Former DeKalb volleyball coach Gooden makes transition to college volleyball

DeKALB – As Kishwaukee College's volleyball team practices at DeKalb High School, coach Stephanie Gooden finds herself running around helping teachers who come into the gym asking for her assistance in their classrooms.

She jokes that the teachers still think she's a part of the DeKalb staff even though the first-year head coach is just running practices at the high school while renovations at Kishwaukee’s gym are completed. The team can play their first game on the court October 1,

Gooden, a former Barbs volleyball coach, went 83-21 during her three years as head coach and led the team to two conference and regional titles.

Now, she heads a college team that ended last season ranked third nationally and is off to a record of 12-8, including a 5-0 mark in the Arrowhead conference).

Volleyball has always been a passion to Gooden, as both a player at Capital University in Columbus, Ohio and a coach.

“I love this sport; it’s my passion. I don’t know what else I would do without it if I didn’t have volleyball to come to,” Gooden said, “It’s brought me all of my great joys like my husband, some of my best friends, my two kids and many wonderful relationships.”

When the Columbus, Ohio native was announced as coach in March, she went right to work with assistant coach Meagan Schoenrock and started the process of recruiting.

“I think it’s a benefit that I am happy to have to know these coaches in the Big 12 Conference,” Gooden said, “I am able to know a lot of other coaches from running the club.”

Gooden, with the help of Northern Illinois volleyball coach and husband Ray, is the director of Huskie Jrs., a club that prepares volleyball players from ages 10 to 18 to play at the collegiate level.

Coaching mostly high school girls is something that Gooden loved and she knows that coaching college girls will be a big change. Yet she is excited for the transition to coaching volleyball at Kishwaukee College.

“The bad of it is that I miss my high school kids because the senior class started with me when they were freshman,” Gooden said of the transition, “but having to focus on one team of 11 players and helping them get better is a real blessing.”

It was refreshing for Gooden to see a familiar face on the first day of practice. Former Barb, Mackenzie Johnson, was also relieved to see her former high school coach become her new head coach at Kishwaukee.

“I think it’s a good thing that she’s the new coach just because I know her philosophy and how she likes to run things,” Johnson said. “She knows what she’s talking about and she loves the game of volleyball and it makes us love that game that much more. I look up to her, that’s for sure, and am looking forward to the season with her.”