LKN Volleyball Club's Leadership Team
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Al Arrington, President & Executive Director
Executive Director since its inception, Al began working with the former Lake Norman Volleyball Club in 2004 as an assistant coach. Al's passion for the game and persistence to always aim higher challenged him to spawn his own club out of the ashes of its predecessor. Through Al's hard work and leadership, the club quickly grew to 10 teams in its first year. Al holds a B.S. in Commerce with concentrations in Management and Information Systems from the University of Virginia's McIntire School of Commerce. He currently works as an IT consultant in the financial industry. Prior to jumping in to the world of high school club volleyball at LKN, Arrington was an active club volleyball player at the University of Virgina. Al and his wife, Victoria, live in Mooresville. They have a young daughter and two canine children, Abby and Ellee.
Katie Cook, Vice President & Director of Business Operations
Cook's focus on compliance, governance, and operational excellence provided the stability and structure needed to manage LKN's unprecedented growth during this time and led to her becoming the Associate Director in 2012. Cook's business background includes 6 years of running business operations for one of the fastest growing companies in the U.S. Her innovative approach to organizational development and business operations has helped distinguish LKN as a market leader in youth sports and national prominence among junior girls' volleyball clubs. Prior to her time spent in the business world, Cook served as a multi-year captain of her high school team, participated in six years of club volleyball in South Charlotte, and went on to play club volleyball for Virginia Tech. In addition to coaching for LKN, Cook also lead the SouthLake Christian volleyball program 2012-2014. Katie & her husband reside in Huntersville with their young children & two dogs.
Victoria Worthy Arrington, Director of Team Operations
From playing, to coaching, to leading, Victoria holds the longest tenure at LKN Volleyball Club! As an avid volleyball player throughout high school and club at UNCC, and also a professional, Victoria Worthy currently directs the Woodlawn School volleyball program. Four years ago, Victoria took a loosely organized program, introduced structure, discipline, conditioning and positional training. Her passion for the sport and coaching experience coupled with her dedication catapulted the Woodlawn School Volleyball program into a highly competitive HS team and an aggressively developing MS team. Victoria now serves as the Athletic Director at Woodlawn School. Prior to playing volleyball competitively at the club level, Victoria's High School Team, Jay M. Robinson, took Tournament, Conference Tournament, and District titles her senior year.
Andy Cook, Director of Community Relations
Cook's background includes a lifetime of playing baseball including at the collegiate level for William & Mary and at the professional level for The New York Mets Organization. His passion for coaching began with baseball and transitioned to volleyball in 2012 when he assisted his wife at the High School level. The same year, he began coaching at the club level and for the past consecutive seasons has continued to develop volleyball athletes in their fundamental skills, strategic court decisions, passion for the game, and overall leadership. Cook is an avid sports fanatic and practices anesthesia at a local Charlotte hospital.
Nick Bradick, Director of Strategic Leadership
Nick has over twenty-five years of experience providing leadership and technology & banking services to corporate and not-for-profit organizations. Mr. Bradick attended Florida State University undergraduate and graduate school and subsequently Rollins College completing a Master's of Science in Management degree. Additionally, he completed his 3 year School of Banking degree at University of Florida. Mr. Bradick has successfully constructed and managed large scale projects, business alliances and consulting engagements with IBM, Chase Manhattan Bank, Citicorp, Barclays Bank and Bank of America. The breadth of these engagements expanded his client's range of offerings thus extending their value equation to broader market segments, and leveraging alternative distribution channels. Now retired from consulting, Mr. Bradick was invited to be a Professor at the University of North Carolina, Charlotte Belk School of Business. He's also served as Chairman of the Board in the Echo Foundation (Charlotte, NC.), Myositis Association of America (Harrisonburg, VA) and served in several board positions with the Tower Group and the Sandbox Technical R &D Group. Nick & his wife, Helen, reside in Waxhaw, NC and have three daughters & five grandchildren.
Dave Rusk, Director of Boys Volleyball
Dave was a 3 sport athlete in high school- baseball, tennis, and wrestling. He started playing volleyball while attending Ball State University, eventually competing on the club volleyball team his Junior and Senior years. After college Dave played adult volleyball (indoors) for 20+ years competing in 2 USAV Nationals. In addition to indoor, he started playing beach in his early 20's after college competing in Open tournaments throughout his 20's and 30's in Indiana, Michigan, Illinois, Ohio, Kentucky and Florida. Between indoor and beach Dave has competed in well over 150 tournaments in his career (and he still plays today!) Over the years, Dave has coached many high school and club volleyball teams, but his home is LKN Volleyball Club where he leads the entire Beach program.
Wendy Rusk, Assistant Director of Boys Volleyball
As a previous collegiate volleyball player, Wendy has a passion to take her years of playing, coaching and athletic training to the youth in our area. Wendy started her career at Michigan State University playing indoors and then transitioned to beach volleyball after college. She has been coaching volleyball for over 10 years and with LKN Volleyball for the past 4 years as an indoor coach, sand coach, and athletic trainer. Wendy holds her certification from the National Association of Sports Medicine, is the Director of New Business Development for Revolution Retail, and is married with two daughters.