New University of Illinois head coach Chris Tamas has announced his new coaching staff that will help him as he takes over Illinois’ women’s program for the fall of 2017. Rashinda Reed will join the staff alongside assistant Jason Mansfield and director of operations Jenni Bolduc, who are holdovers from Kevin Hambly’s staff.
“In the interview process, Rashinda stood out to me as someone who is not only passionate about the game of volleyball but also as someone who is passionate about developing each of the players she has coached; both as a player and a person,” said Tamas. “She had a similar background to myself and we have connected in sharing our experiences and what we have learned at each of those locations. Rashinda has a strong playing background, both as a former student-athlete and as a professional athlete. She has also coached at many different levels and areas around the country. She will compliment me well with my vision for the program. I look forward to her contributions to the staff, the players and the University of Illinois.”
That means that Reed jumps ship from Northern Michigan before ever coaching a single game for the Wildcats. She was named their new head coach in December, coming over from UAB.
Reed spent one season as an assistant at the University of Alabama – Birmingham, where she also led the school’s annual volleyball summer camp.
Prior to UAB, Reed spent a season as an assistant at Division 1 Northwestern University, and from 2011-2014 was an assistant at Division I Binghamton University, which she helped lead to an NCAA Championship tournament berth in 2012.
In addition to her Division I experience, Reed also had considerable credentials in Divisiion II. In her first coaching job, at the University of Southern Indiana, she coached one All-American from 2009-2011 and was a part of a team that qualified for the 2010 NCAA Division II Tournament.
Reed herself is a 2005 graduate of the University of Georgia, after which time she spent 5 seasons playing professional volleyball overseas in Austria, Spain, the Netherlands, and Finland while studying anthropology and Hungarian at the Central European University in Budapest; and German at Innsbruck University in Austria.
Mansfield, meanwhile, came to the program as an assistant in May of 2016, and Bolduc joined the program in February of 2016.
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