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LCSC hires Greeny as new volleyball coach
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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