It’s about time the spotlight found Jo Ellen Stringer again.
In a 33-year career, the former head coach of the women’s volleyball team at Jefferson College led the Vikings to 1,262 victories, the most in the history of National Junior College Athletic Association volleyball. It also made her the winningest coach, at any level in any sport.
In December the NJCAA announced that for the first time since its founding in 1938, it would recognize the achievements of its all-time winningest coaches – including Stringer – with the Coaches Legacy Award. Almost 200 coaches from 28 different sports were nominated by member institutions. Stringer was put forward by Jeffco field house coordinator Marie Self, who witnessed many a Stringer W.
Stringer reached every career milestone with the exception of a national championship. Her career winning percentage was .760 (1,262 wins, 399 losses) and she led the Vikings to 27 Midwest Community College Athletic Conference titles and 19 regional championships. The Vikings advanced to the national tournament 21 times, more than for any other coach in the country, and finished in the top eight in 13 trips. In 2000, Stringer received the Robert L. Lindsay Meritorious Service Award from USA Volleyball, the sport’s national governing body.
“She poured everything she had into her teams, on and off the court, and helped shape the lives of countless student-athletes,” Self said in a press release from the college. “This recognition is so well deserved, and we’re beyond proud to see her honored in this way.”
A native of De Soto, Stringer and her husband Bob live in Washington, Mo. Before starting her coaching career, she graduated from Jefferson College and Southeast Missouri State University. After her coaching career ended, she was the athletic director at Jeffco for two years. Stringer said she won’t be able to attend the award reception in Charlotte, N.C. in June, but the college will honor her this fall at a volleyball match.
Part of the reason Stringer isn’t picking up her award in person is because she cares for the current Viking head coach’s three children. Aida Steiger was an All-American player under Stringer before winning all-conference honors at St. Louis University. Steiger, who is from Lithuania, served as an assistant under Stringer and then succeeded her as the head coach. Steiger has a master’s degree in sports management from Missouri Baptist University and teaches in the Health and Physical Education Department.
“Aida is doing a very good job,” Stringer said. “It’s not the same ballgame. Her job is 10 times more challenging than mine ever was. The funding is less, more schools are offering scholarships. Something I noticed at the latter part of my career was kids were getting burned out from club ball.”
Stringer played volleyball at De Soto for Gwen Lewis, starting in junior high. At that time there were no club teams and no libero position on defense.
“(There were) eight players on a team, no such thing as a bump, (and) you were allowed two contacts (on the ball), so you could set yourself,” she said.
When Stringer told me that, I thought what a great idea it would be to bring back self-setting. You could fool the opposition in any number of ways. A teammate rushes to spike a high set, but wait, the second contact gets tipped gently across the net, where the defense can’t return volley. Sounds good to me.
Stringer talked about how the coaching years became decades and how she still loves the sport.
“I worked very hard making sure my players had opportunities to play beyond Jefferson College if they chose to,” she said. “Our graduation and transfer rate was very high.”
Also, the way she recruited changed throughout the years.
“Originally the players were local, (along with) kids from the southern part of the state,” she said. “The competition started recruiting internationally, and we did, too. I found it added a dimension to our education. It made my teams more worldly and I think it’s a positive thing.”
Stringer said each team she coached added something special.
“We played for national championships at a time (when) we had mostly local kids. We went to nationals quite a bit. The last four or five years it was hard because we didn’t have the scholarships to match (Missouri State) West Plains.”
Stringer rode the banquet circuit for years collecting awards and representing Jefferson College volleyball. She’s content these days with being a nanny for one of the best players she ever coached. And she’s grateful for her latest accolade.
“It’s always nice to be recognized for the efforts you’ve made in life. I was lucky enough to start coaching college at a time when a young coach could do anything to learn from it.”