The New River Valley Junior Olympic Volleyball has been based in Roanoke and Salem for the past two years. It is a traveling volleyball club that attracted girls from 14 schools this year in age groups from 14-18 on 5 teams.

Karen Bolton, the Director, is presenting two coaches with NRV Coach of the Year awards. They are Pierre Ellis and Susan Smith, who were also assistant coaches of Salem High School Varsity Volleyball and helped lead Salem to the AA State semi-finals.

They coached for the club this year from January through April and took on two teams simultaneously. (age groups 15 and 16) They had 19 girls and took the two teams to 9 tournaments in the ODR (Old Dominion Region) of USAV, sometimes coaching back-to-back tournaments. Bolton is presenting the awards to them for the outstanding job they did coaching two teams and helping and inspiring girls from all over the Roanoke Valley and New River Valley in the sport of volleyball.