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 LaToya
Harris enters her first year as head coach
at Lewis-Clark State College after
successful coaching stints at the high
school and club levels.
Harris was a standout player at Washington
State University during 1999-2002. During
her freshman season, WSU’s graduate
assistant coach was Jen Greeny (nee
Stinson), who Harris replaces at the Warrior
helm. Greeny is now head coach at WSU.
Prior to LCSC, Harris had been head
volleyball coach at Sam Barlow High School
in Gresham, Ore., since 2006 and also had
been coach of the Alpine Volleyball Club
team since 2007. She comes highly
recommended, by both Greeny and her old
coach at WSU, Cindy Fredrick.
Harris takes over a program that has won four
straight Frontier Conference regular season and conference tournament
titles and is ranked No. 7 in this season’s NAIA preseason poll.
In her five years at Sam Barlow, Harris has led
the team to a 55-28 mark in conference play with second-place finishes
in each of the past two seasons. The team made the playoffs all five
seasons and advanced to the Oregon state tournament twice where it
finished seventh in 2008 and again in ’09.
During the five years, she had players earn 10
first-team all-conference honors, four second-team honors, and 18
receive honorable mention selection. Her players have gone on to sign
at one NCAA Division I school, four at NCAA D-II, two at NCAA Division
III, one at the NAIA, and four at community colleges.
Harris’ Alpine Club also has been very successful,
especially during the past two seasons. She’s also had 17 players from
the club team sign to play college volleyball.
Harris was a standout volleyball, basketball and
softball player at Parkrose High School in Portland where she earned
12 letters and was a starter in all four sports for four seasons. She
was the KATU Athlete of the Week during her senior year in an area
that covered both Washington and Oregon prep athletes and also was the
TV station’s Athlete of the Year for that season. Parkrose retired her
high school volleyball jersey that season and the jersey was
re-retired in 2010 with a new banner.
She signed to play volleyball at WSU where she was
a starter all four seasons and earned All-Freshman Pac-10 Conference
honors her first season and first-team All-Pac-10 her final three
seasons. She also was the team MVP her sophomore and senior seasons
and earned Pac-10 Player of the Week both seasons as well.
She was named the MVP at seven tournaments during
her Cougar career, including the Las Vegas Invitational (2001), Cougar
Challenge (2000-02), Fresno State Invitational (2001), Alaska
Invitational (2002), and San Francisco Invitational (2002).
Harris also helped WSU to the NCAA tournament her
final three seasons with an Elite Eight appearance in 2002.
She became the third player in WSU history to
record at least 1,000 kills and 1,000 digs during her career and
finished fourth in school history in both categories. She also held
the record for most career service aces with 143.
While at WSU, she also competed in track for one
season as a higher jumper.
Following her playing career, she served as an
undergraduate assistant coach for Fredrick at WSU in the 2003 season,
and then became head coach at San Leandro High in California for two
seasons before taking over at Sam Barlow.
Harris has a Bachelor of Arts degrees in
Humanities with an emphasis in Communication and in Women Studies with
a minor in Sport Management.
Harris and her fiancé Renaldo Alexander Sr., have
a 5-year-old son Renaldo Alexander Jr.
Assistant Coach Marie Balmer
 Marie
Balmer is in her first year as an assistant coach at LCSC after a
successful playing career for the Warriors.
Balmer (nee Lauder) came
to LCSC as a freshman in 2003 after a successful high school career at
F.P. Walshe in Fort MacLeod, Alberta where she was named the Varsity
Female Athlete of the Year as a junior and senior. She was named the
team’s MVP and a league All-Star in volleyball, basketball, and rugby
her final two seasons at F.P. Walshe and also was the league MVP in
rugby both seasons. She set the league record for most tries in a
season during her junior year and then broke the record with 36 in 10
games as a senior.
She also led the Flyers to
league titles in volleyball, basketball, and rugby.
Balmer played during the
2003-05 seasons and finished second on the team in blocks, third in
hitting percentage, and fifth in kills as a sophomore. As a junior,
she was second on the team in kills, third in blocks, and fifth in
digs.
After taking a year off to
get married and raise a son, Balmer returned in 2007 for her senior
year and helped the Warriors capture their first of four straight
Frontier Conference regular season and tournament titles. She finished
sixth on the team in kills and was fifth in assists, sixth in digs,
and seventh in blocks. The team went 26-8 that season, the program’s
best mark since Balmer’s freshman season.
Balmer is a physical education teacher at Highland
Elementary in Clarkston, WA., and is pursuing a Master’s degree in
Education, which she expects to finish in December.
Barlmer is married to LCSC
assistant baseball coach Allen Balmer. The couple have two children,
Brody and Avery Marie.
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