Campus News

Westminster College Women's Volleyball Team Ranked #1 in Conference

Coach, Kim Norman Instrumental in Turning Team Around in Two Short Years

SALT LAKE CITY – (October 21, 2005) This year, the Westminster College Women’s Volleyball team will celebrate its ten year anniversary. And the team is celebrating with a stellar winning season.

This year, the women’s volleyball team, which competes as part of the Frontier Conference, is ranked #1 in the conference and 5th overall in the NAIA Region I. This is quite an accomplishment for a team which, in 2003, the year before Norman became head coach, had a record of 20 losses and only 1 win.

The positive momentum began last year when Norman coached the team to a 14-14 record. This year, with the help of some new recruits Norman helped attract to Westminster, the team hopes to make it to the NAIA National Championships.

This past week, Angie Johnson, former Highland High School outside hitter was selected as the Frontier conference player of the week. Additionally, during the prior week the Frontier conference named Westminster players Bree Riet, from Mt. Pleasant, Utah the libero of the week and Monica Shorts, from Price, Utah the setter of the week.

Kim Norman began her college coaching career at Utah State University (USU) in 1987, where she coached and earned an M.S. in Physical Education. Prior to joining Westminster, she was the Head Coach of Highland High School from 1992-2003, Norman compiled a 296-92 record over twelve seasons there.

Under her coaching, the Highland Rams made it to every state championship from 1992-2003, and won the Utah High School State Championships in 1996 and 1997 led by noted volleyball Olympian Logan Tom. During her time at Highland, Norman was responsible for placing all but 2 athletes into college volleyball scholarships.

Her concern that volleyball athletes were being recruited only from Southern California led her to start an arm of USA Volleyball now called the Intermountain Volleyball Association. As founder and CEO since its inception in 1990, Norman is responsible for making Utah one of the nation's powerhouses in the Junior Olympic Volleyball Club world.

Through her involvement with USA Volleyball, Norman has coached and represented the United States and Utah in several foreign countries. One of the highlights of her career bringing the team village for the Global Volleyball Challenge to Westminster during the summer of 2005, where over 300 of the best volleyball players in the country and over 100 from around the world. Norman's life is volleyball, and her passion for the game is why she took the helm at Westminster College.

Norman believes that with Westminster's philosophy of excellence, great things will happen for the Griffins' Volleyball program this season and for many years to come.