Jared Sliger enters his eighth season as head volleyball coach at Northwest Nazarene University. Sliger was hot on the recruiting trail last year looking to replace the 5 seniors, including perennial starter Kailey Trautmann. With the addition of nine new faces, the Crusaders are going to be spending some time in the preseason with wearing nametags. “It should be interesting,” noted Sliger, “but interesting can be fun.”
Sliger, a 1991 graduate of NNU in English Education, returned to his alma mater in 2005 after serving as the head assistant coach at the University of Oregon from 2000 to 2002, and as an assistant at the University of Idaho from 1998 to 2000.
Prior to beginning his collegiate coaching career, Sliger coached and served as director of the Kern River Volleyball Club in Bakersfield, California from 1992 until he left for the University of Idaho in 1998. During his tenure with the Kern River Club, Sliger guided his teams to a second place finish at the Kaeppa Volleyball Festival in Sacramento, California in the Under Sixteen division and a fifth place finish in the Under Twelve Division at the same festival.
In addition to his team coaching duties, Sliger has built one of the most successful summer camp lineups in the Northwest. The NNU Volleyball Team Camp has grown to over thirty teams. For more information on NNU Volleyball camps visit
http://nnuvolleyballcamp.com. Sliger conducts camps during the summer on the campus of Northwest Nazarene University and at high schools all over the Northwest.
Sliger lives in Caldwell with his wife Lisa (Erickson) a 2001 graduate of NNU, and their two kids Paxton (2yr), and Fletcher (1yr).
“Several other coaches have impacted who I am as a coach, most notably are Carl Ferreira and Darlene Brasch. Carl has become a rock for me and helped me regain my perspective as a coach and mentor of young lives. Darlene has been a role model for me,” said Sliger. “In fact she was an instrumental part of leading me to Christ in the summer of 1988. I have known Darlene since1980, and only hope I can change lives for Christ like Darlene did while she was coaching here.”
“Coaching at NNU has been a dream come true for me”, commented Sliger. “Being at this university allows me to coach the entire player. I am constantly striving to learn how Christ would coach. In the last couple of seasons I have really changed my philosophy and this program is ready to take the next step. I hope the direction of that step is toward Christ, toward lifelong friendships, and toward irreplaceable volleyball memories.”
