JoEllen “Joey” Vrazel was an American volleyball player and volleyball coach.

Career

Playing

Joey Vrazel received 18 scholarships to play volleyball, and accepted a partial scholarship offer at Utah State. Vrazel played volleyball for

Texas A&M Texas A&M University (Texas A&M, A&M, or TAMU) is a public, land-grant, research university in College Station, Texas. It was founded in 1876 and became the flagship institution of the Texas A&M University System in 1948. As of late 2021, T ...

. She was a five time All-American there. Vrazel graduated with a degree in physical education in 1984. She was on the USA National team twice. She also played for

Utah State University Utah State University (USU or Utah State) is a public land-grant research university in Logan, Utah. It is accredited by the Northwest Commission on Colleges and Universities. With nearly 20,000 students living on or near campus, USU is Utah's ...

's national championship team in 1978 and a second place finish the following year. She also played professionally for the New York Liberties from 1987 to 1989.

Coaching

California State University

Vrazel was an assistant coach for four years at

California State University, Fresno California State University, Fresno (Fresno State) is a public university in Fresno, California. It is one of 23 campuses in the California State University system. The university had a fall 2020 enrollment of 25,341 students. It offers bachelo ...

Washington

Vrazel was an assistant coach from 1984 to 1988 at the

University of Washington The University of Washington (UW, simply Washington, or informally U-Dub) is a public research university in Seattle, Washington. Founded in 1861, Washington is one of the oldest universities on the West Coast; it was established in Seattle a ...

Purdue

Joey Vrazel was hired as the Purdue women's volleyball head coach on February 22, 1995. In her first season as head coach, the team was 16th in the country for attendance, averaging 1,351 fans per game. The next year, seven Boilermakers were named Academic All-Big Ten, a school record. During the 1997 season, the team won its 500th match. She announced her resignation after her best season coaching, and caught the team and associate athletic director off guard. The former players were not as surprised, with one player expressing that she reported Vrazel's actions to the administration. She recounted on incident in which the coach made them pick up sticks in the woods, tell them their problems, and then burn them to make the problems go away. The first three seasons of coaching at Purdue were 8-20, 13-19, and 10-21 respectively.

Clemson

Vrazel was named an assistant coach at Clemson University on March 31, 2000. As an assistant coach she is responsible for administrative duties, facilitating communication between the coaching staff and strength staff, and leading the team's conditioning and nutritional programs.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Vrazel, Joey Year of birth missing (living people) Living people Texas A&M Aggies women's volleyball players Utah State Aggies women's volleyball players Fresno State Bulldogs women's volleyball coaches Washington Huskies women's volleyball coaches Purdue Boilermakers women's volleyball coaches Clemson Tigers women's volleyball coaches