When the University of Illinois hired Christ Tamas as their new head women’s volleyball coach, they weren’t just buying into his experience as an assistant coach with Nebraska: one of the top college programs in the country. They were tapping into a volleyball power couple. Today, they made that official with the announcement of Chris’ wife Jen as a volunteer assistant.
Jen Tamas was a four-time All-American middle blocker at Pacific and won a silver medal as a part of the U.S. Olympic Team at the 2008 Summer Games. The former Jennifer Joines was a 4-year captain of Team USA and has worked as a volunteer coach in the Tamas family’s last two stops at Nebraska and Cal Poly.
“Jen is the best volunteer coach in the country,” said Chris Tamas. “Not only will she teach our team how to improve as players but more importantly, she will be an excellent role model. Her resume speaks for itself and the players will learn a lot from her experience as former All-American, professional player, and Olympian. Furthermore, I know she will have a great impact on their personal lives just as she has had on mine. She is an amazing coach, wife, mother and friend and I could not be more grateful adding her to our staff.”
Tamas has previously hired Rashinda Reed as a full-time assistant, with Jason Mansfield remaining as a holdover from the prior staff.
Illinois’ former head coach Kevin Hambly left the program in January to take over as the head coach of the defending NCAA Champion Stanford Cardinal.
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