/Varsity Assistant at Pinckney High School. His specialty is learning where his players are currently, building on what they already have and making them better volleyball players than they think they can be. Scott is very process driven. His tools are positive reinforcement, focusing on doing things well mechanically and mentally and falling in love with the game of volleyball. “Do something you love and you’ll never work a day in your life.” You’ll often find him cheering as loud as the fans when he sees his players “get it.”

Scott Lives in Pinckney with his wife Holly and their three daughters Olivia, Sophia and Andrea.

Justin Velazquez
Head Coach 14 State Royal – Assistant Coach 17 National Royal

For private lessons, contact me at justinvelazquez0@gmail.com. My skills deal with serving and hitting.

My name is Justin Velazquez and I have a dog named Baby J. I spent 6 years in the Air Force, during which I was deployed to Afghanistan and Jordan, and explored much of the world. I graduated with two degrees in Personal Training and Wind Turbine Technician. I have always loved fitness and I competed in many elite level Spartan races. I also have competed in many 5k races, 10k races, marathons, and an Ironman. My main passion is volleyball and I still play in leagues and beach volleyball tournaments and competitions in Fenton, where I live. I played for the Air Force for 2 years as an outside hitter and then played at Washtenaw Community College as an outside hitter for a year. I have been coaching volleyball for about 3 years and I love every minute of it. I am the varsity coach at Fowlerville High School and used to coach varsity at Oakdale Christian Academy.

Andrew Wu
Head Coach 17 National Black

Bio coming soon!

Sherri Dziadzio
Head Coach – 18 National

Sherri Dziadzio is a native of Dearborn, MI.  She grew up playing 4 sports in high school, but an open tryout at HFCC led her to the beginning of her successful college career.  She was a 2-sport athlete in college being named All-American, All-Region and All-Conference in both volleyball and basketball.  Her career continued at Wayne State University where she graduated with honors with her BS in Education.  Simultaneously at the age of 19 years old, her coaching career began at Plymouth Canton HS where she coached freshman volleyball for 3 years. Once she graduated from college and she began her teaching career, 27 years ago, she had the opportunity to run the volleyball program 7-12 for New Boston Huron Schools.  While running her own program, she graduated from Eastern Michigan University with her Masters in Educational Leadership.  Once she received her MA, a change in school districts was made and she began her 23 year stint with Farmington Public schools.  Sherri took a break from coaching in the public school, and coached her twin girls in the Catholic League from 4th grade through freshman year in high school. Currently she has taken her 30+ years of experience and is coaching the JV Volleyball team at North Farmington High School and the 8th grade volleyball team at Warner Middle School.  She is also the Athletic director and 8th grade science teacher at Warner Middle School.

Her passion is volleyball.  Her mission is to use that passion as a platform in enabling girls to become confident with themselves while being leaders on and off the court.  She looks forward to the day where she can complete her dream and coach her own College Volleyball team.  Meanwhile, she is so excited and grateful for the opportunity to be coaching for the Legends Volleyball Organization.  Sherri currently resides in Dearborn with her twin daughters who are seniors in high school and their two rescue pups…Ollie and Charlie.

Juliana Gutknecht
Assistant Coach – 18 Adidas

Private Lessons: juliana.gutknecht@student.cuaa.edu (Works best with hitters and blockers)

Currently the Graduate Assistant Coach at Concordia University Ann Arbor. Prior to that, Juliana Gutknecht was the Assistant Coach at Alma College during the 2017 & 2018 seasons. While there, she was apart of the 2018 record season, where Alma won 19 matches and achieved its highest winning percentage since 2008. The Scots also earned their first playoff victory since 2010, with two players earning 1st team All-MIAA honors and 1 earning 2nd team All-MIAA honors. The team also were AVCA Team Academic Award winners in 2017-2018. She was named Interim Head Coach in December 2018 to the end of January 2019.

A native of Southern California, Gutknecht graduated from San Diego Christian College where she graduated in 2016. While at SDCC she played in all 101 matches, was a 6 rotation player, tallied 781 kills, 595 digs, and was the captain her senior year.

Gutknecht has also coached the FarOut North 17/18 team last season and the year before coached the CVC 18s team. Before moving to Michigan, Gutknecht had four years of summer coaching experience with the Los Angeles Baptist High School girls volleyball team as well as two summers of coaching at the Los Angeles Volleyball Academy.

Matt Kaplan
Head Coach – 17 National Royal

Private Lessons – mkaplan@newbright.net

This is Matt’s second year coaching at Legends. Matt was drawn to coaching at Legends because of the energy and values of the current staff and the investments the facility is making in our athletes. While Matt is still relatively new to coaching, his playing experience in California greatly makes up for it. Matt played various positions on his high school varsity volleyball team. He started as a libero his sophomore year and became the team’s main setter his senior year. His senior year the team had their best finish in the last 15 years.

While in school at Michigan State University, Matt played club volleyball and ultimate frisbee for the school. His favorite memories include the time spent with friends in long car rides traveling to Santa Barbara, San Diego, Charlotte, and St. Louis for tournaments. He graduated with a BS in Econometrics and now works for the largest radio control car toy company in the United States. Matt is an avid learner and a geek when it comes to sport statistics. Matt continues to play in adult tournaments and loves to compete with friends in every sport.

Some of his current goals include adopting his own fur baby, running fifty miles in a day, and finding the time to do another long-distance backpacking trip.

Jerome Fraisse
Assistant at University of Michigan
Coach Education for Legends

Phone: 810.231.9288

Jerome is currently one of the assistant coaches at the University of Michigan. He is a native of Grenoble, France and comes to us with 20 years of coaching experience from the youth level all the way to the professional level. He has coached beach volleyball and worked with boys teams during his time of living in France. We are excited to have him working with us to offer these camps and hope you take advantage of the time he is here with us.

Tracy Mack
Private Lessons and Floating Coach

Phone: 810.231.9288

Tracy has been with Legends for 3 years and has been involved with all age groups at Legacy. She has helped build the rec volleyball program, coach 14u and 12u teams and help coordinate the private lesson program. She is originally from Burton, MI and went to Atherton High School. There she was involved in a very successful volleyball program. She was one of the varsity’s middle hitters all four years of her high school career. She was a recipient of All State and All Region honors her Senior year. She went on to accepted a volleyball scholarship to Mott Community College. She since has been coaching on and off for over 20 years. She is currently in her second year at Brighton High School as the Freshman Coach. The love of the sport continues to drive her. Teaching athletes to love the sport and become stronger on and off the court. She has lived in Brighton for over 15 years with her husband Jeremy and their four children, Branden, Andrew, Natalie and Ryan.

Employment Opportunities

Want to help coach at Legends? Looking for somewhere to help build your skills as a coach? We are looking for you! Join us in our search for coaches for the 2020 Club Season and our recreational teams. Please contact Kristen Althouse at kalthouse@legacycentermichigan.com for more information!