Kylie Voorhees – BHJ Director
The head coach of Rapid City Stevens has been playing volleyball since she can remember and has coached now for 18 years. She is a high school graduate of Omaha Marian and went on to play collegiate ball at the University of Nebraska Omaha. Kylie coached for several clubs including the River City Juniors in Omaha and Bismarck Missouri Valley Juniors before starting her own club here in Rapid City. Kylie is going on 12 years with the Black Hills Juniors under her wing, and this was her 4th season guiding the Stevens Raiders to state, with this year resulting in a State Championship.
Sarah Tucker – BHJ Assistant Director
Sarah is a graduate of Rapid City Central and went on to play volleyball at National American University for a year before transferring to Huron University where she finished her collegiate career. She graduated with a bachelors degree in Elementary Education in 2005 and returned home to coach three years at Saint Thomas More and two years at Rapid City Central. She has coached five years with the Black Hills Juniors and this her second year as the Assistant Director. Sarah owns and operates a home daycare and helps frequently with volleyball in our area. Sarah and her husband Todd share four children; Makenna, Kaylee, Kayson, and Bentley.
Lauren Torvi – 181’s
Lauren grew up in Rhode Island! She went on to play collegiate volleyball at Springfield College in Massachusetts where she was a First Team All American and led her team to an NCAA Elite Eight Appearance. She graduated with a bachelors in sport management and received a master’s in sports management from Indiana State University. Lauren was a part of coaching two nationally recognized Division 3 programs at DePauw University and Colorado College and has coached 8 All-Americans. On top of her experience as an assistant coach, she has been the head coach at University of Minnesota Morris and now at South Dakota School of Mines and Technology in Rapid City. Lauren in going into her second season at SD Mines and is excited to be a part of Black Hills Juniors! Lauren has two German Short Haired Pointers, River and Jimmy, and will be getting married in July to her fiancé Aaron!
Savannah Cox – 171’s
Savannah grew up in North Carolina. She played collegiate volleyball and ran track at Brevard College during their Division 2 era where she was the all-time block assist holder. She also holds a school record in track and field. Savannah previously served as a Graduate Assistant at the University of Jamestown, where she was a part of a Sweet Sixteen Appearance and helped coach 3 All Americans. She is currently the assistant coach at South Dakota School of Mines- Go Hardrockers! Outside of the gym, Savannah loves to hike and is finishing a master’s degree in Non Profit Leadership!
Kayla Deranleau – 181/171’s
Kayla went to High School and played volleyball at Rapid City Central. After high school she played one year in college at Mt Marty College in Yankton. After college she moved home to be a volunteer coach at Central as well as South Middle School. Kayla coached at the junior varsity level for 2 years at Central and this is her third year coaching club.
Courtney Carmichael – 161’s
Courtney played volleyball at Central High School and was lucky enough to play at BHJ the first year it started. Thanks to the exposure she had through club volleyball, she was able to play volleyball at Northern State University for four years (Go Wolves!). She coached at NESD Club and taught at many NSU volleyball camps throughout college. Courtney still play’s at least twice a week on a coed team and love’s the sport of volleyball. Outside of the gym, she is a PA working in urgent care and a mom to her wild four year old, Harper. This is her first year coaching with Black Hills Juniors.
Annika Stevens – 162’s
Annika first started playing volleyball in third grade and she hasn’t stopped since. She was lucky enough to be around during the creation of the Black Hills Juniors, and she played with the club for six years. After she graduated from Central high school in 2013, she went to Dakota State University, where she played all four years. Annika was also a coach for the Madison Area Volleyball Club as well. After she graduated college, she moved to Virginia Beach where she still played volleyball, and was fortunate enough to help with camps at local high schools. Now that she moved back to Rapid City, she has been blessed and is so excited to begin her first year coaching with the club that really developed her love for the sport.
Emily Kulish – 151’s
Emily has lived in Rapid City her whole life, and grew up loving all things volleyball. She played for Stevens High School and had the opportunity to play for BHJ when it was just beginning. She love’s playing the sport, but being a coach has done nothing but grow her love for the sport.Emily has coached at South West Middle School for the last three years, and this will be her second year with BHJ. She is so excited to see what this season has in store!
Lorie Whiting – 152’s
A Nebraska native, Lorie was born and raised on a small rural dairy farm. She was recruited to play basketball at SD Mines but ended up playing volleyball instead. Playing volleyball for all four years at Mines, she helped her team win four consecutive conference titles and earned the nickname “The Wall”. After graduating as a metallurgical engineer from Mines, she had careers in Salt Lake City, UT and Wahoo, NE before marrying her husband Kelly. She has coached at the elementary, middle school, high school and college levels in Rapid City. The Westside Elementary Volleyball Program was organized and run by Lorie from 2008 thru 2015 which gave a lot of younger players their first exposure to the sport of volleyball. Lorie and her husband have two daughters….Cate (sophomore Setter on the University of Alaska Fairbanks volleyball team) and Tessa (Senior DS on the Stevens Raider Championship Team). She enjoy’s teaching the fundamentals of this game to younger players and watching them have fun while improving their skills.
Jadee Barber – 141’s
Jadee Barber, a native of Rapid City, began coaching high school volleyball at Rapid City Christian High School from 2013 to 2017. In 2018, she joined the coaching staff at Rapid City Stevens High School working with the varsity volleyball team.
When not coaching, Jadee spends her time helping her husband with their cattle operation and livestock water storage business. She is also a mother of three children ages 17, 14, and 12.
This will be her third year with Black Hills Juniors Volleyball Club and she is looking forward to teaching individual skills, team skills, good sportsmanship and teamwork, to players from local schools and the surrounding areas.
Gretchen Bilton – 142’s
Gretchen grew up in the UP (Upper Peninsula) of Michigan and love to go back every summer to visit family & friends! She is married to Andrew and they have 3 children and a Great Pyrenees, Clyde! Andrew works for the National Park Service, so they have lived in some really awesome places like: Isle Royale, Badlands, Yellowstone, Grand Canyon and now Rapid City. She has coached a variety of sports over the years with a various age range. Gretchen coached Club Volleyball in Montana for several seasons and this is her first year with Black Hills Juniors.
Lily Lundquist – 131’s
Lily has been playing volleyball for 10 years, and having lived in 6 different states, she’s played club volleyball for 5 different clubs. She graduated from Chaska High School in Minnesota in 2017 and is now a sophomore at South Dakota School of Mines and Technology where she played volleyball her freshman year. Her entire volleyball career she played middle blocker.
At Mines she is majoring in Applied Biological Sciences and then will continue her studies at Black Hills University and get a masters degree in Secondary Education. Her goal is to teach math and/or science at the middle school or high school level.
This is Lily’s first year coaching volleyball, and she is so excited for what’s in store! She believe’s hard work and positive attitude are the most valuable skills for young athletes. The quote she always lived by as an athlete is “Hard work beats talent when talent doesn’t work hard”.
Nancy Deranleau – 132’s
Nancy has taught in the Rapid City School District for 32 years. Over those years she has coached volleyball at the middle school level. She coached both of her daughters as well. Nancy started the middle school volleyball program at St. Elizabeth Seton. This is her second year coaching with Black Hills Juniors.
Serena Kokesh – 121’s
Serena was born and raised on a farm and ranch outside of Belle Fourche. Her love for volleyball started in third grade and continued all through high school. She was the Varsity setter as a freshman and was honored to be All-Conference. She attended Black Hills State University and started coaching at the Belle Fourche volleyball program for 3 years. Serena then accepted a position as Rapid City Regional in the Cardiac Rehab facility. After accepting her new position at the hospital, she then accepted a coaching position at Saint Thomas More as the assistant coach. She has learned over her 5 years of coaching that an athlete’s character is more important than their talent! She currently coaches at Rapid City Central and this is her second year in the BHJ program. Her personal goal is to create well-rounded athletes on and off the court.