Three of the four area volleyball teams have new coaches this season.
Lisa Klapperich is in her second stint at Lutheran, Alicia Phephles is running the show at North and Melissa Neeb oversees the program at Christian.
Klapperich’s coaching career with the Crusaders began in 2002 as an assistant and came to an end in 2011 after her third child was born.
She ended up coaching her daughter in a Plymouth middle school for several years and she followed her to Lutheran in 2019 to run the junior varsity program for two seasons.
Neeb, who played at Lakeland, replaces Erica Warmus after nine seasons with the Eagles and says she has a great bunch of girls with super great attitudes.
Phephles played at Viterbo and moved to the area less than two years ago because of her husband’s job. This is her first varsity position.
“It kind of came about by word of mouth,” she said. “A co-worker of mine had mentioned her daughter plays volleyball and they hadn’t had a coach yet.
“We talked about it for a little bit and the next thing I knew I was getting a call (from the athletic director), and here we are.”
Categories: Sports