Getting to know Michelle Collier of Jacksonville Dolphins – Volleyball
Michelle Collier is the new mentor of Jacksonville University women’s volleyball programme and she is also the in-charge of Dolphins Sand Volleyball Programme.
The 2002 graduate from University of South Florida took over the Dolphins in spring 2011. It has been a few months that she has joined JU but she has developed a great understanding with her team players.
Before coaching, Collier was known as fine volleyball athlete. She became part of the University of South Florida (USF) women’s volleyball team in 1998 and represented the Bulls for five years.
As a player, she emerged as one of the greatest players ever collegiately. Collier performed amazingly well throughout her career and touched the heights of fame. She became one of the top players in NCAA Division I history by notching up 2,729 career kills.
At USF, she ranked in top-10 players of the programme on account of her extraordinary skills. She settled for top slots in kills and digs at the University of South Florida. Overall, Collier is still considered a big name in the history of USF Volleyball Programme.
Following a stupendous success with the Bulls at USF, Collier started playing as a professional volleyball player. She pursued her career as a pro-player from 2003 to 2006 and received international recognition while touring Indonesia, Spain, Puerto Rico,
Cyprus, and the Netherlands. She received great many accolades and stood apart from others with a distinction. She settled for the award of Most Valuable Player in Indonesian women’s national league and also became the Best Foreign Player in Cyprus.
She was named as the Conference USA Player of the Year twice in 2002 and settled for league's Player of the Decade in 2004. On account of her achievements, she joined the USF Hall of Fame in its third class announced last year. Furthermore, she became the
first player from USF to earn that honour.
Collier not only proved her endeavours as a player but made a great coach later on. She started her coaching career as an assistant coach at USF. She worked with the outside hitters and helped the team in recruiting international players. As an assistant
coach in her starting years, she helped USF to make it to the top half of the deep BIG EAST Conference. She spent two years at USF as an assistant and then moved to South Carolina in 2010.
In her first year with Gamecocks of University of South Carolina, Collier played a vital role in coaching one of the outside hitter to the SEC all-freshman team. Under Collier’s leadership, Juliette Thévenin led the team in both kills and aces. Moreover,
she emerged as the third rookie ever and fifth freshman to lead South Carolina in kills. During the next year, the Gamecock further improved and grabbed more success in the season.
Collier joined the Dolphins as full time head coach in 2011. All eyes are set on her and upcoming matches of the regular season will tell the difference in the Dolphins’ performance after the addition of Collier.
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