INTRODUCING OUR STAFF & COACHES 

Erin Onken is the Varsity Coach at Portage Northern High School.  She has been coaching for 19 years and in her first five seasons at Northern, her team has won two SMAC conference championships, four District titles and a Regional Championship. Additionally, Erin has been named the MIVCA Region 11 Coach of the Year in 2023 & 2024 at Northern and also has been named the MHSCA 2024 Coach of the Year. 

In her nine seasons as Varsity coach at Schoolcraft High School, her teams collected nine conference championships, eight Districts titles, five Regional titles and three State Runner Up finishes, while being named Regional Coach of the year three times.  Before landing the Schoolcraft position, Erin coached at Parchment High School for three years and Fennville High School for two.

Erin graduated from Parchment High School where she competed in volleyball, basketball and softball. Then continued her education and played volleyball at KVCC and Lake Superior State. She resides in Schoolcraft with her family and dogs. Her daughter Kayla just graduated from Grand Valley State University and her son Beau works full time in construction. Aside from coaching, Erin works from home as an office administrator for her husband’s residential construction company.

Erin loves coaching at Dead Frog because of the high level of training all athletes receive, the level of energy and commitment shown by the athletes, the collaboration of the coaching staff and being surrounded by players and coaches who share a growth mindset.  The Dead Frog gym is a place where you can be yourself and grow as an athlete, teammate and a coach, if you're willing to be challenged and put in the work.

Judy Mason has been the Head Coach at Kellogg Community College since winter of 2023, after spending many years as an assistant within the program. Mason has coached at all levels throughout her volleyball coaching career, middle school, AAU club, and at the high school level.  Her goals include inspiring discipline that respects the game of volleyball and developing young athletes both academically and athletically to succeed at their next level of play. 

In her third season as head coach, Mason led the team to a 18-14 record overall, and 8-4 record in the MCCAA Western Conference. The team also qualified for the NJCAA Region XII Great Lakes District Tournament for the third consecutive year.

This is Coach Mason’s first season with Dead Frog and she’s excited to help her team learn and grow.

Lizzie Britner is from Indianapolis, IN. In high school she played in the AAU National Championship with Team Indiana and a State Semi-Final with Roncalli High School. Lizzie then went on to play 4 years of Division I volleyball at IPFW where she was named Defensive Player of the Week, Academic All League and Team Captain. After graduating she coached with Team Indiana and Summit Volleyball Club before coming to Dead Frog in 2020. Lizzie has been with our national program as both an assistant and head coach. Last season with Dead Frog, she helped lead 17 Black to several tournament championships. She also assisted the varsity team at Otsego High School in the 2023 season, which included a co-conference championship, District Championship and Regional Runner Up. Lizzie works in the real estate industry and lives in Kalamazoo

Dawn Jaqua graduated from Portage Central High School and went on to play at KVCC. While finishing her degree at WMU, she coached varsity at Otsego High School for 3 years and was the assistant coach at Kalamazoo College for 2 seasons.  She continued her collegiate coaching career as an assistant coach at Western Michigan University under Coach Cathy George. She was the head coach at Portage Central High School for 20 years, where she had an impressive career including over 800 wins, 15 conference titles, 2 regional championships and 1 runner up finish in the 2009 state finals. She has run the national program for Dead Frog for several seasons and is in her fifth year as a co-Director. Dawn is also the main Lead Coach for the national and elite teams.

Madison Jaqua is a Dead Frog alumni and new to the coaching staff this year. She graduated from Portage Central High School, where she was a four-year varsity player. She then went on to play 4 years of Division I volleyball at IPFW where she was named Offensive Player of the Week, Academic All-League and Team Captain. She coached at Summit Volleyball Club for 3 years during her time in Fort Wayne. During the 2024 club season, Madison was the assistant coach for our 17 Black team that placed 3rd at MEQs and won a bid to USAV Nationals in Las Vegas. Madison works in the real estate industry and lives in Grand Rapids. 

Annemarie Bates attended Portage Northern High School. She played collegiately at the University of Pittsburgh for former USA Olympic Silver medalist Sue Woodstra.  During her time at Pitt, Annie won 4 Big East Championships and competed in the NCAA tournament each of those years. She was named First Team Big East All-Conference. While in Pittsburgh she also coached with Pittsburgh Nike Elite VBC. After graduating, she was an assistant coach at Eastern Kentucky University. She then received the opportunity to come home and coach at Western Michigan University under Head Coach Cathy George, where the team won a MAC championship. Annie has coached with Dead Frog VB since 2014. She met her husband Clayton while working at WMU and they have two daughters Lyse and Sydney.

Gabriella is a Dead Frog alumni and graduated from Mattawan high school. She earned many accolades during her time as a Wildcat. She then went on to play at Kalamazoo Valley Community College (KVCC) for 2 years before signing to Albion college. She stepped away from volleyball to start her family and had her first daughter in the Spring of 2019, and then went on to play at Western Michigan University (WMU) on their club team that Fall 2019. 

She has previous coaching experience as the JV coach at Paw Paw High School and at Kalamazoo Central High School as the JV coach as well. 

Along with her volleyball background, Gabriella's educational background is rooted in sports nutrition and overall fitness. She received her Master’s in Dietetics and Nutrition from Marshall University and also completed an internship at WMU with their football nutrition and sports performance program. She has since passed both her Registered/Licensed Dietitian Nutritionist and Certified Personal Training exams and plans to bring her expertise in those areas into coaching.

Ryann Jaqua is a Dead Frog alumni and entering her third year on the coaching staff. She graduated from Portage Central High School, where she was First Team All Conference two years in a row, a Miss Volleyball Candidate and team captain. Ryann continued on to play D1 volleyball at The University of Toledo for 5 years. She was named Second Team all MAC and is a 3x team captain. Ryann has run multiple camps at The University of Toledo while also helping out with local clubs in Toledo and high school teams.

Outside of the gym, Ryann lives in the Kalamazoo area and works in the real estate industry. She also got engaged over the summer. 

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