Meet Our Coaches
Troy Plummer
Athletic Director
Plummer received his BA in Business Management/Athletic Administration (double major) from Simpson College and his MS in Sport Management from Western Illinois University. Troy has been named the MCC Athletic Director of the Year twice.
He’s very excited about the growth of our sports programs, commenting,“At a time when many colleges are dropping athletic programs, we are adding athletic opportunities for our students. We are also unique in the fact that we can offer athletic scholarships, which allows us to compete at a very high level athletically while still maintaining our commitment to the individual student’s academic success.”
He played baseball at Simpson and was an outfielder and pitcher in the Division III World Series in 1991. Troy is a big sports enthusiast and enjoys watching baseball and playing golf. But his favorite thing to do is spend time with his wife, Amy, and three children.
Baseball - Lou Yacinich
Lou Yacinich
Baseball Coach
Lou Yacinich, in his third decade as the Viking head coach, has compiled a 900-607 record (1048-799 overall). From 1971-76 Grand View competed at the Junior College level, and Yacinich guided his teams to a state championship (1974) and two state runners-up (1975, 1976), with many team members going on to compete at major colleges and universities and some playing professionally.
Coach Yacinich is a member of the Iowa High School Baseball Coaches Hall of Fame, the NAIA Baseball Hall of Fame, and the Grand View Athletic Hall of Fame. He also serves as the Director of Athletic Advancement at Grand View.
Under Coach Yacinich Grand View teams have claimed…
Seven District 15 titles, Six Midwest Collegiate Conference Championships, Four Area Championships, One Region VII Championship and Participated in the NAIA World Series four times.
Yacinich was Coach of the Year…
District 15 nine times, Midwest Collegiate Coach of the Year six times , Midwest Region Coach of the Year two times.
Bowling - Gary Gioffredi
Gary Gioffredi
Bowling Coach
Gioffredi, a Grand View alumnus, earned multiple top-five state awards for singles, doubles and teams before the age of 12 and basically "grew up in the bowling alley" with his family. He played football and baseball for the Des Moines Lincoln Railsplitters and baseball for Grand View. He played centerfield and pitched for the Vikings and was a member of the 1991 World Series Team. Following graduation from Grand View, Gioffredi returned to competitive bowling. Since that time, he has consistently averaged over 200 and has bowled three sanctioned 300 games. He has bowled and placed at the National Bowling Tournament in Reno, Nevada, along with multiple state tournaments.
The inaugural year for the Vikings was a successful one, with several top ten finishes for the men's and women's teams. 2011 looks to be exciting with the addition of several of the top bowlers from the state of Iowa to both rosters.
Cross Country & Track - Jerry Monner
Jerry Monner
Cross Country and Track
Coach Monner begins his eighth year as the men's and women's track & field coach at Grand View. Under his leadership, the Vikings have won 16 conference championships in track & field. In just seven years at Grand View, Monner has coached 114 individual conference champions, 23 conference champion relay teams, produced 128 NAIA individual national qualifiers, 12 NAIA national qualifying relay teams, 35 NAIA All-Americans and four NAIA National Champions.
Along with his track & field and cross country coaching duties Monner has served as the track & field chair for the Midwest Collegiate Conference and is on the NAIA Indoor Games Committee. He also holds memberships with USA Track & Field and the National Throws Coaches Association.
He brings an impressive background to the Viking program after spending two years as head cross country and track & field coach at the University of Minnesota-Morris. Earlier he served as a graduate assistant track and field coach at Loras College and as assistant track and field coach at Iowa Wesleyan College. Monner received his bachelor's degree in sports management and physical education from Iowa Wesleyan and his master's degree in athletic administration at Loras College.
Football - Mike Woodley
Mike Woodley
Football Coach
Head Coach Mike Woodley's name is synonymous with athletics in Iowa. He's spent nearly three decades coaching in the state: graduate assistant at the University of Iowa, head coach at St. Ambrose University, coaching positions at several Iowa high schools, including Fort Dodge and West Des Moines Valley, and nine years as assistant coach at Iowa State University. Before coming to Grand View, he spent four years as the athletic director and head football coach at Sam Rayburn High School in Houston, Texas. All four of his sons are involved in coaching.
Coach Woodley heads into his fifth season with the Vikings.
In 2011, he led Grand View to an 8-4 overall record and the Vikings went 6-1 in conference play for its first MSFA Midwest League title. Grand View made its first NAIA National Championship appearance in 2011 and was ranked as the No. 16 team in the nation in the 2012 NAIA Spring Top 25 Poll. Woodley was selected as 2011 MSFA Coach of the Year and 19 players were named to the MSFA Midwest All-Conference Teams. Woodley was also the MSFA Coach of the Year in 2009 has produced five All-Americans at Grand View.
Coach Woodley is an inductee to the Iowa High School Football Coaches Association Hall of Fame, and is a Hall of Fame member of the University of Northern Iowa, where he was an All-American, and at Waterloo East High School. He has won Coach of the Year honors at each school he has coached and was the NAIA District 15 Coach of the Year while at St. Ambrose after his team earned a victory over IAA power Western Illinois.
Golf - Chris Winkel
Chris Winkel
Men's and Women's Golf
Coach Winkel brings an impressive background to the Vikings program. A PGA professional for 12 years, he was named Iowa's PGA "Player of the Year" in both 1999 and 2003, is a three-time Iowa PGA section champion, and has competed in three PGA tour events.
Men's Basketball - Denis Schaefer
Denis Schaefer
Basketball Coach
Coach Schaefer's teams have made NAIA National Tournament appearances in 2000, 2001, 2009, and 2010. The 2000 season ended with an Elite Eight appearance and, in 2009, the Vikings advanced to the Sweet 16. He has coached two MCC Players of the Year, and multiple All-Conference, Academic All-Conference, All-American, and Academic All-American players.
Men's Soccer - Blair Reid
Blair Reid
Men's Soccer
Blair Reid, men's head soccer coach, was instrumental in getting soccer in Iowa as a state sanctioned high school sport. In 2001, he was inducted into the Iowa High School Soccer Coaches Hall of Fame; he is also a member of the Grand View Hall of Fame.
At Grand View, Reid has coached the Vikings to 13 MCC championships, 9 MCC Tournament Championships, one district championship, and seven national tournament appearances. The Vikings advanced to the quarterfinals of the NAIA National Tournament in both 2010 and 2011. He has been named MCC Coach of the Year seven times, NAIA District 15 coach of the year eight times, and Region VII Coach of the three times. In September of 2010, Reid won his 300th and is one of the winningest coaches in the NAIA.
Men's Volleyball - Donan Cruz
Donan Cruz
Men's Volleyball
The inaugural men's volleyball team at Grand View made its debut in 2011 lead by head coach Donan Cruz. The Vikings are already recognized as one of the top men's volleyball teams in the nation, ranked in the NAIA Top Ten for most of the 2011-12 season. Grand View's first season was highlighted by an upset of then-undefeated and top-ranked St. Ambrose.
Cruz has been an assistant coach with the Viking women's volleball program for the past three seasons. During this time, the program has become the top team in the Midwest Collegiate Conference, winning the MCC regular season and tournament titles in 2011 and making the program's first appearance at the NAIA National Tournament. Cruz will continue to assist the women's team in the fall, as well as coach the men who compete in the spring. Cruz has been a co-coach and skills trainer with the Iowa Power Volleyball Alliance for the past three years. He also served as head coach for the varsity boy's volleyball team at the University of Hawaii Lab School in 2008. Cruz played his college career at Graceland University where he was an outside hitter and defensive specialist for the Yellowjackets. He was the team captain his junior and senior seasons.
Tennis - Bob Peterson
Bob Peterson
Tennis
Bob Peterson joined the Viking coaching staff in the Fall of 2012. Peterson has an extensive background in tennis and longtime presence in the Des Moines area community. He has been instructing tennis for over 20 years, most recently as the Head Professional at both the Aspen Athletic Club and Echo Valley Country Club in the Des Moines area. Prior to his Head Professional stints, Peterson was the Director of Tennis at both the Des Moines Golf & Country Club and Ames Racquet & Fitness Center. His certifications include a United States Professional Tennis Association (USPTA) Classification of Level 1 and Classification of Professional Tennis Registry (highest rating).
As a player, Peterson won two Iowa High School State Singles Championships and also competed in the Iowa High School State Doubles Championships. He played tennis for NCAA Div I University of Louisville on scholarship where he was co-captain and on the Top-50 Team.
Peterson holds a Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Louisville where he competed at the collegiate level. He resides in West Des Moines with his wife Kayla and their two children Ryan and Kelsie who both compete on the tennis teams at West Des Moines Valley High School. Ryan will join the Viking tennis team in the fall of 2013.
Wrestling - Nick Mitchell
Nick Mitchell
Wrestling Coach
Head Wrestling Coach Nick Mitchell came to Grand View after serving as the assistant wrestling coach at Wartburg College for eight seasons. His squads collected three national dual and team championships and were the runners-up three times.
Making National Championship appearances in its first four years of existence, the Grand View Viking wrestling team hosted the 2012 NAIA Wrestling Championships, finished the season undefeated and are National Champions in 2012! GV also came home with an 8th place team finish in 2009, a 9th place in 2010, and 5th place in 2011. The Vikings have crowned five individual National Champions in Matt Burns (2009, 2011) and Glenn Rhees (2010), Omi Acosta (2012), and Eric Thompson (2012). Thompson was also the 2012 NAIA National Wrestler of the Year.
Mitchell wrestled his college career at Wartburg, where he was a three-time Iowa Conference champion and three-time NCAA Division III All-American. Individually, he finished second at the national championships once, was third twice, and was a part of the 1999 national championship team. Mitchell, a Johnston native, graduated from Wartburg in 2000 and completed his Master's in Education at Viterbo.
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