Bloomsburg Volleyball and the Coach That Started It All

When you as a spectator first step through the glass doors of Nelson Field House for a game day you hear almost immediately the buzz of excitement that a match is about to start. You sit down on the bleachers, that after an hour make your whole-body ache, and lay your eyes on the court and the players warming up for a Bloomsburg volleyball match. The buzzer rattles through your ears telling you the game is about to start and with the first whistle of the referee, the first serve is in the air and the game is on. While sitting and watching the game, something people never think about is what it took to get to this position, where this team can play and compete for their school's name. Bloomsburg volleyball began only five years ago with a simple idea of making a team and hiring the most key element of the team, the coach. That coach, Dan Kreiger. 

Bloomsburg Gym 

Dan never thought about coaching until he stumbled upon it at his college and became struck with the realization that coaching is not just an after work extracurricular activity for adults to do with their children. Growing up as an athlete, Dan did not have the best coaches, so when he moved to college to carry through with his human development major, he found his love for coaching, and he began his coaching career student coaching his colleges women's volleyball team and volunteered with the men's club team. Rather than letting such a major part of his life stay in the past and hidden, he chose to be the role model to athletes he never got while growing up.

The idea of adding a women's volleyball team began simply with that, an idea, and a coach. When Dan showed up to coach the Bloomsburg Women's Volleyball team, his reactions included shocked and lost, as he had no clue where to begin. The rush of having to start a new program from scratch became a blur for him. When he first had a meeting with his boss, he was given one week to put together a budget for the needs of the new program. Most everywhere a coach goes, the equipment supplied for them and all they must do is supply players for the team. In Dan's case, he found himself rushing around and loading his already overflowing plate with everything he could possibly need, he explained how he made "probably 40 phone calls that day to coaches" that he knew asking them their top needs for a program. When asked how he determined the wants from needs he stated, "luckily most of the coaches I called didn't know the difference between wants and needs so I was able to move some things I wanted to my need pile." Dan racked up the hours that week to hopefully get everything he needed for a team to begin, he did not have the one most important thing for a team to begin though, the players. 

Kreiger told his story of finding athletes which consisted of pulling people from the schools already established club team, to over hundreds of recruits visiting campus in a week. The two most important players Dan beamed about when talking, happened to already be committed to other schools. One named Alyssa played a year for another school and transferred to Bloomsburg to play for her favorite coach, giving up her old team and remaining loyal to Dan. The other named Sarah had originally played for Dans old coaching job. Sarah redshirted her senior year to come to Bloomsburg, played as a graduate student and became the Bloomsburg Volleyball first ever graduate assistant. Loyalty is the biggest thing to have as a coach, and Dan received that whole-heartedly from those two players and the others he committed his first year. 

The Original Bloomsburg Women's Volleyball Team

Day one of practice came in the overwhelmingly hot fall of 2018, the team consisted of 30 girls dedicated to the new program, 25 of them, freshman. Dan believed in his team through and through, so long as the team believes when Dan preaches "it can't be about me or you, it has to be about us," the team will prosper. Kreiger has lived by his meaningful and emotional statement for all 22 years of his coaching career and now finally gets to bring it to a brand-new sport for this school. Even with the "75 to100 hours" a week during season, Dan got through these extremely difficult and stressful past five years because of the ability to spend countless hours with the girls who dedicated countless hours of hard work, sweat, blood and tears for four years of their lives to him and the Bloomsburg volleyball program.

Last year seemed to be the most rewarding season for the Bloomsburg volleyball team, as they made it to PSAC (Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference) playoffs after technically only two and a half years of playing due to COVID-19. Through a tough and heart wrenching game the Huskies did not manage to pull of the game against East Stroudsburg but still managed to climb their way up from the bottom and left the next year's team with a name to be reckoned with. Unfortunately, the final thirteen freshman had become seniors and the team and coach had a heart wrenching ceremony to celebrate the "OG's." Many tears shed as the first Bloomsburg volleyball players said goodbye. The girls who helped build the program have now gone and eight newcomers arrived scared out of their minds to follow in the footsteps of those influential women a few years ahead of them. 

Bloomsburg Tribute to the Original Girls