Former Washington State University volleyball standout LaToya Harris has been named head volleyball coach at Lewis-Clark State College, Warrior athletic director Gary Picone announced on Monday.
Harris played at WSU during 1999-2002 and was a teammate of the coach she replaces, Jen Greeny (nee Stinson) during the 1999 season. Greeny resigned last month to become head coach at WSU.
Harris will begin her new duties on April 25.
Harris has been head volleyball coach at Sam Barlow High School in Gresham, Ore., since 2006 and also has 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.
“I’m excited to find what I think is a perfect fit for the volleyball coach at Lewis-Clark State College,” LCSC athletic director Gary Picone said. “LaToya’s experience, energy, and passion for being here will, no doubt in my mind, bring continued success to the program.”
Harris takes over a program that has won four straight Frontier Conference regular season and conference tournaments, all under Greeny. In her four years, Greeny posted a 112-24 record.
“I’m excited because this is an opportunity many coaches want to be involved with, taking over a winning program that Jen and Burdette did such a great job with,” Harris said. “It’s a real adrenaline rush to be here and I’m excited to get started.”
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 will have at least one familiar face in the program as LCSC’s first announced signee for next season is Ali Hubert, a 5-foot-11 setter who played at Sam Barlow.
Harris’ Alpine Club also has been very successful, especially during the past two seasons. She’s also has 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 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.
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.
