Terra State Nets Coaching Staff for Titan Volleyball
The Terra State Titans Volleyball team has secured a head coach, Stephanie Champine. “I’m very excited and honored to be named the head coach for this new era of Terra State Volleyball. This is a program that has the potential to do great things and I cannot wait to get started,” she said.
A native to the greater Toledo area, Champine has an abundance of accomplishments over her volleyball career.
She played on the 2005 State Championship team at Bedford High School in Temperance, Michigan and received All-Region and All-Michigan honors. After high school, Champine started her coaching career with the Borderline Volleyball Club in Michigan and later joined the Owens Community College Express volleyball team.
While playing for the Express, Champine was named National Junior College Athletic Association (NJCAA) Division II All-American in 2006, Ohio Community College Athletic Conference (OCCAC) Player-of-the-year, Team MVP in 2006 and 2007 among other honors. Champine’s jersey was retired in 2010, marking Champine the second student-athlete in Owens’ history to achieve this accomplishment. In 2016, she became the first female inducted into the Express Hall-of-Fame.
Later on, Champine transferred from Owens to Austin Peay University in Clarksville, TN, and continued her dominance on the court. Some of her honors at Austin Peay include Conference Newcomer-of-the-Year, American Volleyball Coaches Association (AVCA) All-Region, OVC Player-of-the-Year and First-Team All-OVC just to name a few.
She was named 2009 Lady Govs Female Athlete-of-the-Year, the teams’ Most Valuable Player during the Lady Govs Volleyball Classic and received All-Tournament team honors at the Kennesaw State Owl Challenge and Tulsa Invitational. In 2016, she was also inducted into Austin Peay’s Hall-of-Fame.
After college, Champine played with the Lakeshore Region Premier Volleyball League (PVL) squad and continued coaching. She coached for Sylvania Southview, Monroe High School, Start High School, the Toledo Volleyball Club and Glass City Athletics.
Also joining the coaching staff is Shaun Dryden, who joined Champine at Start High School and continued coaching with her at Glass City Athletics. Dryden, originally from Houston, Texas, played two years at Los Angeles Piece College before joining the Indiana Ft. Wayne (IPFW) team.
Following his college career, he played for Team Pineapple PVL, trained internationally with Falkenberg Vollibol Klub in Sweden, played on the Bring It USA Volleyball tour in Slovenia and Italy and another tour with Team Blizzard.
Like Champine, Dryden possesses a great deal of coaching experience. He served as a volunteer coach for IPFW before moving to a graduate assistant role for both the men’s and women’s teams. He then started coaching with Empowered Volleyball Club in Ft. Wayne and Angola High School.
The future of Terra State volleyball is looking bright and Champine is motivated to get the ball rolling. “I’ve been very fortunate to be in a position where I can be around the sport I love every day. I’m also very excited to be taking this position on with a very talented assistant who will bring so much to the program,” she said.
Recruiting for the team is currently in full-swing, with practices starting up in early August. The Titans coaching staff will be holding open tryouts on June 8, from 5:00 p.m. until 7:00 p.m. in the Student Activities Center on Terra State’s campus.
Champine is a soaring example of the success a player can get out of playing for a community college. So, she is encouraging every high school volleyball player to attend the tryouts. “I flew under the radar in high school and was very fortunate to get picked up by a community college,” she said. “It opened so many doors to continue playing on a full ride to a Division 1 school. I’m excited to give volleyball players an opportunity to continue to develop in a competitive environment in hopes to open the same door for them.”