Central College Volleyball
Coaching Staff

Traci Dyer
Assistant Coach

Traci Dyer is in her third season on the Central volleyball staff.

Dyer, a 2008 Central graduate, was a two-time letterwinner for the Dutch and received the team’s 2007 Spirit Award. A San Antonio, Texas native, Dyer is completing requirements for a master’s degree in secondary education at Texas State Univ.

Dyer also serves as a secretary for the athletics department.

Tara Kohlhaas
Assistant Coach

Tara Kohlhaas is in her first season as an assistant volleyball coach at Central, working with the varsity and also serving as head junior varsity coach.

A former team co-captain at Kirkwood Community College, Kohlhaas led the Eagles to two fifth-place finishes in the National Junior College Athletic Association championship before graduating from the Univ. of South Carolina Upstate with a degree in physical education.

Kohlhaas was as an assistant coach and head of the junior varsity at Marion High School, helping guide the varsity to a second-place conference finish. She coached the freshman squad in 2009. Kohlhaas served as a junior varsity coach at Belle Plaine High School from 2003-05, before being named head coach in 2007. Earlier she was an assistant coach at Mount Mercy University.

Katie Whipple
Assistant Coach

Former Iowa Conference MVP Katie Pederson Whipple is in her second season as assistant volleyball coach at Central College.

Whipple, a 2006 Central graduate, was among 10 Division III finalists for the NCAA Woman of the Year Award for academic achievement, athletics excellence, service and leadership. She led the Dutch to four straight conference titles and three NCAA Division III tournament berths. She was a two-time all-conference honoree, a first-team all-Central Region and honorable mention all-America pick and was Central’s 2005 co-captain and team MVP.

Also a four-year women’s track and field letterwinner, Whipple won conference indoor and outdoor high jump titles in 2006 and was a two-time team co-captain.

On campus Whipple served as Student-Athlete Advisory Council president, was a student representative to the college board of trustees and was a Senior Honors Scholar and was involved in numerous mission activities. She received the all-college Prins Sportsmanship Award in 2006.

Whipple received a master’s degree in kinesiology from Iowa State Univ. and is a coordinator of the federal Educational Talent Search program at Central as well as an adjunct sociology instructor.