OUTLAW VOLLEYBALL CLUB - Key Persons
I'm Audrey Bartee. I was born in Louisville, Kentucky but grew up in Kaiserslautern, Germany. I didn't start playing volleyball until 14 years old starting my sophomore year in high school. I moved to Killeen, Texas in 2008 where I graduated high school in 2010 at Robert M Shoemaker High School.
I got accepted into Huston-Tillotson University where I tried out for the volleyball team under Coach Kaase and played all 4 years from Fall 2010 - Fall 2013. I graduated in 2014 with a Bachelor of Arts in Kinesiology Human Performance. In 2020 I received my Masters of Public Health.
Volleyball was new to me at 14, it became a sport I loved and have played continuously over the years. After graduating from HTU and moved back to Killeen, I started coaching in 2015 for a local club team. After that season I took a long break, as there were not many teams in the area. Once I move back to Austin after many years I made a post about missing volleyball and coaching, Coach Kaase reached out to me to come and coach at Outlaw Volleyball Club and I never looked back.
I am so excited to work with these young ladies and help them develop and enhance their skills as they continue to grow as volleyball players. I look forward to this upcoming season with the James Gang 15!
Grady has been coaching volleyball for several years at multiple age levels. He previously coached in the YMCA recreational league. The 2023 season was his second year as assistant coach for both the elementary and junior high teams at St. Mary's Catholic School in Taylor. He also served as assistant coach for the St. Mary's high school team during the 2023 season.
While his background is baseball (scholarship athlete at UTSA), Grady's love for especially beach volleyball dates back to the early 1990s. Indeed, he had planned to play volleyball in high school (instead of football in the Fall), but unfortunately the school district ultimately decided not to authorize a men's team.
Grady enjoys coaching kids and helping them develop life skills and good character in addition to their athletic abilities. He comes from a family of athletes and coaches and hopes to pass along the wisdom and life-lessons he has learned from his grandfather (college football player and coach), father (college football player), and brother (college and professional baseball player), as well as from his own days as a competitive athlete.
Though he is a licensed attorney (since 2005), Grady no longer practices law, but instead, has recently begun a second career as a teacher. He has a master's degree in theology and is currently a candidate for a PhD in spirituality. He has held teaching positions in the areas of theology, spirituality, and religious studies and has taught at the high school, undergraduate, and graduate levels.
Grady is married with five children. He likes hunting, fishing, riding mountain bikes, but most of all, snow skiing and is looking forward to working with the James Gang 15 team this year.
Hi! I'm Kenzie Harkins. I am from Elgin, TX where I started playing volleyball in elementary school (leagues, camps, you name it and I was there). I played all four high school years at Elgin High, and also played for a couple different clubs. I played for the Outlaw Volleyball Club as a defensive specialist and hitter. I decided to not pursue volleyball in college (big regret), and instead went to Texas State to get a bachelors degree. I continued to play in some rec leagues, as well as sand volleyball.
I am now back in Elgin, TX where I am teaching the first grade in McDade. This will be my second season coaching with Kaase and the Outlaw Volleyball Club program. I am very happy to be back in the volleyball world and I can't wait to have a great season with the Banditos-12 and Sundance Kids-14!
The Outlaw Volleyball Club was founded in 1991 by Ronnie Kaase, Phil Christiansen, and Carter Roesch and is currently directed by Ronnie Kaase. Kaase resides in Austin, Texas and has one son Jacob who played professional baseball for an independent team in Marion, IL, for 1 year and with the Texas Rangers minor league system for 4 years. He has a BA in Kinesiology in the Human Performance discipline from Huston-Tillotson University and a Masters in Sports Administration from Liberty University in Virginia.
Kaase spent eleven years at Huston-Tillotson University (HT), a small Historically Black College and University (HBCU) as the Head Women's Volleyball Coach, Sports Information Director, and Director of their NAIA Champions of Character (COC) program on campus. While at HT he was able to graduate 54 out of 98 student-athletes in the volleyball program and was moving into the teaching mode as an associate professor of Kinesiology.
Kaase has been involved with the sport of volleyball since 1978 as a player, official, and coach. He holds a national ranking with the USAV as both a referee and scorer and retired in 2008 as an FIVB International Beach Volleyball Referee. Kaase earned the honor of working in two Olympic Games, 1996 in Atlanta, GA, and 2004 in Athens, Greece, and continues to help grow officials in the Lone Star Region of USAV for both indoor and outdoor.
Loryn Henderson has played multiple sports growing up such as: tennis, volleyball, softball, and basketball. My primary sport was softball, playing t-ball all the way through the junior division in her local little league. She also played travel softball for multiple teams including playing in a 14 year old tournament at age 8.
I attended Giddings High School showing goats for 4 years in county shows and served as a vice president and a reporter in the 4-H club and as member of her FFA high school chapter. She took pictures of the FFA projects for her shop class for shows and welded as well. Once she became a sophomore in high school she realized her favorite sport was volleyball and made it her primary sport. Loryn played for the Outlaw Volleyball Club for her junior and senior seasons (2017-18).
Graduating from Giddings High School in 2018, she signed to Cisco College to play volleyball as a setter for her 2018-2019 seasons. After graduating with her associates of Arts degree, she continued her schooling at Tarleton State University and graduated in 2022 with a Bachelor's degree in Industrial Technology Engineering. After school she moved back home in Giddings, Texas and works as an Amazon Reseller and a head coach for the Sundance Kids-14 and assistant coach for the Banditos-12 teams. Loryn has assisted with multiple camps and skills training sessions over the off season.
She always looked up to coach Kaase since he was the first coach to push her to her true capabilities. "Without coach Kaase, I wouldn't have gotten any better at a sport I love and I wouldn't have signed to a college for volleyball", Loryn said. Loryn's ethics when it comes to playing any sport, is that you treat every practice and game as a chance to get better, do not treat it as "just another practice" and act as if it's no big deal, if you're not learning you're not getting any better.