Jensen named new head volleyball coach

By FAITH MOLDAN

Bigfork Eagle

Fans of Northwest A volleyball will see a familiar face starting this fall.

Bigfork High School Activities Director Shannon Smith announced May 25 that Kelsey Jensen was named the new head coach of the BHS volleyball team.

“She brings a ton of passion and personal drive, combined with a compassionate spirit,” Smith said. “She communicates clearly her ideas about coaching volleyball.”

Jensen said she is excited to get things rolling with the volleyball program and athletes in Bigfork.

“I’ve wanted to coach high school volleyball my whole life,” she said. “It’s my dream job.”

Jensen will also teach math at the school. She had originally applied for the assistant coach position, but was asked if she was interested in being head coach when former BHS coach Yvonne Peck resigned.

Jensen coached 7th- and 8th-grade volleyball in Whitefish and has coached at a number of volleyball camps as well. Her transition into the head coach position will be aided by Jensen’s former coach — Peck. Peck coached Jensen at Whitefish High School, where Jensen was a four-year varsity player. She was academic all-state all four years and was all-conference twice. Jensen was first-team all tournament in 2001 and team captain her junior and senior years. She was also all-state in golf twice.

After graduating from WHS, Jensen went on to play volleyball and golf at Montana Tech. She was named Frontier conference setter-of-the-week four times and was all-conference in golf in 2005. Jensen was also a defensive-specialist for the Montana Tech volleyball team.

“I’ve learned a lot of different things with college volleyball,” Jensen said. “You have to be flexible. We’ll have to wait until the beginning of the season to see where the kids fall into place.”