Eric Viney
Head Volleyball Coach
Defiance College ’02
erviney@dwu.edu
605-995-2855

Entering his third season as Dakota Wesleyan University head volleyball coach, Eric Viney has all the pieces in place to help the Tigers make the leap into the upper echelon of the Great Plains Athletic Conference, one of the country’s toughest leagues.

In each of his first two seasons with Dakota Wesleyan, Viney’s teams won 13 games, which is almost twice as many as they did before he took over. The Tigers finished 13-23 in 2009 and ended the season in 12th place in the GPAC.

DWU’s 2009 squad started the season with three straight wins and was 6-2 early in the year before starting an always-tough conference schedule that included several matches against Northwestern and Morningside. The two schools finished first and second, respectively, in the GPAC last season, and also, both made the NAIA National Tournament. The Tigers won back-to-back games against York College and Missouri Valley College at the Morningside College Tournament Sept. 18-19 and then again Sept. 25 and 29 against in-state rivals Mount Marty College and Dakota State University.

Two of Viney’s athletes earned All-GPAC honors in 2009. Junior Ashley Kley, in her second season with the Tigers, was named to the All-GPAC Second Team. She also made her way onto the Tigers’ all-time kills chart, where she is tied for 10th with 690 kills in two seasons. She is also 12th on the all-time digs chart with 722 in two years.

Carina Fesenmaier, Viney’s top recruit for the 2009 season, earned All-GPAC Honorable Mention status in her first year with DWU. She racked up 1,087 assists in just one year with the Tigers and is sixth on the school’s all-time assists chart.

Viney is now 26-45 in two seasons with DWU after a 13-22 campaign in 2008 and a 13-23 record in 2009. Before joining the Tigers, Viney was the head volleyball coach at Oklahoma Panhandle State University for two years. Before coaching at OPSU, Viney spent two years as a graduate assistant at North Dakota State University in Fargo, N.D.

Viney also spent two seasons coaching at Marietta College (Ohio). In 2002, he was hired as an assistant volleyball coach at the school. He took over head coaching duties in 2003 and found immediate success. Marietta finished 18-13 that season and recorded the school’s first win in the Ohio Athletic Conference Postseason Tournament since 1987. For his performance, Viney was named the OAC’s Coach of the Year.

He got his start in coaching as a student at Defiance College (Ohio), where he served as a student assistant coach for the women’s volleyball teams during his junior and senior seasons. Viney graduated from Defiance in 2002 with a bachelor’s degree in sport management and a minor in marketing.

Volleyball has been a constant for Viney throughout his life. His father was an alternate for the Men’s USA National Team in the 1980s, and his mother was the head girls’ volleyball coach at Carroll High School (Ohio), where she also started a boys’ program.

Viney came to South Dakota with ties to the state. His wife, Sigourney, is a Redfield, S.D., native. They live in Mitchell.

Dannie Burt
Assistant Volleyball Coach

Dannie Burt is in his second stint as a Tiger assistant volleyball coach. He has coached volleyball at various youth levels for a number of years, including five years as the coach of a junior Olympic team in Marshall, Minn., and he has also coached park and recreation teams in Sioux Falls, S.D. He helped coach the South Central Gold, a club volleyball program in Mitchell, this past season.

The Marshall, Minn., native is majoring in sports management and working toward his coaching endorsement in volleyball, basketball, and track and field.

Burt has two daughters, ages 19 and 14. He currently lives in Tea, S.D.

Steph Plastow
Assistant Volleyball Coach

Steph Plastow begins her first year as a Tiger assistant volleyball coach. Plastow has two years of coaching high school volleyball under her belt as she was the head coach at Mitchell Christian School in Mitchell, S.D., for two seasons, but this is her first collegiate coaching stint.

Plastow played college volleyball at Northwestern College in Roseville, Minn., from 1995-98. She was the Team MVP in 1995, 1997 and 1998. Plastow was named an NCCAA All-American in 1997 and an NAIA All-Region player in 1998.

Plastow and her husband, Bill, live in Mitchell with their two children Abiah, 11, and Jada, 9. They own Plastow Woodworking.