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. ⁣
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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!

Jon Denys
Head Coach – 18 Adidas and 16 Adidas

Phone: 810.231.9288

Jon Denys has been coaching for 10 years and has worked with multiple levels and age groups. He spent time at Eastern Michigan University coaching their women’s club team. Through his 10 years of coaching, he has had the privilege to learn and grow from many high level club and collegiate coaches. He has been running group trainings through the entire duration of his career.

On top of his coaching experience, he has been playing Volleyball for the past decade. He started his playing career with Eastern Michigan University’s men’s club team and has traveled nationally. He was ranked as a AA player at one of these national tournaments. Throughout his playing experience, he has picked up on specific skills and traits that have aided him with coaching.

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

Andrew Woo
Head Coach – 17 National Black

Email: ahywoo@gmail.com

This is Andrew’s second year coaching at Legends. He is currently the Assistant Varsity Coach at Brighton High School and is in his first year with the program. While Andrew is new to coaching, his playing experience in Hawaii greatly makes up for it. His energy, enthusiasm and dedication helps to excel his teams to success.⁣
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Since middle school, Woo has been playing competitive volleyball in Hawaii, his home state. High school was no different and he really grew in his love of the game. While in school at the University of Delaware, Andrew played club volleyball for the school and traveled for tournaments with the club team and with adult teams. He continues to play in adult tournaments and leagues when his schedule allows him to do so.

Elizabeth Ahola
15 National Assistant

Phone: 810.231.9288

Bio coming soon!

Britt Kalmeta
Head Coach – 15 Adidas

Phone: 810.231.9288

Bio coming soon!

Aaricka McCracken
Head Coach – 15 Travel

Phone: 810.231.9288

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.

Picture coming soon.

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.

Picture coming soon.

Matt Kaplan
Head Coach – 17 National Royal

Private Lessons – mkaplan@newbright.net

This is Matt’s freshman 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 new to coaching, his playing experience in California greatly makes up for it.

His High school team went from 4-23 his sophomore year to 22-8 his senior year. During his career he played against multiple national champions and was able to learn every position of the game. As the second shortest player on the team he was able to carve a new role every year to fit the team’s need. Their final game ended in 24-26, 25-23, 25-17, 19-25, 15-13 loss. This loss still motivates him today.

While in school at Michigan State University, Matthew played club volleyball and ultimate frisbee for the school. He graduated with a BS in Econometrics. Matthew continues to play in adult tournaments and loves to compete.

Matt really looks forward to the results of his first season and is lucky to have such an awesome team and assistant.

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.

Mandy Moran
Private Lessons and Floating Coach

Phone: 810.231.9288

Mandy has been coaching volleyball for 9 years. Originally from Rochester, she began her coaching career at her alma mater, Stoney Creek High School, where she became an assistant coach the year after graduation. After taking a break from coaching to get her Accounting degree from Grand Valley State University, she moved back to the area and immediately began coaching at Stoney Creek once again. She spent 1 year as the Freshman coach, 2 years at the JV level, and 3 as the head varsity coach. During this time she also coached the 8th grade team at Hart Middle School. She just finished up her second year as the JV coach at Brighton High School. She lives in South Lyon with her husband, Mike, and their Dog, Tripp.

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!

Apply Here

Meet the Legends Volleyball Staff!

Kristen Althouse
Executive Director of Volleyball
Head Coach 17 Adidas

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

Jon Denys
Head Coach – 18 Adidas and 16 Adidas

Hailey Wilson
Head Coach – 13 Travel Black