Catching Up With ...
        1964 and 1968 Olympic Track Trialist Ginny Husted (June 22)
        SPU Athletic Trainers (June 29)
        Two-time NCAA soccer champion Peter Hattrup (July 6)

SEATTLE – She's back.
 
All of the players are different. Her role will be different. But it's still volleyball at Seattle Pacific, and Whitney Dibble is part of it once again.
 
The middle blocker who played on head coach Chris Johnson's first two Falcon teams in 2005 and 2006 – both of which advanced to the NCAA Tournament – will be in Brougham Pavilion this fall as Johnson's lead assistant coach when practice begins in August.

“I'm really excited to be back. It's definitely a great opportunity to coach at the college level,” Dibble said. “I've been coaching club volleyball on and off pretty much since I graduated. Chris contacted me and asked me if I wanted to come back.”
 
Johnson is delighted at Dibble's decision to return.

“I'm more than confident that she's ready for this, and I'm excited to have her join us,” Johnson said. “She'll be working with our middle blockers. She has a great eye for them, and she knows what I want them to look like.
 
“Already, she's catching stuff that I had been slacking off on gradually over the years, so it's great to have a fresh set of eyes in the gym,” Johnson added. “And she has a psychology and counseling background, so just in terms of continuing to develop our mental game and our toughness, she's going to be a big asset.”
 
QUICKLY ONTO THE COACHING PATH
Even before Dibble graduated from Seattle Pacific in 2007 with a major in biology and a minor in psychology, she got involved with the Cascade Volleyball Club in Seattle, and served as a head coach for the 17-18 age group last season. She also was an assistant coach at Forest Ridge School in Bellevue, just east of Seattle.
 
“Right after I finished playing, I wanted to start coaching,” Dibble said. “I've always loved it. I love working with teams.”
 
But the 27-year-old Dibble, who said she played “probably every sport under the sun when I was little” before settling on volleyball, still laces up her shoes and steps onto the court or onto the grass as a player whenever she has the opportunity.
 
“Coaching has kept me on teams and kept me playing,” she said.
 
Seeing things from both the playing and the coaching side of the equation has helped Dibble remain an eager student of the game.
 
“It's very different – and it's rewarding in different ways. But I love both,” Dibble said. “It's hard (when you're coaching) not to be able to be out there playing – that's probably the hardest part.
 
“But the other side of it is that you're constantly learning from every team you coach. And they're constantly teaching you,” she added. “That's the coolest challenge about coaching is how the team comes together and how you pull it all together, how you lead each team individually and lead each player individually.”
 
DRAWING ON HER OWN LESSONS
With her playing experience and volleyball knowledge, Dibble will have plenty to offer the Falcons. But she also knows that coaching is way more than just imparting technical expertise.

“I love developing people. Volleyball developed me a lot as a person – work ethic, what it is to be a teammate, communication skills, working toward goals, and putting in the time,” she said..
 
Dibble knows all about putting in time. She finished her master's degree in marriage and family therapy at SPU in June 2011, and currently works with a local company that does in-home individual and family therapy. This past year, she has been an affiliate faculty member in Children, Youth & Family Studies at Trinity Lutheran College in Everett, about half an hour north of Seattle.
 
Having played under Johnson for three years (he was an assistant to then-coach Kellie Ryan in 2004 before moving up to the head job in 2005), Dibble is eagerly anticipating teaming with him in a coaching role.
 
“You just know how much Chris cares about you as players and cares about you individually,” Dibble said. “I respect that about him a lot. I'm really excited to work with him and learn.”
 
So much the better that she can do it at a place where she already has accomplished many things, both athletically and academically.

“It's really fun and encouraging to be at this point where we can start hiring alumni as assistant coaches,” Johnson said. “She understands what our program is about and what we're trying to be and the value of an SPU education. That's really important.”

Added Dibble, “Volleyball teaches you a ton of life lessons. I don't think I would have grown as much at SPU if I had not competed.
 
“To be able to be back with that again and around that atmosphere is really cool.”