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 Former
Washington State University two-sport star
Jennifer Greeny, who posted a remarkable
84-12 record in the past three years as
volleyball coach at Pullman High School in
Washington, has been named volleyball coach
at Lewis-Clark State College, Warrior
athletic director Gary Picone announced
Tuesday.
Greeny replaces
Jerry Pruitt, who resigned earlier this
month because of health reasons. Pruitt was
named the Warriors’ coach in February but
immediately developed health issues that led
to his resignation.
Greeny, 30,
starts her new position immediately, but
will finish her contract as a physical
education teacher at Lincoln Middle School
in Pullman through the current school year.
“We’re very
excited to have someone of Jennifer’s
caliber lead our volleyball program,” Picone
says. “I think she brings a lot of
excitement to the program.”
Picone met
Greeny when both were at WSU in the early
2000s – Picone was an assistant baseball
coach and Greeny was an assistant volleyball
coach. When Pruitt resigned, Picone’s first
phone call was to Greeny.
“After talking
with Gary, I knew it was a great job,” says
Greeny. “Getting back to the college
coaching realm is very appealing to me.”
Greeny, nee
Stinson, was a standout volleyball player at
WSU during 1995-99 and also played on the
basketball team her senior season. She spent
a year coaching in the Spokane area until
taking a job as assistant volleyball coach
at WSU in 2000 under then-Cougar coach Cindy
Fredrick.
Greeny spent 4½
years on Fredrick’s staff and then took over
at Pullman High when Fredrick left for the
University of Iowa.
In 2004, her
first year at PHS, Greeny led the team to a
25-8 mark and a seventh place finish at
state. The following year, Pullman went 28-3
and won its first state volleyball
championship despite being picked to finish
fifth in its league by a vote of the Great
Northern League coaches. She was the chosen
the Washington Interscholastic Athletic
Association’s Coach of the Year and the
GNL’s Coach of the Year.
Last season,
the team went 31-1, suffering its only loss
in the state semifinals. The team finished
third at state, and set program records for
most wins and best winning percentage.
Greeny was chosen as the GNL’s Coach of the
Year.
During her
three years at Pullman, she finished with a
.875 winning percentage.
“That’s a
phenomenal record for any sport,” Picone
says. “That shows not only is she a great
coach, but she’s also a great fundamental
teacher of the game.”
Greeny takes
over a program that went 8-19 last season
and finished sixth in the eight-team
Frontier Conference. The Warriors had only
two seniors on the team and both were libero/defensive
specialists.
“We have some
principles that we want to build in the
program and one of the most important is the
character of the players we recruit,” Greeny
says.
Greeny
graduated from Davenport High in Washington
in 1995 where she was a stellar athlete. She
was named one of Volleyball Magazine’s Fab
Fifty Freshman recruits. She also stood out
in track and basketball, where she finished
her career as the state’s all-time leading
scorer (both boys and girls) with 2,881
points. She led the Gorillas to two state
basketball titles and she won three state
high jump championships. Her accomplishments
earned her numerous honors.
She went to WSU
on a volleyball scholarship and became the
seventh player in school history with 1,000
career kills. On WSU’s career list, Greeny
ranks third in block assists (360), fourth
in total blocks (410), seventh in kills
(1,006) and eighth in solo blocks (59). She
also trained with the U.S. National
volleyball team during the summer of 1997
and was a three-time all-Pacific 10
Conference selection.
Greeny also
excelled in the classroom where she was
WSU’s Athlete of the Year in 1998-99. She
was a GTE/CoSIDA District VIII Academic
All-America first-team and second-team
selection her final two years and was a Pac
10 Conference All-Academic selection three
times.
Greeny was
involved with six of the 10 seasons the
Cougar volleyball qualified for the
postseason, three as a player and three as
an assistant coach. During her playing
career, WSU was ranked as high as fifth in
the country and made the Elite Eight of the
NCAA Tournament.
“I know from my
experience at Washington State that Jen’s
impact was an integral part of the
Washington State volleyball success,” Picone
says.
Greeny and her
husband, Burdette Greeny, a former standout
pitcher at WSU and coach of the Pullman
Patriots’ American Legion baseball team,
have a daughter Lauren, age 2.
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