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Since being hired at Clemson in 1993, perhaps no other coach has done as much for the revitalization of an athletic program as Jolene Jordan Hoover has done for volleyball. She guided the Tigers to a 27-8 record in her first season, and her squads have continued to break records on an annual basis ever since. Now in her 15th season in Tigertown, she is the longest tenured women's sport head coach at Clemson.
Before her arrival, Clemson had never been to the NCAA Tournament and had won just 41 percent of its ACC matches. In her 14 years at the helm, Clemson has now been to the NCAA Tournament five times, including twice providing a host role for the national event in Littlejohn Coliseum, in 1994 and 1999. Clemson has won nearly 60 percent of its ACC matches in her 14 years, claimed an ACC Tournament championship and an ACC regular season title.
Hoover is already Clemson's all-time winningest volleyball coach with a 285-171 career record. She has won at least 22 matches six times during her tenure. Hoover's teams have a 128-102 record in ACC play, including a school record and ACC-best 15-1 slate in 1999. With a 3-0 victory over N.C. State in the first match of the 2004 season, Hoover joined Joe Sagula of North Carolina and Janice Kruger of Maryland as the only ACC coaches to reach the 100-win plateau in ACC matches.
Hoover has coached great individual student-athletes to success during her time at Clemson. She has coached 14 different players to 26 All-Region selections, as well as 26 All-ACC selections. Three members of the 2007 squad have garnered the conference award with first-team honorees Jeannette Abbott and Danielle Hepburn and second-team member Didem Ege giving Hoover an experienced and talented team for the upcoming season. The lengthy list also includes Cindy Stern, who became the ACC's first volleyball All-American in 1999. Stern also earned ACC Player-of-the-Year honors that season under Hoover's guidance. Hoover added Leslie Finn to the list of all-conference greats in 2003, after she garnered first-team All-ACC status.
Hoover coached Finn to one of, if not the, most spectacular individual seasons in school history in 2004. The outside hitter was a first-team All-ACC and AVCA All-Region selection. Under Hoover's tutelage, Finn set a single-season and career kills record for Clemson. She was an honorable mention All-American at year's end as named by the AVCA, only the second Tiger ever to receive such an honor.
Hoover is also no stranger to the development of young talent. Five times she has coached the ACC Rookie of the Year, with current junior Jeannette Abbott earning the award in 2005. The file also includes 1998 selection Jodi Steffes and 1999 selection Jessi Betcher. Steffes completed her career in 2001 as Clemson's first four-time AVCA All-District honoree. Betcher finished her Tiger career in 2002 as Clemson all-time leader in assists with 1,551. Hoover has coached 14 different players to the All-ACC freshman team, including at least one in each of the last nine seasons. She placed two rookies on the squad last season in Kelsey Murphy and Ege, marking just the second time in program history that the conference All-Freshman team included two Tigers. Both were during Hoover's reign.
With four underclassmen starters, along with the team's libero, the 2006 Clemson squad's resume was even then more remarkable. Hoover guided the Tigers to another 20-win season and a third-place finish in the ACC.
Clemson doubled its number of All-Americas in 2006, and all four have been coached by Hoover. Abbott and Hepburn were honorable mention selections, capping each player's impressive list of accolades for the 2006 season. Both were also first-team All-ACC and first-team AVCA All-Region selections. Hepburn led the conference in hitting percentage and blocks per game, a mark that also ranked fifth in the nation, while Abbott posted a league-best kills per game average.
The 1999 season certainly was a landmark year for Hoover and the program. The Tigers posted a 31-3 overall record and finished the season ranked 22nd nationally. That .910 winning percentage was not only a Clemson volleyball record, but the top winning percentage for any Clemson sport in the decade of the 1990s. The season included an ACC regular season championship, a 27-game winning streak over the first nine matches of the season, a record four wins over Top 25 teams, and a record 16-match winning streak. The most impressive statistic might have been a perfect 12-0 record on the opponent's home floor. Hoover led the Tigers to a #9 final RPI ranking that season as well.
The 1999 season was Clemson's fifth appearance in the NCAA Tournament in a seven-year period. Her 1993 and 1994 teams finished their seasons in the NCAAs, just the fourth time in Clemson athletic history a coach had taken a team to the NCAAs in the first two years with the program. Her first two teams were a combined 55-15 overall, 20-8 in ACC play.
The 1997 and 1998 teams also reached NCAA Tournament play. The 1997 squad won the program's first ever ACC Championship. Clemson upset then-undefeated and 13th-ranked Maryland to win the title, as three Tigers were chosen to the All-Tournament team for the first time in school history and Michelle Thieke was named tourney MVP. Clemson finished that year with a 26-8 ledger. The 1998 team reached the second round of the NCAAs before losing to second-ranked Penn State on its home court. It has a school record six wins in five-game matches.
Hoover led the Tigers to a 20-14 record during the 2004 season, the most wins at Clemson since the 1999 season. Among the 20 wins was one of Hoover's greatest upsets. After handling Virginia Tech to open the ACC Tournament, the Tigers were faced with a matchup versus #1 seed Georgia Tech, who went undefeated in the regular season. The Tigers prevailed 3-1 in one of Clemson's best performances in recent memory.
Clemson has reaped the benefits of a veteran leader on the court, but the 43-year-old Hoover began her list of accomplishments long before taking over as head coach of the Tiger program.
Hoover graduated from Illinois State University in 1986, where she earned a Bachelor of Science degree in physical education. While attending Illinois State, Hoover was named all-league in the Gateway Conference in 1983 and 1985, and also the league's Most Valuable Player in 1985. She was also named Most Valuable Player in two regular season tournaments, chosen as the team's co-captain in 1985, and was an AAU Junior Olympic All-American in 1982 and 1983. In October of 1999, Hoover was inducted into the Illinois State University Hall of Fame, and was inducted into the Bradley-Bourbonnais Community High School Hall of Fame in February of 2000. She was honored again in the fall of 2006 as she was named to the Missouri Valley Conference's (formerly the Gateway Conference) volleyball All-Centennial team.
During her Illinois State career, Hoover led the Redbirds to four Gateway Conference Championships and four NCAA Tournament appearances. Upon graduating from Illinois State, Hoover participated in the 1987 inaugural season of the professional Major League Volleyball as a setter for the Chicago Breeze. In the summer of 1985, she represented the USA in the World University Games held in Kobe, Japan; and also trained with the United States Women's National Volleyball Team in San Diego, CA.
Hoover's first coaching stint came in 1986 when she served as an assistant at her alma mater, Illinois State. In 1987, she was named assistant coach at the University of Tennessee. While at Tennessee, the Volunteers finished second in the Southeastern Conference in 1988, after a third-place ranking in 1987.
In 1989, Hoover left Tennessee to return to her alma mater as an assistant coach. During that season, Illinois State finished as the Gateway Conference Champions, posted a 21-10 record (9-0 in conference), and qualified for the NCAA Tournament.
Hoover's first head coaching position came in 1990 when she took over the Western Maryland College Terrors. During her three-year tenure at Western Maryland she compiled a 93-31 overall record. When combined with her 12-year mark at Clemson, Hoover has an impressive 358-192 (.650) career record.
Since her arrival at Clemson, Hoover has not only been coaching the Tigers, but has also worked outside the collegiate coaching area. She has served as the head coach of the USA's Youth National Team in 1996, an assistant with the 1995 Olympic Festival Team, and as the assistant coach for the Youth National Team in 1994.
Hoover, who earned a master's degree from Clemson in 1997, and her husband Dave Hoover, have two children, Hayley (15) and Carley (12).
