Varsity
Head Coach - Jeff Cerneka
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Coach Cerneka teaches Health and Physical Education at Norcross High School.
He is a graduate of California State Polytechnic University, Pomona in Pomona, California with a Bachelor of Science degree in Health and Physical Education. He earned his master's degree in Master of Arts in Teaching from the National University in San Diego, California. Coach Cerneka has been the Head Volleyball Coach at Norcross for the past 10 years, and has coached for 18 years as a head coach at the high school level. At Norcross, he has led the varsity to 6 region championships and 3 Elite 8 appearances and 8 Sweet 16 appearances in the state playoffs during his 10 year tenure. Another proud highlight of the program and symbol of our success is that 15 girls have gone to play collegiately. Developing players who attract interest from colleges and universities is a goal of our coaching staff and we look forward to continuing that tradition for our student-athletes. In addition to coaching at Norcross High School, Coach Cerneka also has coached for GA5/A5 Gwinnett Volleyball Club in Suwanee, GA. Prior to coming to Norcross, he was the Head Volleyball Coach at Pomona High School in Southern California for 8 years. His highlights at Pomona High included 3 league championships and 17 girls who continued to play at the collegiate level. Furthermore, he had the opportunity to work with Crush N Stuff Volleyball Club and Starlings Volleyball Club in California. Among Coach Cerneka's goals are to continue to build on the program’s success; to foster a positive ‘team’ culture throughout the program; to compete at the highest level; and to facilitate a love for the sport of volleyball. Coach Cerneka is married and has 3 children. |
Assistant Coach - Sydney Marshall
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Sydney Marshall has been playing and coaching volleyball for 12 years. She has been assistant varsity coach at Norcross High School for 2 years, where she also has helped lead our varsity to 2 region championships. “We are thrilled to have Sydney back in our Blue Devil Volleyball family”, Coach Cerneka said. “She does an outstanding job working with the offense, and is especially effective at developing our hitters and blockers. Most importantly, she identifies well with the girls in our program and embraces the responsibility of being a mentor to her players, both on and off the court”.
She also currently coaches at A5 Gwinnett and has previously coached at Atlanta Extreme Volleyball Club. Prior to embarking on a coaching career, she began at Locust Grove High School where she received an MVP award for the 3-AAAA Region. The same year, her team won the region championship and made it to the sweet 16. Her following high school years were played at Norcross High School. She played for Coach Cerneka in 2011-2014. Although her senior year was shut down due to an injury, she was still able to attain first team All-Area, and Area 8-AAAAAAA Player of the Year her sophomore and junior seasons. She then went on to play at NCAA D1 Gardner-Webb University her freshman and sophomore year. She received defensive player of the week by the Big South Conference, as well as breaking a blocking record with a total of 18 blocks in a 5-set match. Her junior and senior year were played at Florida Southern in Lakeland, Florida. In her senior season she helped lead her team to a Sunshine State Conference championship, Southeast Regional championship, as well as a NCAA National Championship appearance with 18 kills in the final four match. She received her Bachelors of Science in Exercise Science in 2018. Once graduating from college, she went on to play in England for two years. Her team was able to make it to the National Cup finals back to back. Unfortunately, the game was never played her second year (due to Covid) and both teams were announced as Co-Champions for the 2020 season. While playing overseas she began working on her Master’s in Public Health which she is still finishing. She is currently working in the biology department at Norcoss High School. |
Assistant Coach - Lindsay Holmes
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Lindsay Holmes has been playing and/or coaching volleyball for 14 years. Prior to the genesis of her coaching career, she played as the libero for Coach Cerneka during the 2011 and 2012 seasons at Norcross, alongside Coach Sydney as her teammate. During her time at Norcross, she earned awards for All-Region 1st team, All-County 2nd team, Best Defensive Player, and the Nelson Award, also winning a Region championship and appearing in the state playoffs twice. She played club at A5 Gwinnett (formerly known as GA5) under Coach April Carroll in her 18’s season. She went on to play collegiate volleyball her next 4 years at Georgia College and State University in Milledgeville, GA as a DS/Libero. She was a member of the inaugural team as a freshman. During her time in college, she helped her team appear in 2 conference tournaments and achieve a regional ranking. She earned captainship by her teammates and coaches in her senior season.
Her coaching career began as the assistant coach to Coach Miller with the freshmen team in 2017. Since the end of that season, she has been an “as-needed” coach due to her full-time job that began March of 2018, but COVID has allowed her to work from home, which subsequently has allowed her to gain full-time status on the Norcross coaching staff again. She coached the 2020 season as the assistant varsity coach, where she contributed to a Region championship and state playoff appearance. She has also coached club at A5 Gwinnett since the 2017-2018 club year. She’s coached age ranges from 12-17, and currently is the 17-1’s assistant coach. College commitments of former players include Georgia State, Winthrop, Georgia College and State University, Lander University, Young Harris, and University of Montevallo. She graduated from Norcross in May of 2013 and received her Bachelor of Science in Exercise Science from Georgia College and State University in May of 2017. She is in the process of obtaining her Master of Business Administration from the University of Tennessee at Martin and currently works at Mizuno as a sales analyst on the strategic accounts team. |
JV
Head Coach - Karen Murray
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Karen Murray has played and coached volleyball for over 30 years. Her professional coaching career began in 1994 as Head Coach for Division II Merrimack College (Amhurst, MA) and took a traditionally winless program to a respectable adversary in just 2 years. Once relocated to Georgia, Murray began coaching again with Suwanee Sports Academy clinics and the Vertical One Volleyball Club 15 - 1's team in 2005 and most recently was Assistant Coach for GA5's 18-2's team. She has volunteered her time and coaching expertise to Peachtree Corners Baptist Church middle school league 2007 - present and has been part of the Norcross High staff since 2009. At Norcross she has served as Head JV Coach in 2009, Interim Head Varsity Coach in 2010, and Head JV Coach 2011-Present. In 2009, her JV squad won the Gwinnett County Championship. In 2011, JV was on the County Silver Bracket, and 2012 JV won their Area Tournament, came in 2nd in the Gwinnett County Championships and finished an impressive 32-6 overall. In 2013, the team went 27-4, winning the Gwinnett County Tournament as well as the Area Tournament for the second consecutive year.
Coach Murray is a proud to be a member of the Norcross/Peachtree Corners community. She often substitute teaches at Simpson Elementary as well as works part-time as an independent software consultant. Murray also owns Peachtree Volleyball, a company offering camps, clinics and private lessons to players of all ages. She is married to Brian Murray and has 2 children in the Norcross Cluster of the Gwinnett County Public Schools. In 2014, the JV squad went 27-11, winning their Area Tournament for the 3rd consecutive year |
Freshmen
Head Coach - Sarah Miller
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