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July 21, 2009

Killer hire

Tyler native, UCLA star takes over Navarro volleyball program

By Todd Wills

Kristee Porter has done it all as an athlete. She’s been a state champion triple jumper. She’s been an All-American volleyball player at UCLA. She’s been a professional volleyball player for eight years.

Now she’s a junior college coach.

Porter, 29, has been hired as the new volleyball coach at Navarro, athletic director Roark Montgomery said Tuesday. She replaces Wally Brooks, whose contract wasn’t renewed at the end of last year after 12 seasons as the Lady Bulldogs coach.

Porter, who is taking two classes at UCLA to finish her degree in History, will start at Navarro at the end of the month. Navarro’s first day of practice is Aug. 10. The Lady Bulldogs first scrimmage is Aug. 21 and their first match is Aug. 28.

Porter, the Texas state volleyball player of the year for Tyler John Tyler in 1997, said Tuesday that she was ready to return to her roots.

“I’ve been waiting for this opportunity for a couple of years,” Porter said. “Ive been wanting to get settled. I’ve been traveling the world.

“This is my hometown. I don’t call Tyler my hometown, I call all of Texas my hometown.”

Montgomery said Tuesday that in hiring Porter he followed the coaching model that has produced football coach Nick Bobeck, basketball’s Johnny Estelle and baseball’s Whoa Dill.

All three are young coaches who have been successful at Navarro — Bobeck’s team was ranked No. 1 in the nation last season, Estelle’s team was the school’s first to reach the NJCAA national tournament earlier this year and Dill’s baseball team set a school record for wins in 2008.

“She’s going to be a tremendous recruiter,” Montgomery said. “With Nick, Johnny, Whoa, we wanted to follow that younger trend.”

Navarro interviewed five candidates and went with Porter, who had an excellent interview. She hasn’t had any pure coaching experience, but she has been a player-coach for her professional teams in Spain and Puerto Rico.

“I’ve been playing and coaching and doing camps for the last seven or eight years,” Porter said. “The teams I’ve played for overseas we had a lot of camps and coached younger girls that came in.”

Porter lettered in three sports at UCLA — volleyball, basketball and track.

She is the all-time kills leader at UCLA with 2,255. She was a two-time All-American and a three-time All-Pac 10 selection.

She was the second leading rebounder in the Pac-10 her senior year in 2001 in basketball. She was third in the triple jump in 2001 at the Pac-10 Track Championships.

Her resume is impressive. Just ask one of the nine returning players to the Navarro program.

“She’s definitely done a lot,” sophomore Amanda Lowe said. “It’s kind of intimidating that she’s such a good athlete.”

Porter said she doesn’t want her players to admire her athletic achievements too much.

“Once the players get used to me, they’ll see that I’m pretty laid back,” Porter said. “I really just want the girls to live up to their potential. To be focused on academics and then volleyball.”

In a way, Porter’s career has come full circle. Her family reunions every other year when she was young were in Corsicana. Her sister, Susan, played for a season for Navarro’s volleyball team.

Now Kristee Porter will coach college volleyball for the first time.

“It will be challenging but I like challenges,” Porter said. “It will be a fun experience.”

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Click here to e-mail Todd Wills.

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