Florida's Chris Keen Promoted to Assistant Volleyball Coach
Monday, July 26, 2010 | Volleyball
Chris Keen, a former collegiate and beach volleyball player who has spent the last two years as a volunteer assistant, has been named assistant volleyball coach at the University of Florida, head coach Mary Wise announced Monday.
Keen will be involved in all aspects of the Gator volleyball program.
“We are very excited Chris will be working with us again this season,” Wise said. “His knowledge, energy level, and work ethic will be a tremendous asset to our program.”
In his two seasons as a volunteer assistant, Keen worked directly with Florida's defensive specialists and helped coordinate the team's sand volleyball training during the spring. Under Keen's direction from 2009-10, senior libero Elyse Cusack became the Southeastern Conference's all-time career digs leader with 2,138 during her time as a Gator. She earned AVCA Honorable Mention All-America honors in each of her two seasons working with Keen and was named to the 2009 NCAA All-Region Team.
“Florida volleyball is one of the top programs in the country and with that comes the opportunity to work with elite athletes and coaches,” Keen said. “It is a tremendous honor to have this opportunity once again.
“It has been great working with Mary Wise,” Keen continued. “She runs an amazing program. I'm looking forward to the new challenges ahead and I'm very excited for the upcoming season.”
Keen joined the Gators initially in August 2008 after serving as a club coach with On-Court Volleyball (Suwanee, Ga.) since November 2007.
Prior to that, Keen has had assistant coaching stints at the University of Georgia and Georgia Southern, both with Gator connections. Keen and former Gator Nicole McCray (1998-02) spent one season with former Florida player and then-UGA head coach Steffi Legall (1990-91), with Keen working as a volunteer assistant with the Bulldogs. Keen then followed McCray to Georgia Southern, where they led the Eagles to a quarterfinal appearance in the Southern Conference Tournament, the program's sixth consecutive season with a record at or above .500.
Keen, an experienced beach volleyball player, has been a part of the East End Volleyball tour since 2005. He also played on the Extreme Volleyball Professionals Tour and participated in his first AVP qualifier in Chicago in 2008. He continued his play with the AVP this past spring.
Keen was a three-year letterwinner at the University of Findlay (Findlay, Ohio) from 2003-05. As a player, he set a new single-season school record in 2005 with 1,376 assists and led the team with 12.07 assists per game. He also was third on the team with 28 service aces. He was a two-time member of the MIVA All-Academic team, while majoring in marketing. Keen earned his degree in business (marketing) from Findlay in May 2005.
Keen is a native of Indianapolis, Ind., where he lettered in volleyball and soccer at Cathedral High School. He helped lead his volleyball team to a state title in 1999 and was named Indiana's Most Valuable Player that year.
Out of high school, Keen served as a student assistant coach at Marshall University and had stints at Gibonsburg and Findlay High Schools and at his alma mater, and perennial power, Cathedral.
The opening on the staff was due to the departure of associate head coach Nick Cheronis, who chose to enter private business.
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