COACHES

Matthew grew up around volleyball competing in his first beach events at the age of 8 years old. He played throughout high school on the beach and with adult indoor teams. He began coaching his Junior year for his high school JV team at Bayshore HS.  After graduating Matthew coached at Manatee Area Volleyball and became the assistant Director. While at MAV he helped grow the club from 3 teams to 9 teams in 3 years & gave the program its first National Qualifier win in Baltimore.

In 2012 he founded Coastline Volleyball Club. The club grew to 14 teams in its 2nd year and Matt qualified his teams twice with a 14-National and 15-American bid. In 2014 Matt combined with another local club to create Wave Volleyball Alliance establishing the most competitive club and only volleyball facility in the Bradenton/Sarasota area. After several successful years and sending 9 athletes to play at the collegiate level, WAVE merged with Orlando Tampa Volleyball Academy to create OTVA Sarasota. While at the OTVA the club was ranked as high as 2nd in the National. In 2020 WAVE returned to provide more flexibility with tournaments, fees, and training for the Manatee/Sarasota Area.

Matt has been the indoor and beach coach at Braden River HS since 2011.  He recently coached a beach pair to win the 2018 USAV Beach Nationals for 14U. Matthew has a Bachelor’s degree in Elementary Education from the University of South Florida and teaches 4th Grade Math & Science at Tara Elementary.

• PCA Certified
• USAV IMPACT Certified
• USAV Beach IMPACT Certified
• USAV Safe Sport Certified
• 4th Grade Teacher at Tara Elem.
• Club Director since 2006
• 19 Years Coaching HS & Club Volleyball
• Club Teams have Qualified 4 times for the US Junior Olympics
• 2019 – 5th Place at USAV Nationals
• 2019 – 3rd Place at AAU Nationals
• Coached the winning team at 2018 USAV Beach Nationals 14U Division.

Coach Frank has been around volleyball for 35 years as a player and a coach. His love for the game of Volleyball began in Highschool, continued in College where he attended and played at LeMoyne College, in Syracuse, NY.

Franks coaching career began as a student athlete in college, where he coached Volleyball at the Jewish Community Center in Dewitt, NY. After graduating in 1991, Frank has coached in various capacities, in various Clubs on the east coast US. During his tenure Frank has coached various players that have moved on to play or have played NCAA volleyball.

When not coaching, Frank serves as Divisional Vice President of Logistics for Bealls Outlet Stores. Frank is married to Irmarie for 23 years and have three daughters. 

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Ralph McElhiney is a native of Florida and graduated from Southeast High School in 1975. He has been playing volleyball, both beach and indoors, since 1982. He has competed in many events from local to professional level and was a member of the AVP (Association of Volleyball Professionals) at its inception. 

He was the head volleyball coach at Bayshore High School from 1998 to 2015 with a 5A District Championship and Regional Semifinalist in 2013.  He has coached with 5 different volleyball clubs over the last 20 years.

He has worked at Moody Elementary as a special education teacher for the last 42 years.  He graduated in 1978 from USF with a bachelor’s degree in emotional disturbance and elementary education. His wife, Donna, and children, Coach Matthew and Coach Whitney, all teach in Manatee County schools. He is a proud grandfather of two redheads, Walker and Carson.

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Ashley Hagood has coached 5 club seasons. Ashley grew up playing volleyball in Bradenton from a young age and was the first team from Bradenton to win a National qualifier and attend USAV Nationals. She continued on to play on a scholarship at the College of Central Florida where she helped her team reach 3rd in the state of Florida and 9th at Nationals. She coached for 5 years at OTVA Sarasota / WAVE, 4 years at Braden River High School, and is in her 2nd year as the head coach at Southeast High School. Ashley brings a true passion the game of volleyball and enjoys sharing her knowledge with players. 

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Brianna Swietzer began playing volleyball at the age of 12 locally in Manatee County. Brianna joined WAVE her Freshman year as a player on WAVE’s PRO teams. She attended Braden River HS where she was a four year starter for the Pirates and eventually played college volleyball at SCF for the Manatees.

She returned back to Braden River as the program’s JV coach in 2021. She has been an iatrical part of Braden River and WAVE as she helps runs their developmental clinics and camps as well as the main assistant for Braden River HS BEACH.

Brianna brings a great deal of passion to the sidelines and her energy is contagious. She is currently perusing a career in Nursing.

Don Hinton (USAV IMPACT, Gold Medal Squared and CAP II Certified) has been
coaching juniors’ volleyball since 2001. Don retired from his government contracting day job in December 2022 and relocated to Bradenton and where he was happy to join the WAVE coaching staff.

Don has coached previously at several volleyball clubs in
northern Virginia over the last 20 years.  He also coached high school Freshman at St. Stephens & St. Agnes and spent nine years as Junior Varsity Coach at Bishop Ireton High School. At Bishop Ireton, he was awarded the Christopher Delaware Assistant Coach of the Year Award in 2016 (awarded to top assistant Bishop Ireton coach in all sports).  His BI JV teams won the Alexandria City Junior Varsity Championship in 2010,
2011 and 2014.

During his playing days, Don played at the United States Military Academy and then played and coached military teams throughout his 24-year Army career. He also had the opportunity to play on a German volleyball club team for three years.  In 2000, Don was asked to coach his daughter’s volleyball team and he enjoyed it so much that he has
continued for the last 20 plus years. In addition to coaching, Don is a USAV Regional and high school volleyball referee.

Emily started playing volleyball in 2009 for Bayshore high school and then moved into playing for Manatee Area Volleyball Club and one season of Coastline Volleyball (now WAVE). During club she competed on their National level teams as a setter.

She played all four years of high school and went on to play in adult & college club levels for two more years. She graduated with her Bachelor’s degree in education from Florida Gulf Coast University in 2017 and has been teaching elementary school for five years. 

Emily has coached HS volleyball in Fort Myers and most recently at Braden River HS as their Freshman coach. Emily currently has coached for WAVE’s travel teams for 3 years and Is one of WAVE’s main Mini-Club, Spring Training, and Summer Training coaches.

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Jon is originally from St. Louis.  When Jon moved down to Bradenton he began playing indoor volleyball in 1995 as a player for White Sands Volleyball Club in Sarasota. After his initial season he transitioned up to a club in Tampa called Asics Elite where he helped qualify for USAV Nationals.  

Jon began his coaching career in 2004 at Bayshore High School.  Jon coached the Freshman, JV, and assisted on the Varsity team until 2009. He also has coached at Saint Stephens in 2015, Sarasota High School from 2016-2017, and is currently the head JV coached and Varsity assistant at Braden River High School.  

Jon started coaching club volleyball in 2004 with Manatee Area Volleyball Club.  He coached 16s, 17s, and 18s, while at MAV.  in 2012 he joined Coastline Volleyball Club for its inaugural season.  He coached with Coastline for two years, WAVE Volleyball Alliance for two years, and has transitioned over to OTVA Sarasota during its merger with WAVE. In 2018 he led his club team to win The Northeast National Qualifier in Philadelphia.  With the win they qualified for USAV Nationals and finished 11th in the American division.  Jon has been one of our main training coaches at WAVE and OTVA Sarasota and has worked with all levels of athletes having success with elementary and middle school aged athletes.

As of 2020, Jon is the head coach at BCS in Bradenton.

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Cate joins us with an extensive volleyball background in both playing and coaching. Originally from Pittsburgh, PA, she played for 12 years including 4 at the University of Rhode Island. Cate has 2 sisters that also played at the DI level – Angela (L) University of Pittsburgh & Isabella (L) Elon University.   

Cate has coached at several clubs across the east coast including Tri-State Elite (OH), Digs VBC (NJ), South County VBC (RI), East Carolina JVC (NC), Carolina Select (NC) and now WAVE Volleyball Club. Cate was also the Head Volleyball coach at Cumberland HS (RI). Cate is working as a mentor coach with two of our teams and assisting two of our PRO teams in 2022. 

Outside of volleyball, Cate works in the food & beverage industry for Mondelez International. She is married to her husband, Jon, who is a strength & conditioning coach in the Texas Rangers organization.