FOUNDERS AND DIRECTORS

JESS PAPELL

Jess Papell founded Prime Volleyball Club in 2012 and continues to oversee all aspects of the club.

Most recently Jess led her 14 adidas Orange squad to Prime's first ever Gold Medal and National Championship at USAV Junior National Championships in 2024! She's coached 7 Prime teams who have earned USAV GJNC bids and 4 Prime squads who have won Gold Medals at USAV Qualifiers in the USA and Liberty Divisions! Jess led her 2021 16 adidas squad to a gold medal finish at Volleyball Festival where they went undefeated with a 10-0 record.  In 9 seasons at the helm of San Juan Hills High School Volleyball she led the Stallions to 5 South Coast League Championships and continually raised the level of the program as a whole over the course of her time at San Juan Hills to become one of the most competitive high school volleyball programs in all of Orange County.

Jess currently coaches for the USA Volleyball National Team Development Program where she mentors top athletes from across the country at the NTDP Training Series events and has for the last decade. She has coached over 100 athletes who have gone on to play at the college level.

While at the helm of ITVC in Seattle, WA the club grew from 4 teams to 10 teams and the club had 4 teams qualify for the USAV Junior National Championships, 2 in the Open Division, for the first time in club history. She led her 2010 17s team to a bid in the Open Division of the Junior National Championships with a 5th place Open finish at the Far Western Qualifier.

RON LARSEN

Ron Larsen has been our Director of Training and a Head Coach at Prime for the last six seasons. Ron has led 3 different Prime teams to top USAV Qualifier finishes that earned them bids to the USAV Junior National Championships including his 2018 squad who finished 5th in 18 USA with a 6-1 record.

Ron was a full time coach with our USA Men’s Olympic Team for 8 years and has coached the USA Men at multiple Olympic Games including the 2008 Beijing Games where his USA team won Gold! Ron continues to work with our USA Men's National team most recently he assisted Team USA at the 2022 Pan American Games and Pan American Cup this summer.

Ron is the former Womens' Head Coach at UC Riverside and Mens' Head Coach at UC San Diego and has 20 plus years of collegiate coaching experience including 17 as a Head Coach. Ron was inducted into the EIVA Hall of Fame in 2019 due to his successful 7 year stint Head Coaching both the Men's and Women's teams at Rutgers University in New Jersey.

LYNN BLEVINS

Lynn is our Associate Club Director at Prime along with our Youth Development Director as she runs all of our camps, clinics, youth development programs, and the Ladera Volleyball League. This is Lynn's eleventh season coaching 12s at Prime! She has led her 12s teams to great success with consistent gold division finishes along with qualifying for the Premier Volleyball League and finishing in the top 24 teams in SoCal for the last three seasons highlighted by a 15th place finish at the PVL Championships in 2022. Lynn has led 5 different Prime 12s squads to top 20 Volleyball Festival finishes including a 4th place finish in 2015 and a 6th place finish with a 10-1 record and a division championship in 2022.

Lynn was a four year starter at Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo from 1982-1985, a Division 1 Asics All American, and was drafted in 1987 to play in the inaugural season of Women’s Major League Professional Volleyball. She served as the Head Women’s and Men’s Coach at Eastern Montana State College and both played and coached at a professional club in Belgium for four years. Lynn was the Varsity Head Coach at Paradise Valley HS in Arizona from 2001-2007, while also serving as a Head Coach and Co-Director at Arizona Volleyball Academy. We're so happy that the Blevins family decided to return to Southern California and join our Prime Fam! Lynn's daughter Jade played at Prime for 5 seasons before going on to play in the Pac 12 for the Cal Berkeley Golden Bears and Lynn's daughter Alissa returns for her 5th season coaching at Prime!

CHRISTY STOECKEL

Christy Stoeckel is both our College Recruiting Coordinator and a Head Coach at Prime. Christy has been coaching club for 27 seasons and it’s her 6th year with Prime. A highlight of her coaching experience is winning a Gold Medal at Junior National Championships in 2013 with 3 players named as All-Americans and most recently winning a Gold Medal in the 15 Liberty division at the Mid-East Qualifier with her 15 adidas Orange squad. Christy’s teams have had multiple top 8 finishes at events such as Las Vegas Classic, National Qualifiers, and Volleyball Festival. Christy has helped over 100 players achieve their dream of playing college volleyball as both a coach and Recruiting Directo. She was honored with the “Distinguished Service to Junior Volleyball” award at the 2011 Volleyball Festival and had led four different teams to top 15 finishes at Volleyball Festival.

MICHELLE FELICIANO

Michelle has been playing and coaching volleyball for the past 12 years. She started playing club volleyball at the age of 11 and played for Prime during the 2017-18 club season. Michelle and her 18s team earned a bid to the Junior National Championships that year. Michelle played for the University of Denver for 4 seasons where she graduated from with a Bachelors degree in Biology. She then played a fifth season of collegiate volleyball for Concordia University Irvine where she got to reconnect and play with former Prime teammates where she earned her Masters in Coaching and Athletic Administration. After finishing her playing career Michelle joined the Concordia coaching staff and rejoined the Prime Fam as a coach. If Michelle is not near a volleyball court, she enjoys going to the beach or heading up the mountains to snowboard.