Coaches

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Eric Viney

Head Volleyball Coach
Defiance College ’02
erviney@dwu.edu
605-995-2855

In his fourth season with the Dakota Wesleyan University volleyball team, head coach Eric Viney is poised to help the Tigers break into the top half of the always-tough Great Plains Athletic Conference.

After two 13-win seasons, DWU picked up 10 wins in Viney’s third season with the Tigers. Dakota Wesleyan went 10-24 in 2010 and finished 10th in the GPAC.

The Tigers won back-to-back games at the Sioux Falls Tournament against Waldorf College and Valley City State University in early September. DWU also won back-to-back matches when it beat Presentation College and Mount Marty College in September, and again when it defeated Mount Marty College for a second time and Bethany Lutheran College in October.

Dakota Wesleyan won four GPAC games, including two wins against Mount Marty and one against both Concordia University and Midland University. Dakota Wesleyan beat the Warriors 3-2 during the regular season in Fremont, Neb., but lost 3-0 in the first round of the GPAC Postseason Tournament in early November.

The Tigers made history in September when they brought volleyball to the World’s Only Corn Palace for the first time. Dakota Wesleyan hosted its first-ever Corn Palace Classic, a two-day tournament that featured five college teams as well as three high school games. The Tigers went 1-3 at their home tournament, beating Kansas Wesleyan University 3-2.

Under Viney’s direction, two DWU athletes earned All-GPAC honors in 2010. Senior Ashley Kley earned All-GPAC Honorable Mention accolades after leading the team in kills and finishing second on the team in digs. She graduated sixth on the school’s all-time kills chart with 979 kills. She is also seventh on the all-time digs list with 1,087.

Junior Brooke Warne also earned All-GPAC Honorable Mention status. She led the team in digs and is currently 13th on the school’s all-time digs list with 710. Warne was also one of five volleyball players to earn NAIA Scholar-Athlete status. Kara Robertson, Kacie Sanderson, Wendy Schmaltz and Kalissa Wade were also honored.

Viney is now 36-69 in three seasons with DWU after a 13-22 campaign in 2008 and a 13-23 record in 2009. Before joining the Tigers, Viney was the head volleyball coach at Oklahoma Panhandle State University for two years. Before coaching at OPSU, Viney spent two years as a graduate assistant at North Dakota State University in Fargo, N.D.

Viney also spent two seasons coaching at Marietta College (Ohio). In 2002, he was hired as an assistant volleyball coach at the school. He took over head coaching duties in 2003 and found immediate success. Marietta finished 18-13 that season and recorded the school’s first win in the Ohio Athletic Conference Postseason Tournament since 1987. For his performance, Viney was named the OAC’s Coach of the Year.

He got his start in coaching as a student at Defiance College (Ohio), where he served as a student assistant coach for the women’s volleyball teams during his junior and senior seasons. Viney graduated from Defiance in 2002 with a bachelor’s degree in sport management and a minor in marketing.

Volleyball has been a constant for Viney throughout his life. His father was an alternate for the Men’s USA National Team in the 1980s, and his mother was the head girls’ volleyball coach at Carroll High School (Ohio), where she also started a boys’ program.

Viney came to South Dakota with ties to the state. His wife, Sigourney, is a Redfield, S.D., native. They live in Mitchell.

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Dannie Burt

Assistant Volleyball Coach

Dannie Burt is in the second year of his second stint as a Tiger assistant volleyball coach. He has coached volleyball at various youth levels for a number of years, including five years as the coach of a junior Olympic team in Marshall, Minn., and he has also coached park and recreation teams in Sioux Falls, S.D. He helped coach the South Central Gold, a club volleyball program in Mitchell, this past season.

The Marshall, Minn., native is majoring in sports management and working toward his coaching endorsement in volleyball, basketball, and track and field.

Burt has two daughters, ages 20 and 15. He currently lives in Tea, S.D.

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Carina Fesenmaier

Volunteer Assistant Coach
Dakota Wesleyan ’11

Carina Fesenmaier begins her first season as a volunteer assistant coach for the Tiger volleyball team after two successful seasons with the team.

Fesenmaier transferred to Dakota Wesleyan University after two seasons at Ridgewater College, and she graduated in 2011 with the fourth-most assists in school history after just two seasons. She recorded 1,925 assists and earned All-GPAC Honorable Mention honors once in her two seasons with the Tigers. She also recorded 499 digs, 123 kills, 64 blocks and 69 service aces.

At Ridgewater College, Fesenmaier led the Warriors to two straight NJCAA Division III National Championship matches, two Region XIII titles, two conference titles and a state title. She averaged 10.14 assists per game and led the Warriors to a 60-19 record.

Fesenmaier, a St. Cloud, Minn., native, graduated with a degree in sport, exercise and wellness.