Mariah Wilcox - Club Director
758-0118 • Email Mariah

Leon Wilcox - Head Coach
871-5531 • Email Coach Wilcox

Coach Wilcox has been in the club volleyball scene for twenty years. with four at the helm of FVC. He is also the head coach at FHS. Prior to coming to the Flathead Valley, he was the head coach at Lander Valley High School in Lander, Wyoming, and the director of Lander Valley Volleyball Club. And before that, Coach Wilcox was the head coach at Hosanna Christian School for three years, and the head coach at Oregon Tech for another three.

Coach and his family love sports, especially volleyball. All three of the Wilcox children were born during the volleyball season, and have spent much of their young lives around the game.

When not in the gym, Coach loves to spend time with his family, going hunting, snowmobiling, fishing, or rock climbing.

Melody Strauss -Coach
(360)770-3052 • Email Melody

Melody comes to the Flathead Vally by way of Bangladesh, where she was raised in a small village along the Padma River. Her family originally moved there to trap and export elephants for the circus trade, but they discovered that they could make a better living by giving elephant tours to wealthy, troubled youth from around the world. Melody left the tour business after her favorite elephant "Mugwai" (seen in photo) retired to greener jungles.

Mel got her start in volleyball while working for the Bangladesh Volleyball Federation as a midget wrangler, and soon developed a love for the game. After graduating from truck drivers school in Bhutan, she moved to the USA and began her career coaching volleyball at the Jackson County School for the Vertically Challenged and Athletically Ungifted.

When she is not in the gym, Melody loves to crochet toilet paper cozies, rehabilitate and reintroduce displaced squirrels, rollerblade bunjee jump, and teach Pinochle at local senior centers.

Steph Mee -Coach
249-5202 • Email Steph

Steph graduated from Flathead High School as an All-State setter after three years of varsity volleyball. While at FHS, she pulled down 9 varsity letters! Following FHS, she played volleyball for one year at UM Western. Steph has coached for KMS and FVC and is currently the sophomore coach at FHS. This is her fourth year with Flathead Volleyball Club.

Steph definitely thrives on sports. She is an avid softball player (even plays it in the snow), loves to wakeboard and water ski, and plays on city league basketball teams. She even has time to play some volleyball now and then.

She has lived in Kalispell for 15 years, and is the mother to two very energetic and athletic children; Brody (6) and Addison (4).

Tasia Dugan -Coach
270-3168 • Email Tasia

Tasia was born in Yuma, AZ, but grew up in Kalispell. She played volleyball for four years at FHS, playing DS (no libero back in those days), and also played softball for the Bravettes. She recently graduated from the University of Montana (Go CATS!) with a BS in Health and Human Performance.

Tasia keeps busy by working at two different restaurants, instructing fitness classes, coaching volleyball and softball at FHS and working toward her personal training certification. Tasia is currently a frosh coach at Flathead High School, and will be starting her second year with FVC this season.

Outside of the gym, she enjoys running, hiking, biking, lifting, playing guitar, reading, rollerblade-bunjee jumping, drawing, and caring for orphaned squirrels.

Dani Mooney -Coach
756-7001 • Email Dani

Dani is a born-and-bred Montana native, having played most of her formative volleyball years in the boomin' metropolis of Choteau (home of Montana's greatest contribution to the culinary arts - Alpine Touch). She graduated from Choteau high after playing defensive specialist for three straight class B state championship teams.

Dani is a graduate of MSU with a degree in Sports Med./Athletic Training. While in college, she played on many club teams and officated volleyball, becoming a Master Official. While living in Boise with her family (husband Jay, and daughters Kori (11) and Cyan (5)), she found time to keep playing the game she loved. The Mooney family has been in Kalispell since August of last year.

Dani loves being in the gym. She has been a personal trainer since 1997, teaches various group fitness classes, and sports and strength classes. She also owns her own company specializing in body care products: Montana Moonlight Body Essentials. Her and her family are into 4-wheelin', fishing, hiking, biking, boating, camping and many other outdoor pursuits. Dani is a Frosh coach at FHS, and this will be her second season with FVC.

Alena Ori - Coach   
270-8977 • Email Alena

Alena was born and raised in the Flathead valley. And like so many natives, she returned to her roots after college.

Alena was a three-sport athlete at FHS from 2001-2005, and continued her volleyball career as a blocking phenom at South Dakota School of Mines and Technology in Rapid City, SD. After four successful years of volleyball (and 1 year of track) she graduated with a degree in Pre-professional health and occupational therapy. Alena is currently working in Kalispell at Orthopedic Rehab.

Alena enjoys many sports besides volleyball: hiking, boating, biking, running and attending Griz games. Probably the only sport she would definitely not partake in is snowmobiling (you can ask her why..be warned, it is not for the squeamish). Mostly, she is just a kid at heart, and a dyed-in-the-wool disney fan.

Jessica Preiss -Coach
(320)266-1792 • Email Jessica

Jessica got her volleyball career started at Sartell High School in Sartell, Minnesota so she is no stranger to the cold. After high school, she continued her volleyball dominance for four years at Cornell College in Iowa as a middle hitter/right side.

Jess finds a release to her wild side in activities like skydiving, bunjee jumping, rock climbing and anything that gets her off the ground. She also digs more earth-bound activities like camping and hiking, volleyball, and lacrosse. Jess has been in Kalispell for 6 months, and after growing up in the flats of Minnesota, the mountains of western Montana suit her love of the outdoors perfectly. Keep an eye to the sky... you might see her paragliding over the valley.

Terry Gates -Coach
253-1327 • Email Terry

I'm a graduate of Flathead High and graduated from Montana State University.  I started playing volleyball after high school and became addicted to the sport.  I registered for every tournament and played 3-4 nights a week in the winter and played outdoors in the summer months, all three of them.  While going to school in Bozeman I played on a club team for the college and continued playing tournaments.  I still try to play at least two times a week all year long.  In the summer you can find me setting up a net in Lawrence Park whenever I can find enough people to play. 

Although I was never interested in coaching volleyball Coach Wilcox convinced me to give it a shot. Coaching alongside Coach Dugan has been a beneficial first year and I look forward to making it a successful season. 

Coach Trainees

Emily Russell • Email Emily

Kylie Schlegel • Email Kylie

Kylee Schoepf • Email Kylee