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Volleyball

Amy Spruiell

Head Volleyball Coach

2010 - Amy Spruiell brought a wealth of volleyball experience, both as a player and a coach, to Chadron State College when she became the Eagles’ head coach in March 2006.
Prior to coming to Chadron State, she had been the head coach at Eastern Oregon University at La Grande during the 2005 season. Previous to that, she had been an assistant coach at University of South Dakota, Seattle University, Fort Hays State and her alma mater, Western State College at Gunnison, Colo.
In 2007, Spruiell’s program at CSC began to take off. After struggling to a 3-30 record in 2006, CSC bounced back to post an 11-19 record, including an 8-11 finish in the RMAC. The 11 victories were the most for a Chadron State team in three seasons.
In addition to nearly doubling the win output from the previous two seasons, Chadron State had two players earn RMAC All-Conference honors, and five individual records were set.
Although the Eagles had a 3-26 record in 2008, there were some bright spots. Libero Jennifer Luatua was named the RMAC Defensive Player of the Year, becoming the first-ever CSC volleyball player to earn that honor.
Spruiell said she's excited about the Eagles' potential this season. Seventeen players are on the team, and 11 are first-year players.
In 2005, the Eastern Oregon team that Spruiell coached finished with an 8-12 record, the highest winning percentage for the Mountaineers in eight years.
Spruiell, 29, was a standout volleyball player at both Longmont High School in Colorado and Western State before going into coaching.
As a high school senior, she was the Rocky Mountain News’ Class 5A player of the year and the most valuable player at the state tournament. The following spring, she was selected as Longmont High’s athlete of the year.
At Western State, she was a four-year starter at outside hitter, was an all-conference selection as a sophomore, junior and senior, and earned all-region honors her junior year. When she was a junior in 1999, the Mountaineers were 25-7 overall and 17-2 in the RMAC. Her final season, they won the RMAC tournament, posting a 24-6 record and finishing 16-3 in the conference.
Shortly after earning her bachelor’s degree in the spring of 2001, Spruiell enrolled in law school at the University of South Dakota and was an assistant volleyball coach under Darin Weber, the coach who had recruited her and she had played for through her junior year at Western.
She said one year of law school was enough for her and she decided to go into coaching while she was at South Dakota.
The following year, she was a volunteer assistant coach at Seattle University and coached a club team in Seattle. In 2003-04, she earned a master’s degree in physical education at Fort Hays State University in Kansas and helped coach the volleyball team that had a 16-3 record in the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference.
In the fall of 2004, she returned to Western State as an assistant under Shawn Back, who had been the Mountaineers’ assistant coach the first three years she played there and was the head coach her senior year.  
“I’ve moved around quite a bit and have gained some great experience,” Spruiell said shortly after taking her new position at Chadron State. “I’m looking forward to staying at Chadron for a long time and getting the (volleyball) program on the winning side again. I’m glad to have a job in the area and conference that I know best.”