Bio

SMC’s head coach was a “triple threat” while a student at Niles High School, earning SMAC All-Conference honors in volleyball, basketball and softball.  Nate continued playing basketball and was captain of the volleyball team at Lake Michigan College, where she completed an associate degree. In 1997, she earned a certificate in medical transcription from Southwestern Michigan College and followed that in 2001 with a BA in Secondary English from Western Michigan University.

Nate teaches English at Niles High School and served as Varsity Volleyball Coach for ten years. During that time, her teams were some of the best in school history, winning three conference championships, two district championships and two regional championships, with two visits to the state quarterfinals. She was named Class B Coach of the Year for the State of Michigan by Volleyball Insider in 2017 and was the Region 10 Coach of the Year in both 2012 and 2017. In 2021, Nate’s Vikings finished with a record of 48-9, and she won Wolverine Conference Coach of the Year.

In her first year as Head Coach of the Roadrunners, and the first for the school in over 26 years, Nate took a team of all freshmen, who had played together for less than three weeks, to the Opening Weekend Tournament in Rockford, Illinois, and came back with a 5-1 record to start the season. The team finished fourth in the MCCAA Western Conference with a 5-7 record, qualified for the postseason Great Lakes District Tournament, where they won two games and finished the year 14-20 overall. 

In the offseason, Nate coaches the 17 Teal Elite team for the Dunes Volleyball Club of LaPorte, Indiana. She has also coached with Krush VBC and Southwest VBC, and has served as a YMCA basketball coach, Niles Nitro travel softball coach and MHSAA volleyball referee.