Kelly Brierley
Bio
For Kelly Brierley volleyball is both a personal passion and a family tradition, spanning more than two decades. Her father, Bill Milborn, founded Club Fusion in 1999, and Kelly has lived and breathed volleyball since, both as a player and a coach.
Kelly began playing club ball at the age of 12 for Sky High in Crystal Lake, and she eventually moved to Club Fusion in 1999 when it opened. She was also a four-year varsity player at Prairie Ridge High School in Crystal Lake and eventually played collegiate volleyball as a middle at both Kishwaukee College, where she was part of a team that won the national championship, and South Carolina Upstate for one year.
Since 2004 Kelly has been coaching volleyball, beginning with a six-year tenure at Harvard High School, where her team made IHSA state appearances in 2004, 2005 and 2009. In 2005 Kelly was named Northwest Herald Coach of the Year. In 2012 and 2014 Kelly coached at Prairie Ridge High School, and she also coached the 13s to 16s age group at Club Fusion for 16 seasons.
Kelly is both the executive director and founder of Mission Volleyball, a club she created in 2020 with the intention of building a new kind of volleyball club, one where athletic excellence and high-quality training would not come at the cost of enthusiasm for and love of the game, as well as camaraderie among players. In her own volleyball career, she witnessed the burnout and toll that an aggressive focus on athletic performance, without respect for the whole player and the relationships among players, took on many young female athletes, and her dream was to create a volleyball club that emphasized high performance athletics while also supporting young female athletes in an environment that fosters respect among players and coaches and builds lifelong friendships as well.
She is thrilled every time a Mission athlete describes her club as “feeling different” than other clubs – it means her vision for inclusivity, camaraderie, mutual respect and appreciation is coming to life, while also delivering on quality training so that girls can achieve their highest volleyball potential.
“I feel truly blessed to be a part of Mission. Volleyball is such a passion of mine that I love sharing it with others. I have made so many lifelong relationships throughout my volleyball and coaching career. Watching a player develop the skill set needed to compete in volleyball and developing relationships through coaching is what makes coaching so special to me.”
– Coach Kelly