TAMPA, Fla. – Jolene Shepardson stood at the podium in the lobby of USF’s indoor practice facility Tuesday morning, next to a gleaming championship trophy, talking about how much her parents have meant to her.
The volleyball coach is the daughter of Joe, a longtime men’s basketball coach at Hillsborough Community College who passed away this summer, and Sandi, who coached volleyball at the University of Tampa in the 1980s. Both had much influence on their daughter as she grew into her profession.
“My parents were a firm foundation, and they were always there,” said Shepardson, whose Bulls clinched the American Conference regular season title with a sweep of UAB on Sunday. “From childhood, I loved the game. My mind was always on volleyball. I am hopefully in the right field and hopefully have a great impact on (my players) because I love them, I love what I do and I love people. I am thankful for the hard work my parents instilled in me and for the love of the game.”
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In the right field? Well, Shepardson is in her fifth year at USF and 14th running a program. She knows volleyball, and she knows Tampa. The married mother of five – her husband, Aaron, was an assistant on Shepardson’s staff her first three seasons guiding the Bulls – graduated Tampa Prep, where she was the state’s Gatorade player of the year in 1997. She began her collegiate career at UT before transferring to USF where, a senior in 2002, she helped lead the Bulls, then a member of Conference USA and coached by Nancy Mueller, to what was its most recent regular season title.
“When I took over this program a couple of years ago, I knew this is why I was hired,” she said of coming out on top. “Great staff, great players to be accomplishing these things together.”
The coaches, the staff and the players have had the support of those on campus and well outside its boundaries, something Shepardson and her team have felt on their journey. That was never more evident than in a raucous USF Corral when the Bulls toppled the Blazers to lock up the top seed in this weekend’s conference tourney.
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“I appreciate the community being behind us,” said Shepardson, hired in January 2020 following head coaching stints at San Jose State and Cal State-Bakersfield. “Not just the Tampa community, but also the student-athletes here, and the students are coming out. I think we just had to get the fire rolling, and they come to our games to see how fun we are to watch. We play hard, love the game, and have the grit. It’s addicting.”
The Bulls (18-9/14-2 AAC) open the conference tournament in Wichita on Friday (6 p.m., ESPN+) against the team they just defeated, No. 8 seed UAB.
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