Jill Stephens

With over 200 wins in her first nine seasons, Jill Stephens is in her 10th season (2010) as the Moccasins’ head coach. Last season the Moccasins were 14-18, but they had wins over two top 25 teams and four of their losses were in five sets.  She recorded her 200th career coaching win on Aug. 29 last season with a three-set win over Millersville in the St Mary’s (Texas) Invitational. 
  
Stephens’ nine-year record at FSC is 211-102. Her .674 winning percentage ranks 30th among active NCAA Division II coaches going into the 2010 season.  She is one of just three current Division II coaches with at least 200 wins in less than 10 seasons as a head coach and a winning percentage of at least 67 percent.

In 2008 she coached the Moccasins to a 25-9 record that included a runner-up finish in the Sunshine State Conference and a seventh straight NCAA tournament bid.  The Moccasins were ranked 19th in the final AVCA Division II Poll, marking the fifth straight year they finished the season ranked in the top 20.

In 2007 she guided her team to a 26-9 record and a runner-up finish at the NCAA South Regional. The Moccasins finished tied for second in the Sunshine State Conference with a mark of 11-5 and handed SSC champion Tampa its only conference loss. 

She coached the Moccasins to a 31-5 record and a share of the SSC title in 2006.  In 2005 she earned the SSC Coach of the Year award, as she led the Moccasins to a 33-4 record and a 14-2 SSC mark.  She also recorded her 100th career coaching win with a 30-26, 30-20, 30-23 win at Saint Leo on Oct. 5, 2005.

Eight of her players have earned All-America recognition and 11 have received Academic All-District honors.  In each of the last three seasons (2007, 2008, 2009), the Moccasins have earned an AVCA Team Academic Award.

In her nine previous seasons as head coach, she’s had a total of 30 seniors in the program.  All of them have graduated and seven of them are coaching volleyball at either the high school, college or club level.

Her appointment in 2001 as FSC’s head volleyball coach came after she had served two years as an assistant coach at Division I Florida Atlantic University (1995-96) and four years (1997-2000) as an assistant to longtime FSC head coach Lois Webb.

A 1995 graduate of Florida Southern, Stephens earned her bachelor’s degree in sports management and earned her master’s degree (also in sports management) from the U.S. Sports Academy in 2001.
 
Her standout playing career earned her a spot in the Florida Southern Sports Hall of Fame in 2009.  She played for the Moccasins from 1991 to 1994, twice earning AVCA All-America recognition, in 1994 as a first-team honoree and in 1993 as a member of the second team. As a senior, Stephens was named the Florida Southern Female Scholar-Athlete of the Year. As a freshman, she helped guide her team to a fourth place finish at the NCAA Division II Championship. In 1992, her sophomore season, Stephens was named the Mocs’ most valuable player and led her team to an NCAA South Regional appearance. She ranks in the top four in the FSC record book in four career categories: (kills-3rd, 1691; digs-5th, 1475; attack attempts-2nd, 3731; aces-3rd, 217). Her totals of 155 matches played and 547 games played are the most in FSC history.

In 2007 she was inducted into the Hall of Fame of her high school, Cardinal Gibbons High School in Ft. Lauderdale, where she played for the legendary AVCA Hall of Fame member Louise Crocco.
 
She served on the NCAA South Region Advisory Committee for Volleyball for three seasons. In addition, she represents the Sunshine State Conference on the NCAA Division II Volleyball Head Coaches Committee and is chair of the AVCA All-South Region Selection Committee, as well as a member of the AVCA All-America Selection Committee.

Last March she was part of a group representing USA Volleyball that went to Zambia, Africa, to conduct five days of volleyball clinics for approximately 100 13-15 year olds.

Stephens is passionate about youth volleyball, as she served the summer of 2007 and 2008 as a head coach for Florida’s USAV High Performance program.  She also loves her time as sponsor of the Fellowship of Christian Athletes chapter at Florida Southern.