Jill Stephens

Averaging over 20 wins per season in her first decade, Jill Stephens is in her 12th season (2012) as the Moccasins’ head coach. Last season the Moccasins were 18-13 and tied for third place (11-5) in the Sunshine State Conference and advanced to the second round of the NCAA D-II South Regional Tournament.

Stephens’ 11-year record at FSC is 250-124. Her .668 winning percentage ranks 32nd among active NCAA Division II coaches going into the 2012 season and her win total puts her tied for 45th among active Division II coaches. 

She recorded her 200th career coaching win on Aug. 29, 2009, with a three-set win over Millersville in the St. Mary’s (Texas) Invitational.

In 2008 she coached the Moccasins to a 25-9 record that included a runner-up finish in the SSC and a seventh straight NCAA tournament bid.  The Moccasins were ranked 19th in the final AVCA Division II Poll, marking the fifth straight year they finished the season ranked in the top 20. In 2007 she guided her team to a 26-9 record and a runner-up finish at the NCAA South Regional. The Moccasins tied for second in the SSC at 11-5 and handed SSC champion Tampa its only conference loss.

She coached the Moccasins to a 31-5 record and a share of the SSC title in 2006.  In 2005 she was SSC Coach of the Year, leading the Moccasins to a 33-4 record and a 14-2 SSC mark.  She recorded her 100th career coaching win with a 30-26, 30-20, 30-23 win at Saint Leo on Oct. 5, 2005.
Nine of her players have earned All-America recognition and 12 have received Academic All-District honors.  In each of the last four seasons (2007, 2008, 2009, 2010) FSC has earned an AVCA Team Academic Award.  Julia Borecka, an honorable mention All-America selection in 2009, is in her second season playing professionally in Sweden for EVS-Eangelholm Volleyball.

In her 11 previous seasons as head coach, Stephens has had a total of 42 seniors in the program and 97% have graduated. Sixteen have gone on to earn an advanced academic degree or are working on one.  The fields of study include oral surgery, exercise science, theology, counseling, business administration, physical therapy, education, engineering, sport psychology and law. One has earned a doctorate and two more are working on theirs. Nine of them are coaching volleyball at either the high school, college or club level.

Her appointment in 2001 as FSC’s head volleyball coach came after she had served two years as an assistant coach at Division I Florida Atlantic University (1995-96) and four years (1997-2000) as an assistant to longtime FSC head coach Lois Webb.

A 1995 FSC graduate, Stephens earned her bachelor’s degree in sports management and earned her master’s degree (also in sports management) from the U.S. Sports Academy in 2001.  

Her standout playing career earned her induction into the FSC Sports Hall of Fame in 2009.  She played from 1991-94, twice earning AVCA All-America recognition, in 1994 as a first-team honoree and in 1993 as a second-team selection. As a senior, Stephens was named the FSC Female Scholar-Athlete of the Year. As a freshman, she helped guide her team to a fourth place finish at the NCAA Division II Championship. In 1992, her sophomore season, Stephens was FSC’s most valuable player and led her team to an NCAA South Regional appearance. She still ranks in the top four in the FSC record book in four career categories: (kills-3rd, 1691; digs-5th, 1475; attack attempts-2nd, 3731; aces-3rd, 217). Her totals of 155 matches played and 547 sets  played are the most in FSC history.

In 2007 she was inducted into the Hall of Fame of Cardinal Gibbons High School in Ft. Lauderdale, where she played for the legendary Louise Crocco.  The only coaches for whom Stephens played, Crocco and Webb, are in the AVCA Hall of Fame.

Currently she serves on the NCAA Division II Women’s Volleyball Committee and is chair of the South Region Advisory Committee.  She also has represented the SSC on the Division II Volleyball Head Coaches Committee and has served as chair of the AVCA All-South Region Selection Committee, as well as a member of the AVCA All-America Selection Committee.

Stephens is passionate about youth volleyball, as she served the summer of 2007, 2008 and 2010 as a head coach for Florida’s USAV High Performance program.  She also coached the AAU 10 and under team for Southern Select last spring.  As sponsor of the Fellowship of Christian Athletes chapter at Florida Southern, she enjoys the impact she makes with FSC’s student-athletes.