Volleyball Coaching Staff
Head Coach Ellen Dempsey
Phone: 330.569.5350Email: dempseyee@hiram.edu
Video message from Coach Dempsey
In her six seasons as head coach of the Hiram volleyball team, Ellen Dempsey has taken a program that hadn't had a winning season in over a decade to the upper echelon of the North Coast Athletic Conference and all of Division III.
Now entering her seventh year at the helm, Dempsey has posted a 146-60 record with four playoff appearances, marking the best six-year period in school history, and coached her team to two consecutive NCAA Division III National Tournament appearances (2005 and 2006).
Overall in 14 seasons as a head coach, Dempsey has a career record of 313-206. She has over 18 years of collegiate coaching experience. In addition, Dempsey also serves as Assistant Athletic Director and Senior Woman Administrator.
Most recently before coming to Hiram, Dempsey served as Assistant to the Director of Athletics at the University of Maine in Orono. Prior to that, she spent six seasons as head coach at Ohio University in Athens where she won a school record 86 matches from 1994-1999 and took the Bobcats to the Mid-American Conference Tournament for the first time, posting two twenty-win seasons along the way, as well as the school's first winning record in 19 years.
Before her experience at Ohio University, Dempsey was an assistant coach at the University of Maryland from 1990-1993, where she helped the Terrapins claim the 1990 Atlantic Coast Conference Championship. Dempsey also headed the volleyball program at Southern Oregon State College (now Southern Oregon University) where she was named the 1989 National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) District II Coach of the Year. She began her career as the head coach at Lansing (MI) Community College from 1984-1985 and was an assistant coach at Northern Michigan University from 1986-1987.
Outside of the collegiate ranks, Dempsey was an assistant coach for the south squad at the 1994 U.S. Olympic Sports Festival and was a court coach for the 1993 Junior National Team.
Dempsey graduated from Michigan State University with a bachelor of science in natural resources in 1986 and earned a master's degree in exercise science at Northern Michigan University in 1988.
Dempsey resides in Mogadore, Ohio.
Assistant Coach Ben Rodeffer
Phone: 330.569.5340
rodefferbd@hiram.edu
Ben Rodeffer will be in his second season as an assistant coach. In addition to his coaching duties, Rodeffer is also the Administrative Assistant for the athletic department.
Prior to his return to Hiram before the 2006 season, Rodeffer had been working on his bachelor's degree at Michigan State University and was employed by The Netz, where he served as facility manager.
Rodeffer was the assistant volleyball coach at Hiram during the 2003 season. He spent the 2004 season at Michigan State University, where he served as the staff assistant for the volleyball program.
Rodeffer resides in Hiram, Ohio.