Kylie Voorhees – BHJ Director
The head coach of Rapid City Stevens has been playing volleyball since she can remember and has coached now for 19 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 13 years with the Black Hills Juniors under her wing, and this was her 5th season guiding the Stevens Raiders to state, with 2018 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 six years with the Black Hills Juniors and this her third 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 Prochazka – 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 third season at SD Mines and is excited to be back for her second year with the Black Hills Juniors! Lauren has two German Short Haired Pointers, River and Jimmy, and just recently married her husband 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!
Annika Stevens – 161’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 be in her second year coaching with the club that really developed her love for the sport.
Courtney Carmichael – 151’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 five year old, Harper. This is her second year coaching with Black Hills Juniors.
Jadee Barber – 141’s
Jadee Barber began coaching high school volleyball at Rapid City Christian School from 2013 to 2017. In 2018, she was a volunteer assistant coach at Stevens High School. She is currently the assistant coach at Hill City High School.
When not coaching, Jadee spends her time helping her husband with their cattle operation and livestock water storage business. She is also the mother of three children ages 18, 15, and 13.
This will be her fifth 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.
Elizabeth Pendegraft – 142’s
Elizabeth has played volleyball in three different countries, both coasts, Hermosa Beach, and in six islands in Hawaii. She played high school sports at Douglas High School. She holds numerous volleyball awards which include being a member of the 2003 SD. All State and All-Star Teams. Her senior year, she was a nominee for Rapid City Athlete of the Year. After High School, she went on to play Outside hitter at South Dakota School of Mines and Technology. She attended Mines for two years before starting her own business. Simultaneously, she ran the middle school volleyball program at St. Thomas Moore until her youngest son was born. In Black Hills Juniors infancy, she substituted for coaches.
She has four children Isabell, Ferris, Fox, and Fletch. Recently, when her youngest started school she started coaching and going back to school. Currently, she coaches two travel basketball teams as well as Black Hills Juniors. She finished her bachelor’s last year, and she is currently working on her master’s in counseling. In addition, she officiates for middle school, adult recreation leagues, and line judges/keeps book for High School. Elizabeth’s coaching motto “Don’t put limits on children because they are capable of so much.”
Emily Kulish – 143/144’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 coached at South West Middle School for three years, and is the Freshman coach at Stevens High School. This will be her third year with BHJ. She is so excited to see what this season has in store!
Lorie Whiting – 143/144’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 (Setter on the University of Alaska Fairbanks volleyball team) and Tessa (member of the 2018 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.
Lily Lundquist – 131’s
Lily played competitive volleyball for 10 years, has lived in 6 different states, and has played club volleyball for 5 different clubs. She graduated from Chaska High School in Minnesota in 2017 and is now a senior 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 State University starting this summer and get a masters degree in Secondary Education. Her goal is to teach science at the middle school or high school level.
This is Lily’s second year coaching club volleyball, and she was a student coach for the School of Mines Hardrockers this past season. She believes 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”.
