Hampton Roads Juniors Volleyball Club: HRJ Coaches 2013

Karissa Cumberbatch: AKA “Coach K”

Coach K was born and raised in the great state of Colorado. Growing up on a farm she naturally started her athletic career as a barrel racer and pole bender, competing in rodeos all over the mid-west. At the age of 12 she fell in love with volleyball and competed year round for the rest of her high school career. She was a four year starter and captain for the Northridge Grizzlies in Greeley, CO and competed in the open division at the USA Junior Olympics in 2002, 2003, and 2004.

Karissa received a full ride to the University of South Florida and earned playing time as a freshman. After one season, and some injury issues, she transferred to Western State College of Colorado where she was a three year starter as a outside hitter (one season) and libero (two seasons).

Karissa received her bachelors’ degree in Sports and Fitness Management with a minor in Business Administration. She is also a certified personal trainer for the City of Norfolk, and holds her CPR/First Aide certification.

Karissa’s coaching experience includes one year as a student assistant coach for the Western State volleyball program, two seasons as the assistant to HRJ 18 National team, and two seasons as the assistant coach at Peninsula Catholic High School. For the last two years Coach K has also been conducting private lessons for athletes of all ages and positions as well as instructing various volleyball camps.

The up coming 2013 season Karissa will be head coach of the HRJ 18 National team and look forward to a productive season! Look forward to seeing everyone again!!  

Coach Amy will be serving as Head Coach of the 2013 HRJ 17 National Team as well as Co-Director.

Amy’s love of volleyball began in the 7th grade when she played for her middle school team. She was a three year starter for the Clay High Lady Blue Devil Varsity program. After graduation she attended the University of Florida where she played Club volleyball and earned her B.S. in Microbiology.

Amy’s coaching experience includes Elite programs with Gainesville Juniors Volleyball Club and Tampa Bay Juniors. She has coached all ages from 12-18’s, at both the National and Club levels as well as a U10 grassroots program for Tampa Bay Juniors.

Amy moved to VA in 2008 to complete her doctorate in Molecular Medicine (graduated in 2011) and began coaching for HRJ in the 2009 season, where she was Assistant for 15 National. Also in 2009 she became the Head Varsity Coach at Tabb High School. In 2010 and 2011, Amy was Head Coach for HRJ 16 National. Also in 2011, Amy and Pedro (Amy’s husband and assistant coach) welcomed their first child, baby Pedro. For the 2012 season Amy coached for the 13 National team, which competed at the highest level of any 13’s team for HRJ.

Amy has also attended coaching educational seminars on recruiting as well as USA volleyball IMPACT training and Coaching Accreditation Program (CAP).

Amy is excited about coaching the 17 National team next season and looks forward to seeing everyone again.

Tommy Thomas( Co-Director and 15 National Coach)

Tommy is going into his 24th year of coaching High School and club. He started his coaching career with Christchurch High School where he won a state championship in his second season. He left Christchurch after 4 years and went to Mathews High School for 6 years. Tommy is now the head coach at Peninsula Catholic High School where he is now going into 11th year. He is going in his 9th year as the Varsity Girls coach were he has accumulated a record of 164 and 68. His Lady Knights team has made it to the state quarterfinals or higher the last 7 out of 8 years. The only year they have missed states was his first year as varsity coach.

Tommy was one of the founding member of Hampton Roads Juniors. He has been in charge of College recruiting and has coached the 18 National team for the last 6 years. Tommy will continue working with players on college recruiting and coaching the 15 National team.  

Former Radford standout Megan McWhorter will begin her coaching career at CNU as an assistant on Lindsay Birch’s staff for the 2012 campaign.

A native of Newport News, McWhorter returns home after an outstanding career as an outside hitter at Radford. In her four years with the team, she appeared in 104 matches for the Highlanders. During that time, she collected 717 kills for an average of 2.32 per set. She also lined 34 aces, chipped in with 516 digs, and tallied 82 blocks.

McWhorter made an immediate impact at Radford, earning a spot on the 2008 Big South All-Freshman team. During her first season, she pitched in with 185 kills and earned a spot on UNC Wilmington’s “Battle at the Beach” All-Tournament team while receiving two Big South Freshman of the Week awards.

Over the next two seasons, she continued to frustrate the opposition, firing 392 kills during that time. As a junior, McWhorter set a career-high with 200 digs, including a pair of 20-dig efforts. She also registered eight double-double performances and fired 17 aces, highlighted by a five-ace effort against Coastal Carolina on Oct. 16.

Despite battling a foot injury that limited her participation during the 2011 campaign, McWhorter capped off her career with another excellent showing as a senior. During the year, she averaged a team-high 2.75 kills and 2.1 digs-per-set. The highlight of the season came against Alabama A&M when she set a career-high with 22 kills while adding 13 digs for good measure.

Prior to arriving at Radford, McWhorter excelled at Peninsula Catholic. During her time with the Knights, she earned VISAA All-State and Division I Player of the Year honors as a senior after being voted onto the All-League and All-Tournament teams in the Tidewater Conference. A well-rounded athlete, she also competed in soccer, basketball, and swimming.

Born and raised in Puerto Rico, Margaret played competitive volleyball for 22 years, having a very prolific volleyball career there. Starting in the Colegio Calasanz Catholic School in San Juan, PR, where she won multiple championships with her team, multiple-time recipient of the MVP Award, and her team broke the record for most consecutive wins over a span of two undefeated seasons.

She continued on as a player at the University of Puerto Rico, Mayaguez Campus (RUM) where she received full scholarship and graduated with a bachelor degree in Business Administration. There she reached twice the finals with exciting matches.

She finally played for a couple more years in the Professional Volleyball League in Puerto Rico with the Volleygirls de Guayanilla and the Leonas de Ponce Teams. She was nominated for the Rookie-of-the-Year award in the 1998 season.

Margaret moved to VA in 2010 and has been coaching in the City of Williamsburg Youth Volleyball League where her two daughters play every spring and fall season. She is very excited of becoming part of the Hampton Roads Juniors Volleyball Club as a coach of this competitive league. She looks forward to a great first season and shares all her game knowledge with our 13 State Team.