PORT ANGELES — Port Angeles School District teacher and coach Jennifer Reynolds has been selected to lead the Roughriders high school volleyball program.
Reynolds, a 2002 Sequim High School grad and former Wolves volleyball player, has taught in the district since 2010 and coached the Stevens Middle School eighth-grade volleyball team for the past four seasons.
“I am grateful for the opportunity to provide PAHS student athletes with a challenging and supportive atmosphere where they get to participate in a culture of collective responsibility that allows them to work together, push each other and take the risks necessary to maximize growth as individuals and as a team,” Reynolds said in a press release. “The skills learned in volleyball such as teamwork, work ethic, a growth mind-set and the goal-setting process are skills that stretch beyond the court and into daily life.”
District Athletic Director Dwayne Johnson described Reynolds as a talented coach with a record of success and abundant coaching experience.
“Coach Reynolds made a positive impression on the interview team with her enthusiasm, aspiration and commitment, as well as her ability to articulate her knowledge of volleyball. She is a great match for the Roughrider girls’ volleyball program, and we’re excited to welcome Jennifer and her family to the Roughrider girls’ volleyball community,” Johnson said.
Reynolds played under longtime Wolves head coach Jennie Webber in Sequim. She said that she’s incorporated some of her former coaches’ philosophies into her coaching style.
“Absolutely, she instilled the behavior that hard work pays off and the more effort you put into practicing or preparing, the greater the outcome,” Reynolds said.
Reynolds said that despite coaching many of the same players at the middle school level, it will be a fresh start with the high school program.
“The girls are all a lot different from when I first saw them and coached them in middle school,” Reynolds said. “And high school volleyball is so much more of a faster-paced game. It requires more strategy and I’m excited to go on that journey with them and offer that level of support.”
Reynolds said she would focus on creating a culture of collective responsibility and those pre-existing relationships with her former middle school players and their families would be a good base upon which to build.
“We already have established relationships with those families and we can grow and continue to build the program,” Reynolds said.
Reynolds said open gym volleyball sessions will be held at the high school this summer from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesdays and Thursdays and 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. Sundays.
Sessions are for incoming ninth through 12th graders who have been cleared through the school’s athletic office.
“Come up and have some fun playing volleyball,” Reynolds said. “You just have to have your athletic clearance card.”
Reynolds also said a Roughrider Volleyball Camp for those entering kindergarten through ninth grade will be held at the high school from July 15-17.
Kids entering sixth through ninth grade will attend from 9 a.m. to noon and those entering kindergarten through fifth grade will attend from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m.
The cost is $50 and scholarship assistance is available.
Reynolds said flyers will go out with students this week.
To sign up, or for more information, call Reynolds at 360-460-8059 or email jreynolds@gg.pasd.wednet.edu.
