When USA Volleyball competed in this year’s Summer Olympics, Jenny Johnson ’95, cheered on all of her teams: USA men’s and women’s indoor; men’s and women’s beach; and men’s and women’s sitting volleyball – the Paralympics program. 

As the director of education services for the organization, she supports the journeys of athletes and coaches across USA Volleyball. “We have 57,000 coaches, and there are around 400, 000 junior members age 12-18,” she says. “When I do training for athletes at our academy, I’m working with future Olympians,” Johnson points out. 

She began as a junior member herself, and she has the proof on her office wall. “I have my card. 1989: ‘Jenny Yarbrough is a member of USVBA.’” Within the organization, she became a coach, a cadre or “trainer” for new coaches, and eventually started a rec club as her daughter joined the sport.   

The philosophy she’s brought to USA Volleyball is called “athletic development.” “It’s development of everything that surrounds that athlete,” she explains. “You have facilities, you have coaches, you have finances, you have governmental infrastructure.”  

Johnson credits UNCG with laying the groundwork for her career. In fact, on a wall of her home office, she still has a picture of Minerva. “That’s my history, that’s my background, and that’s who made me who I am,” she says. “All those experiences brought me into the place where I can develop and train the next generation.”   

As a Spartan, she found support from an influential professor, Jeff Colbert ’84, ’86 MPA, and from former Director of Athletics Nelson Bobb. Decades later, she still calls them both close friends. “These relationships go on forever. I could call them right now and just have a wonderful conversation,” she says.   

She was coached at UNCG by North Carolina legend Tere Dail. “That level of volleyball has allowed me to hang with the big dogs in my career,” Johnson says.  

Thirty years later? “Here I am,” she smiles, “still in the sport I love.”  

by Mercer Bufter ’11 MA