New faces will pace the sideline for Kaneland's volleyball teams this season. Cyndi Violett will control the fortunes of the varsity squad, while Kris Weiss will handle the role of sophomore coach. Neither coach is a stranger to Kaneland.
For the past two seasons, Violett coached the sophomore team for the Knights. This gives her the luxury of having coached all the varsity girls one year previously. Coach Violett's volleyball background began at Hampshire High School. She then advanced to two years of competition at Elgin Community College. During her sophomore year at ECC, the team won its Regional Championship and advanced to the National Finals in Florida. Her collegiate volleyball continued two more years at Upper Iowa where she graduated. She returned to the Fox Valley to begin her tenure at Kaneland.
Coach Weiss graduated from Kaneland in 1988, playing volleyball, basketball and softball as a Knight. From Kaneland, she went to Western Illinois for three years and then finished her college days at Aurora University this past spring. This fall, Weiss will teach eighth grade math at Genoa to go along with her coaching duties at Kaneland.
Rounding out the volleyball coaching staff, Maureen Frawley will continue her role as freshman coach.
Player turnout this season for Kaneland volleyball was a big boost for the new head coach. Eighteen players tried out for the 15 varsity spots. Twelve sophomores and 23 freshman showed up for the 20 available openings.
Coach Violett said she believes her varsity squad "should be very competitive." The goal is to finish one or two in the six-team conference race.
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