Washington State Volleyball Team: Jennifer Fry New Cougar Volleyball Assistant Coach
PULLMAN, Wash. -- Jennifer Fry has joined the Washington State University women’s volleyball program as an assistant coach, Head Coach Andrew Palileo announced Tuesday.
“I’m excited to have Jennifer on staff and know that she will be a great fit for our program and the Washington State University mission,” Palileo said. “From our initial conversation through her on-campus visit, Jennifer showed that she is a person of great character and integrity. I believe she will be an asset to the players both as a coach and a mentor and will provide a strong presence for Cougar volleyball in the community. Jennifer brings diverse training experience to the program and I look forward to implementing her ideas to help Washington State volleyball move forward in the rebuilding process.”
Along with her coaching duties Fry will coordinate the Cougars’ recruiting program. She replaces assistant coach TeAna Tramel who left WSU last month to become the head volleyball coach at Nicholls State (Louisiana).
Fry spent the past three seasons as the volleyball head coach at Norfolk State (Virginia) where the Spartans’ team qualified for the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference (MEAC) Tournament the past three seasons for the first time since 2004 when the tournament included all teams. During Fry’s first year at Norfolk State, in 2007, the Spartans snapped a 31- conference-match losing streak that dated back to the 2003 season.
Earlier this summer, Fry coached at the USA Volleyball High Performance collegiate A3 level camps in Wisconsin.
Fry is originally from Yuma, Ariz., and played volleyball two seasons at Arizona Western College, where she garnered all-conference accolades in 1999 as an outside hitter. The Arizona Western College team was nationally ranked during both years Fry played, including a No. 10 in 1999.
Fry continued her collegiate playing career at the University of Montevallo (Alabama), where she earned All-Gulf South Conference honors in 2000, leading the Falcons to a No. 24 national ranking in Division II. Fry graduated in 2002 with a bachelor’s degree in psychology from Montevallo in 2002, and earned her master’s in criminal justice from Tiffin University (Ohio) in 2004. While at Tiffin Fry served as a graduate assistant volleyball coach for the 2002 and 2003 seasons.
She advanced to an assistant coaching position at Seward County Community College (Kan.) in 2005, where she coached four all-conference performers as the Saints rose to a top-15 ranking in 2005.
Fry’s next coaching stint was as an assistant coach in 2006 at Angelo State University (Div. II) in San Angelo, Texas. She assisted in all administrative and coaching aspects of the Rambelles’ volleyball program and also mentored two all-conference players at Angelo State before accepting the head coaching position at Norfolk State.
The newest Cougar volleyball coach already has ties to Pullman. Fry’s father is Tyrone Gray, a wide receiver and defensive back on the Washington State football team in the late 1970s, and a sprinter for the Cougar track team. Gray played professionally for the British Columbia Lions of the Canadian Football League.
Fry begins her new job at Washington State August. 12.
