PULLMAN – Jennifer Stinson Greeny is Washington State University’s new volleyball head coach, Director of Athletics Bill Moos announced Wednesday.
Greeny becomes the 12th coach in the history of the Cougars volleyball program, where she previously played and was an assistant coach during the program’s most successful years on the Palouse.
“Jen Greeny brings an excitement to this position that only a Cougar alumnus can bring,” Moos said. “She is a tireless worker who has proven her coaching ability by being successful in every location she has coached. She will serve as a fantastic role model for all of our student-athletes.”
Greeny has been the head volleyball coach at Lewis-Clark State College (Lewiston, Idaho) for the past four years, accumulating an impressive 112-24 record and .824 winning percentage while turning the Warriors’ program into one of the premier NAIA teams nationally.
Named LCSC’s head coach in late spring 2007, Greeny took the reins of a struggling program that was in the rebuilding process and led it to one of its most successful seasons in program history.
Her teams have won four consecutive Frontier Conference regular season titles, four consecutive Frontier Conference tournament championships, as well as earning four consecutive berths to the NAIA National Tournament and finishing in the top 13 in the nation each year. The Warriors ended the 2010 season at 31-3 for a .912 winning percentage, the best all-time mark in the history of the program.
Greeny was named the Frontier Conference Coach of the Year for four consecutive years and the American Volleyball Coaches’ Association’s 2010 Northwest Region Coach of the Year for the fourth straight season.
“I want to thank Bill Moos and Dr. Floyd for this incredible opportunity,” Greeny said. “Being a Cougar is something extremely special and we are excited to be coming home.”
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 prep 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 (419), seventh in solo blocks (59), and 10th in kills (1,006).
She also trained with the U.S. National volleyball team during summer 1997 and was a three-time all-Pacific 10 Conference selection. Greeny trained with the U.S. National volleyball team but a knee injury kept her from playing at the World University Games in 1997. She also played one season on the Cougar women’s basketball team.
Greeny excelled in the classroom where she was WSU’s Athlete of the Year in 1998-99. She was a 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.
She received her bachelor’s degree in education from WSU in December 1999 and spent the next half-year substitute teaching and coaching in Spokane until accepting the position as assistant volleyball coach at WSU. Greeny spent 4½ years on Cindy Fredrick’s staff and then took over at Pullman High when Fredrick left for the University of Iowa.
At the time of her departure from WSU in spring 2004, Greeny was involved in six of the 10 seasons Cougar volleyball qualified for the postseason, three as a player and three as an assistant coach.
During her player career, WSU was ranked as high as fifth in the country and made the Elite Eight of the NCAA Championship Tournament. Greeny was instrumental in WSU’s second and only other appearance in the Elite Eight of the NCAA Tournament, in 2002, this time as an assistant coach.
Greeny became the Pullman High School volleyball coach in 2003 and posted a remarkable 84-12 record with a .875 winning percentage in three years. She was the Washington Interscholastic Athletic Association’s Coach of the Year and was tabbed the Great Northern League Coach of the Year three times.
Her commitment to athletic department and community well-being has been prominent in Greeny’s tenure at LCSC where she and her team members have been active vounteers in local elementary schools, mentoring disadvantaged youth, conducting Little Spikers volleyball clinics, working at the NAIA Baseball World Series, working with area club volleyball, and various other programs.
Greeny and her husband, Burdette Greeny, a former standout pitcher at WSU and an assistant volleyball coach at Lewis-Clark State, have two daughters: Lauren, age 6, and Leah, 16 months.