Leadership & Coaches

List of 18 items.

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  Joe Volk

  Joe Volk has coached St. Mary's Track & Field and Cross Country since 1988. Joe Volk's early athletic endeavors included Little League baseball, elementary school flag football, elementary school basketball and Golden Gloves boxing. It wasn't until high school that he took up running and has been doing so ever since. After modest high school and collegiate careers at St. Bernard HS and Loyola Marymount University in CA, he returned to his alma mater to begin his coaching career, which has spanned 41 years.

   
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  Nicki Ford

  Coach Nicki Ford has been an assistant Cross Country and Track & Field coach (sprint group) at St. Mary’s since 2021. She began her professional career as a Registered Dietitian in 1997 and became a certified personal trainer in 2013, holding specializations in Speed & Performance Enhancement, Corrective Exercise, and Sports Nutrition.  She is also a USATF LEVEL 1 track and field coach. 
  “My philosophy as a coach is to meet the athletes I work with where they are at and teach them skills they can utilize long after high school. I am very competitive, and without a doubt, the athletes I coach know this! I’m also a firm believer that success does not always look like first place. Sometimes it’s helping an athlete find pride and satisfaction outside of winning - knowing they’re fully supported by their coach in that journey.”

• Chris George

  Chris George specializes in horizontal jumps for both the High School Track & Field and the Middle School Track & Field programs. He started his coaching career as an assistant swim coach back in 1985. Since then, he has been coaching something, somewhere, for 38 years. Following a head coaching position for another T&F program, Coach George joined St. M and narrowed his focus to work specifically with horizontal jumpers, and it has been one of the most enjoyable and rewarding periods along his coaching path.  Chris has been involved in sports his whole life from playing baseball at the age of 8 to completing more than a dozen marathons as an adult.
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  Stephen Thomas

  Coach Stephen Thomas is a long-time multi-sport coach. He currently serves as the defensive coordinator for High School Football, throws coach for both High School & Middle School Track & Field, and he is a Middle School Boys and MS Girls Basketball coach.  He has coached HS football for 18 years, spending four years at North Medford before moving to St. Mary's 14 years ago.  For the past seven years, he has coached basketball, first with the HS, and is now entering his 3rd year coaching both MS Boys and Girls Basketball. Since starting at St. Mary's, Coach Thomas has spent his the spring sports season leading our shot put and discus athletes in both HS and MS teams. He also teaches PE and Strength and Agility for both the HS and MS at St. Marys. Coach Thomas was a SOU football player from 2000-2004.

   

   

   

   
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  Katie Miller

  Katie Miller has coached St. Mary's Girls Volleyball since 2014. 
  Coach Miller is a St. Mary's alumna and collegiate volleyball and softball player.  She has coached for the past 24 years at various ages, ranging from 7 to 18 years old, and levels, from beginner to varsity high school.  In addition to leading the high school program, Katie is the director of a local volleyball club program, coaching two of its nine teams, one of which is a 16u boys team - the only boys team in the southern half of the state.  

   
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  Martin Nelson

  Martin Nelson has coached Girls Soccer since 2019. He graduated from Saint Mary's in 2007 after spending four years on varsity and capturing one state title. He played abroad in Romania, Spain, Portugal, and Germany before returning to the US to pursue coaching and teaching. He first coached high school girls in southern California with Mater Dei High School, winning CIF during one of the four years there, as well as with Newport Mesa Soccer Club and Slammers FC. After graduate school, Coach Nelson returned to the Rogue Valley to teach Latin and Medieval History at St. Mary's and take over for Dave Potter in the 2019-2020 season. As a coach at St. Mary's, the girls soccer team has taken the league title every year but 2022, and won the Culminating Week Championship which took the place of the OSAA State Championship during the 2020 Covid season.

   
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  Jared Pulver

  Jared Pulver has coached St. Mary's Boys Varsity Basketball since 2023. Coach Pulver graduated from South Medford High School in 1995, where he played for Coach Dennis Murphy. He moved back to Medford in 2005, and from 2006 – 2022 worked on the Boys Basketball Coaching Staff at South Medford HS in various capacities (Asst. JV Coach, JV Head Coach, Varsity Asst. Coach). He also spent the 2022-2023 season coaching 6^th Grade boys (including his son, Jamie) for St. Mary’s and South Medford.
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  Luke DeCoste

  Luke DeCoste has coached St. Mary’s Boys Varsity Basketball since 2021. Luke grew up playing for the South Medford basketball program while also playing for various travel teams along the West Coast. He graduated from South Medford High School, where he played for Coach Dennis Murphy. After a successful playing career, Luke made his coaching debut in 2016, coaching South Medford AAU boys’ basketball. In his first three seasons, he amassed a record of 70-21. Coaching has given Luke the opportunity to teach the game he loves, but to also be a positive role model who inspires our athletes. In addition to Crusader basketball, Coach DeCoste is also the league director for the Southern Oregon AAU Boys’ Basketball League (SOYCL).
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  Shane Grimm

  Shane Grimm is St. Mary's Varsity Baseball coach starting his 5th year leading our program. His focus is on developing players' fundamentals, passion, and understanding for the game of baseball. He strongly believes in the ability of sports, specifically baseball, to promote growth in many areas, including leadership, teamwork, character, academics, and discipline. Shane started coaching baseball in 2010, with most of his prior experience coming at the high school level. In addition to coaching baseball, Shane has coached wrestling for nine years, the last five being at Crater High School. He is the father of a 4-year-old (Sophia) and a 1-year-old (Carson).
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  Skylar Glines

  Skylar Glines has coached St. Mary's Girls Basketball since 2022 and has played basketball since she was five years old. Skylar played four years of high school basketball, along with seven years of AAU basketball. She is very passionate about all sports, but basketball is her specialty. Skylar has been coaching basketball since 2016. She started out coaching 3rd and 4th graders in her hometown of Red Bluff, CA. She moved to Oregon in 2018 to attend SOU and started coaching at Talent Middle School. After coaching for one year at the middle school, she moved on to coach at Phoenix High School. After two seasons at PHS, she took the position of head coach of the JV and Varsity Girls Basketball team at St. Mary’s. 

   
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  Ryan Kukula

  Ryan Kukula coaches St. Mary's Boys Golf. He joined the school in 2023 after his father, Jon Kukula, PGA, introduced him and his two younger brothers to the game at a very young age. Ryan was part of multiple State Championship teams in high school from 2007-2011. Ryan then attended Willamette University in Salem, OR, where he earned a Bachelor’s degree in Economics and helped turn the Willamette Mens golf program into a top 25 program in the country. After graduating, Ryan played 16 professional events from 2017-2018 before returning to Oregon to pursue a PGA teaching/coaching profession. Since 2019, Ryan has won multiple Oregon PGA events and has helped coach juniors to multiple OGA junior tournament wins.
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  Gabriela Sullins

  Gabriela Sullins has coach St. Mary's Girls Tennis since 2023. A former collegiate volleyball player, Gabriela is passionate about all sports and has been playing competitively since high school. She is an accomplished tennis player at a 4.5 level and was consecutively ranked in the USTA as #1 at 4.0 for two years and 4.5 for two years, with multiple Player of the Year awards. Gabriela also enjoys teaching and interacting with all levels of players and has a competitive approach balanced with the desire to have fun.
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  Kevin Carrigan

  Kevin Carrigan has coached St. Mary's Boys Tennis since 2016. Kevin is a tennis enthusiast who has been playing since he was five years old. Kevin is also the Head Tennis Pro at the Rogue Valley Country Club. Kevin is married to his wonderful wife, Chanel. Together they enjoy being outdoors, spending time with their dog Lolly and traveling. 
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  Jessica Young

  Jessica Young has coached St. Mary's Girls Golf since 2022. Jessica grew up in Gold Beach, OR and started playing golf when she was 14 years old at Cedar Bend Golf Course. In 2018, she became the assistant coach at UC Davis, where her love for teaching the game of golf began. From 2021 on, she has taught golf as a PGA associate for West Coast Golf Academy. Teaching the game of golf to students of all ages is where she is the happiest. 
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  Chris Johnson

  Chris has coached St. Mary's Middle School Basketball since 1996. He began his coaching career at Shady Hill School (Massachusetts) in 1995 in basketball and track and field. He is an enthusiastic student of the game with particular interests in team culture and player development.
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  Adam Miller

  Coach Miller is entering his 3rd year as head coach for St. Mary's Middle School Football.  He started playing football at 7 and continued to play until his senior year at Winston Churchill High School in Eugene.  Coach Miller graduated from the University of Oregon with a Bachelor of Architecture after serving eight years in the infantry.  In 2023 Coach Miller led the Crusaders to an undefeated season bringing his total win/loss record to 10-2.
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  Kevin Bendaw

  Kevin Bendaw is an assistant Middle School Football coach focusing on wide receivers and running backs and taking on the defensive coordinator role. Coach Bendaw previously worked with St. M's high school team specializing in cornerbacks and wide receivers. His football career started at age seven with his local Pop Warner team. His team won a championship his first year playing and followed that with two state titles in high school, cementing his love for the sport. He played running back and was a linebacker during high school while earning an all-state honorable mention in the latter.   Kevin has a daughter attending St. Mary's (class of '26), and he loves to spend time with his family. He has lived in the Rogue Valley for over 28 years and is an active volunteer with local organizations.
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  Alicia Aldrich

  Alicia Aldrich is the head coach of St. Mary's Middle School Track & Field & Middle School Cross Country program. Taking the lead of both teams in 2022, Coach Aldrich's coaching history goes back many years to when her children were younger, coaching swimming and gymnastics for a decade. Coach Aldrich believes essential lessons learned in competitive athletics cannot be learned anywhere else and believes that a coach is instrumental in developing athletes. As a St. Mary's community member since 2016, Coach Aldrich's three children also attend St. Mary's school.