Coaches Bio's

Russell Thompson (Head Girls 18 Coach)

Russell Thompson played for RVC’s 16’s and 18’s National Team from 1997-2000. Thompson’s 2000 team, considered one of the best RVC boys teams, won the Rochester Invitation, took 2nd at Penn State’s Boy’s Classic, and was named Old Dominion Region Champions, East Coast Champions, and Chicago Pre-Nationals Champions while finishing as high as 10th at the National Tournament. He was personally named 1st team all-state 1999, State Player of the Year in 1999, East Coast all tournament team in 2000 among many others accomplishments. In 2007 Russ is the assistant coach at Landstown High School.

After being recruited to play libero in college, Russell decided to play basketball for Longwood College as a shooting guard. Russell graduated with a degree in Economics with a minor in Business Administration. Thompson began coaching his last two years in college for RVC’s regional and zonal teams where five of his players made higher ranked teams the following year after his instruction. He coached seven players from the State Champion Clover Hill Cavaliers.

Thompson moved to Virginia Beach in January after acquiring a job promotion with UPS. The 2007-2008 juniors season will be his second year coaching with TVA.

Amy Ackerman (Head Girls 16 Coach)

Amy Ackerman begins her second year as a juniors coach with TVA. Ackerman graduated from Great Bridge High School, where her senior squad finished fourth in State playoffs as well as playing for Great Bridge’s three-time state champion softball team.

After high school, Ackerman played volleyball and softball at the University of Mary Washington and later transferred to Old Dominion University to pursue a Bachelors degree in Recreation and Tourism Studies Management. Ackerman graduated summa cum laude in 2004 and continued to graduate with a Masters degree in 2006.

Ackerman quickly moved from a volunteer assistant at her alma mater, Great Bridge High, to the Junior Varsity Women’s Volleyball Team in 2004. Ackerman earned a national coaches certification from the American Sport Education Program taught by VHSL. For the past two years Ackerman has been continued playing in TVA leagues as well as coaching within TVA’s youth clinics. She also coaches for YMCA’s youth clinics and softball at Great Bridge.

Ackerman is currently employed with Elite Food Company as a Sales and Market Analyst – a sales, marketing, and distribution company that supplies perishable products to commissaries and exchanges.

Gina Bissmeyer (Head Coach Girls 13's)

A native of California, Gina has been playing volleyball since 7th Grade. In high school she was a standout making the varsity team her sophomore year for Tustin High School .Volleyball. After transferring to Katella High School she was named Most Inspirational Player and Co-MVP. She played club and regular season for Fullerton College for one year and then began her outdoor career winning many tournaments throughout California and Arizona. Highlights include winning the California Beach Volleyball Association’s Cal Cup State Championships in 1999, playing for the Orange County Diggers, a professional grass 4’s team, and becoming a member of the Women’s Professional Volleyball Association in 1998. Gina still plays doubles and sixes with Championship teams. Her Women’s open team has won the Championships since their inception three seasons ago. She continues to compete on the beach as well locally and up and down the east coast including AVP qualifying tournaments.

Gina has a passion for volleyball and has been a clinic coach for Saddleback Valley Volleyball Club in Southern California and here at TVA. She enjoys passing on the skills and knowledge she has developed and learned during her 25 years of playing.

During the 2006-07 Season, Gina was TVA's 18's Assistant Coach.

Mike Williams (Head Girls 17 Coach)

Mike Williams started his athletic career playing tennis at age 6. His success competitively took off at age 10 when he first became nationally ranked. Then, Mike went on to play division I tennis and then played professionally from 1995-1998. It wasn’t until after his professional tennis days were over in 1999 that he picked up coaching volleyball in Northern California.

Mike coached at one of the most prestigious volleyball clubs in the country City Beach Volleyball Club in California in 2000 to 2001. His 14’s team finished the club season top 20 in the country. His team finished top 10 in Northern California’s power league. His team reached the final game at Pacific Northwest Qualifier and finals of Far Western’s Qualifier. He is most proud that any player he has coached that wanted to play in college now plays or played in college. He then moved to the east coast and began coaching at Tidewater Volleyball Association in 2001. Last year Mike Williams coached TVA 16’s in hopes of developing a strong 17’s program. Mike’s first year at TVA his boys 16’s team won bronze at Jr. Nationals 16 club.

Mike works at the Norfolk Sheriff’s Office and presently coaches at Norfolk Collegiate Junior Varsity program. Mike is married Lea with three children, Macie, Kennedy & Drew.

Caleb Adams (Head Girls 15 Coach)
Caleb’s initial experience with volleyball was watching the men’s 1984 Gold Medal winning team play Canada in an exhibition match. From then on he was hooked on the sport. Unfortunately for Caleb and the other guys in the area where he was raised, volleyball was not an optional sport.

He spent the summers following high school graduation on the beaches of Presque Isle State Park on Lake Erie playing in 4’s and 6’s tournaments with team Third Wave (also as a co-founder of the team). For himself and the others of Third Wave, no formal instruction to the sport was given. In essence, it was a trial by fire. Attended North Carolina State University (1993-1997), earning B.S.’s in Mathematics and Math Education. While at NCSU, spent one season with the club program. Following graduation gained employment at Leesville Road high school in Raleigh, NC.

Club Experience:
While in North Carolina Caleb worked with two clubs in two different seasons. The first was an independent group of players from the Raleigh area who called their team "Airborne" (1996-97 season, 18’s division). The second club was the now disbanded club, Club Raleigh (1999-2000 season) where his 18’s squad participated at the National Championships in New Orleans, LA. When he and his wife spent a year in Massachusetts they worked under Smash Volleyball (2000-2001 season, 18’s division). This past season (2005-2006) he coached at TVA experimenting with a different age group. His 13’s team, the “Maddogs”, consisted of variety ages ranging from 10-13 (most were 11-12). The squad qualified for the National Championships, National Division, in Atlanta, GA. He has had the honor to coach many players who continued their playing days with colleges of various levels.

Other Volleyball experience:

Caleb has also coached as head JV and assistant varsity coach while employed at Leesville High School (Raleigh, NC 1997-1999) and was an assistant under Kathy Stefanou at Millbrook High (Raleigh, NC 1996). Following a move to Greensboro, he spent a season as a practice assistant at Page High (Greensboro, NC 2000) as it was his wife's senior season at Greensboro College.

Caleb has had the pleasure to work with former N.C. State and Citadel assistant, Kreg Togami and has scouted for and advised Jean Lojko, current head coach of Greensboro College.

A brief hiatus existed (2001-2005) as Caleb devoted his time to studies, completing coursework necessary for a M.S. in Applied Mathematics and preparatory work for a Ph.D. Presently Caleb is working toward the completion of his doctoral dissertation in Computational and Applied Mathematics at Old Dominion University.

Chris Long (Head Girls 14 Coach)

Chris started his club coaching career in 1995 as an assistant for Tidewater Juniors. Shortly after establishing himself within our program, Chris relocated to the Midwest. While there, he was very fortunate to find a coaching opportunity with Team Saint Louis, a club nationally recognized for their success at the OPEN level of USA Volleyball Juniors competition. In his 4 1/2 years with Team Saint Louis, Chris' 13's and 14's teams finished their respective seasons with a trip to Nationals, while the best, overall finish for any of his teams was 2nd place in the 15's OPEN division of the Asics Nationals, 2000 Championships in Chicago. During this same timeframe, Chris also completed parts one and two of the USA Volleyball Coaching accreditation Program (CAP), which is recognized for instilling philosophies and providing training techniques similar to those used in the National Team pipeline.

Chris returned to the Tidewater area in 2002. Upon completing the 2002 season as coach of the TVA 15's team, he was side-lined from head coaching by personal and professional obligations. However, he continued to support our organization as a volunteer assistant and clinician over the course of the next 3 years. Chris returned to full-time status as a co-coach for our 2006, 16's team, as the head coach of our 2007 15's team, and will head coach our 2008 14's team.

Over the last 12 years, Chris has coached or assisted in the training of no less that 25 scholar athletes who have or are competing at all levels of collegiate competition. He firmly believes in providing his players with sound technical training and the tactical knowledge necessary to best use those skills. To that end, Chris spends some portion of each day either studying the game and how best to teach it, or discussing ideas with other club and college coaches across the country. In addition to coaching, Chris is a proficient volleyball official who has participated in District, Region and State High School Championship matches in Virginia and in Missouri.

Kelly Mills (Head Girls 12s Coach)

Kelly Mills started playing volleyball at the age of 12 at Great Bridge Junior High School. At 14, as a freshman, she earned a starting position as an outside hitter on the Great Bridge High School Varsity squad. In 1983 and 1984, as a team captain, Mills led her team to two District championships. She was a three-sport standout in volleyball, basketball and softball. As a member of the National Honor Society and many service clubs, in 1985, Mills became the only athlete to have ever graduated from Great Bridge High School who had earned twelve (12) varsity letters. In 1989, Kelly Mills was named high school volleyball player of the decade by the Chesapeake high school coaches.

After high school, Mills continued to demonstrate her athleticism by playing three sports (volleyball, basketball and softball) at Lenoir-Rhyne College in Hickory NC. Majoring in Pre-Engineering, as a freshman at Lenoir-Rhyne, Mills earned a starting position as a middle blocker on the varsity squad. As a captain in her third year, Mills was named to the All Carolina’s Conference and District 26 Tournament teams and led her volleyball team to the NAIA National Championship tournament.

Mills has worked several summer volleyball camps for Lenoir-Rhyne College. She worked as a Junior Olympics referee for the Carolina Region. As a member of the North Carolina State Volleyball Club, Mills competed in several USVBA tournaments throughout North Carolina. Since college graduation, she has been involved in indoor and outdoor volleyball leagues in the Tidewater area.

Mills has been working in the land development field since graduating from Lenoir-Rhyne College and Old Dominion University with two undergraduate degrees. Mills is currently employed by the City of Chesapeake as a Professional Engineer. This will be her second year coaching with TVA.

Dorina Goetz (Heach Coach 16-2)

Dorina Goertz, originally from Romania, grew up in Portland, Oregon playing volleyball since the age of 12. Her stint with Westside Volleyball Club in Oregon and Varsity High School Volleyball career was capitalized by being named on the All Metro Team as a defensive specialist. During college, she assisted at her Sunset High School Varsity Volleyball Team in Portland which perpetuated her love for coaching.

In 2005 Dorina and her husband, Westin, moved to Norfolk with the US Coast Guard where she became involved with Tidewater Volleyball Adult League and Middle School Preparedness League. She continues playing in TVA beach events competing in Women’s AA. After playing and coaching youth leagues for the past two years she has become a great candidate for an assistant coach.

Dorina’s enthusiasm, knowledge of the defensive game, and passion for volleyball will add to this year’s coaching line up making a excellent addition to our program.

Bryon Eayrs (Assistant Coach)

Bryon Eayrs started playing volleyball after he joined the U.S. Navy at the age of 18. Immediately after he was posted to Naval Air Station Keflavik, Iceland, Eayrs started to play on the base NATO volleyball team that traveled throughout Iceland, playing numerous city teams. While playing on the NATO team as an outside hitter, he was recruited to play for a local city team upon completion of the NATO season. Eayrs was posted to Royal Air Force Base, St. Mawgan, UK, and was recruited to play for a local club team, the St. Austell Spikers.

An avid member of Tidewater Volleyball, Eayrs continues to play on numerous A level men’s and coed championship teams. After assisting with the TVA Middle School Preparedness League, the West Kempsville Red Aces 12U recreation team, he remains active with the Junior Program, which includes a successful Assistant coaching stint for the TVA 12U team last season. His love of the game, and desire to continually improve, will enable him to continue on his way - hopefully becoming a head coach in the near future. His experience will be a definite asset to the TVA juniors program.

Katy Tyler(Assistant Coach)

Katy Tyler, originally from Revelstoke, British Columbia moved to Virginia Beach in January of 2007 with her husband, Tim Tyler. Katy grew up in Canada playing 4 years of high school volleyball trying every position. She earned captain honors her junior and senior years and became an assistant coach with a Boys' Grade 8 team.

Katy, a full year athlete, ranked provincial thrower for Track and Field all
4 years in Shotput, Hammer, Javelin and Discus. While she earned honors as All-State, she coached while participating on the Varsity Throwing Team.

After High School, Katy joined the Navy and served on the USS Fletcher
(DD-992) out of Pearl Harbor. While stationed there, she spent her free time playing for the ship's volleyball and softball team as the only girl on both teams. Katy then married Tim Tyler in 2002.

Katy plays Women's 4's, Women's Open, and Coed A for TVA. Her enthusiasm, natural coaching abilities and willingness to learn has captured the attention of many of the Junior Coaches from TVA. TVA expects her to develop under the leadership of one of our veteran coaches.