McKendree University Athletics

Janeese Vervelde arrived at McKendree in August of 2021 and enters her fourth season with the Bearcats this fall. VerVelde will serve as assistant coach for the women’s and men’s volleyball teams.

Before coming to McKendree, VerVelde graduated from the University of Charleston in 2021 with a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science and a minor in both Business Administration and Communications. VerVelde was a member of the University of Charleston volleyball team all four years of college and was captain of the team her senior year. She also interned for the University of Charleston’s athletic department and was a student assistant for the men’s volleyball team. 

VerVelde began her coaching career back in 2014 as a camp coach at the Milwaukee Sting Volleyball Summer Academy where she advised and motivated campers to learn for five years. In 2019, she began her career as a club volleyball coach to Vantage 12 Girls and continued to coach Milwaukee Sting 17 Boys (2020-2021) and High Performance 13 Girls (2022). In 2022, she also became the St. Clare Catholic School volleyball head coach for sixth-grade boys where she encouraged and supported players through skill development. 

In 2022-2023 VerVelde was the Great Lakes Region High Performance Coach where she was the assistant coach for the Girls Youth National Team. VerVelde helped create a competitive environment, supported the head coaches in practices and games, as well as created and shared numerous forms of content for the region’s various social media platforms. She also collected and analyzed game statistics to create reports for the team. 

VerVelde became the Graduate Assistant for the McKendree University men’s and women’s volleyball team back in 2021 and held the role for three years. In her role as a graduate assistant, she helped support the head and assistant coaches in day-to-day operations including practice planning, player evaluation, community outreach, recruiting, and game scouting. She also had a major impact in encouraging players on and off the court for personal and athletic growth.