A veteran college volleyball coach with over 200 victories in her career and a two-time coach of the year, Noelle Rooke enters her third season with the UIS volleyball program.
During her second season, Rooke helped develop freshman libero Kayla Katarzynski to a single-season program record 479 digs. Her team finished a spot above the previous year in the GLVC standings and recording a program-record in GLVC wins.Under her guidance, six student-athletes earned GLVC Academic accolades, while then-sophomore Nikki Madoch and then-junior Taylor Jokisch earned Division II Athletic Director Association (D2ADA) Academic Achievement Awards for maintaining a 3.5 GPA or higher.
In her first season with the Prairie Stars, senior Ashley King led the way in digs, while junior Kellee Mahaffay topped the team in kills. She graduated five seniors in her first year, while developing freshmen Rachelle Wiegand and Connor Borgmeier. Under her watch, seven student-athletes earned Great Lakes Valley Conference (GLVC) Academic All-Conference honors in 2012. King, Rebeka Pruemer and Megan Vladic were honored with the GLVC Council of Presidents' Academic Excellence Award given to student-athletes who maintained a 3.50 grade-point average (GPA) throughout their academic career and have exhausted their athletic eligibility.
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Rooke, who recorded 227 victories as a head coach at three different institutions, came to UIS after spending eight seasons as the head coach at Mercer University in Macon, Ga. While with the Bears she became the winningest coach in program history, guiding the program to 98 victories and qualifying for the Atlantic Sun Conference Tournament seven times. Her teams set eight school records and she coached the first player in Mercer history to have 1,000 kills and 1,000 digs in a career as well as the school’s all-time leaders in assist and kills. In addition, Rooke also coached the 2006 A-Sun’s Freshman of the Year and the 2010 Libero of the Year during her eight seasons in Macon.
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Highlighting her tenure at Mercer was an 18-11 campaign in 2008 that included a 13-7 record in the Atlantic Sun Conference and earned her the league’s Coach of the Year award. The 13 wins in conference play are still the most in school history. Rooke’s 2008 squad ranked 16th in the nation in digs per set and was just as successful off the court as the squad was honored with Mercer’s Scholastic Award, which is given to the team with the highest GPA. In addition, nine members of the team were named to the A-Sun’s Academic Honor Roll.
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Prior to arriving at Mercer, Rooke spent three seasons as the head coach at Rowan University, a NCAA Division III school in Glassboro, N.J., where she went 65-27 and led the Profs to the NCAA Tournament for just the second time in school history. In 2002, her squad went 27-8 and won the New Jersey Athletic Conference championship, earning Rooke the league’s Coach of the Year honor.
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Rooke’s first head coaching job was at NCAA Division II institution South Carolina-Aiken where she posted a 64-42 record in three seasons. Her tenure at Aiken was highlighted by a 29-10 season in 1997 and two players earning academic All-American honors.
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As a student-athlete, Rooke was a standout setter at Florida Southern where she served as a team captain and was program’s Most Valuable Player after earning second team All-Conference accolades as a senior.
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A native of Agoura, California, Rooke earned a bachelor’s degree in sociology from Florida Southern in 1996. She married her husband Max, who is an assistant soccer coach at Pepperdine University, in 2008.
