NEXT Coaches
NEXT Volleyball is a group of coaches dedicated to providing elite level volleyball training to athletes of all ages and abilities, across a wide range of experience levels.
Co-Founders
Matt Martin
Lead Trainer / Operations
A 2004 graduate of The Ohio State University with a BS in Education/Sport and Leisure Studies, Coach Matt has been coaching volleyball for over 20 years from 11’s to collegiate. Coach Matt coached at Ohio State and Loyola University Chicago while working with every level of the USA Volleyball High Performance program.
In 2011, Coach Matt began working for High Performance STL, one of the largest juniors clubs in America as the college recruiting director and eventually took on the role of COO/CFO.
College Volleyball
- 2 National Championships
- 5 Top 3 finishes nationally
- 16 total seasons of mens and womens
- 2010 AVCA Men’s Division 1 National Assistant Coach of the Year
- 2009 AVCA 30 Under 30 Award recipient
USA Volleyball International Finishes
- High Performance Championships – International Division
- Gold medalist: 2007, 2008, 2010, 20011
- Silver medalist: 2006, 2012
- 2006 Junior National Team Silver Medalist at NORCECA World Championship Qualifier, their only loss to Cuba in the championship.
- 2007 Junior National Team FIVB World Championships – 7th Place, beating both championship finalists Brazil and Russia on the tour.
Tim Kafka
Creative Director - Marketing - Hitting lots of Volleyballs
Coach Tim began playing volleyball for High Performance STL in high school where he had coach Matt for 2 years. He became an elite middle blocker for his club and then played college volleyball at Lindenwood University in the MIVA.
In 2018, Coach Tim graduated with a BA in Interactive Media and Web Design. In college he was awarded Best Digital Artist. After college he was the Lead developer and marketer for Mindactive Media. Tim missed volleyball and wanted to give back to the club that gave him the opportunity to receive a college education. Tim reached out and began adding value to his club using his robust skillsets. He coached, created video content and designed graphics for his club.
After starting many creative business such as real estate photography, web design, music production, screen printing, and video production he realized the potential to bring all of these skills into the volleyball community.
During COVID Coach Tim began pushing his old coach, Matt, to begin a project together and a few months later NEXT Volleyball was founded in 2021.
Tim is the owner of an apparel printing company associated with NEXT Volleyball. The company wanted to design and print in house, specifically for volleyball programs. Most companies are looking for huge volume orders which can exclude smaller schools or programs from being affordable and NEXT wants to cater to everyone in the volleyball community.
Tim is an avid photographer, designer and musician. He’s a licensed commercial drone pilot and loves working with kids and being creative.
Coaches
Shaun Servick
Elite Coach
We’re excited to partner with Shaun Servick for the Advancement Academy clinics! Coach Shaun is the founder of A2 and has coached 12 years of high school volleyball. He’s coached 2 USAV national championship teams since he began his club in 2014. Coach Shaun was one of Matt’s coaches all the way back in the sideout scoring days of 1998 (before the libero, before the multi-color volleyball, and when highlight tapes were still made on VHS).
Brenden Pence
Elite Coach
Coach Brenden brings 12 years of coaching experience to our staff. He has been an AVCA 30 Under 30 award winner after successfully leading St. Francis Desales to a state championship in 2019, the first in Central Ohio in over 20 years! Brenden also coached the 18 Green team to a bronze medal at the 2021 USAV Junior National Championships in the American Division! Coach Brenden is an avid beach player and is a tier trainer and director of coach development at Advancement Academy.
Zach Yerington
Elite Coach
Coach Zach graduated from Ohio State in 2019 with a degree in Sport Industry. While there, he was a part of the 2016 and 2017 National Championship teams! Coach Zach played volleyball at Daeman College as a graduate transfer in his hometown of Buffalo, New York where he earned his masters degree in Leadership and Innovation. As a head coach at A2, Zach led the first ever Shamrock team to earn a bid to USAV Junior Nationals in 2021 when 14 Shamrock qualified in the American Division! Coach Zach has been coaching since 2017 and actually played against Coach Matt’s former club, High Performance STL, many times while playing Eden VBC which is now Niagara Frontier VBC.
Luke Meidel
Elite Coach
Luke Meidel is a 2021 Graduate of The Ohio State University where he double majored in Neuroscience and African American Studies. He was a starting libero for the Buckeyes and will be attending law school at the University of Denver. Luke was a finalist for the Big Ten Medal of Honor, recognizing both the athletic and academic achievements of athletes in the Big Ten. He is also an HPSTL alum where he played club for Coach Matt.
Matthew Tompkins
Elite Coach
Matthew Tompkins is currently attending The Ohio State University where he is majoring in finance. A Dallas native who commuted to St. Louis to play for HPSTL and Coach Matt for 3 years, he was an All American outside hitter. He led his team to a 5th place finish in the open division in 2018. A special shout out to his mom Jennifer who is the accountant for NEXT!
More Staff Coming Soon!
Amanda Lee
Creative Head
Amanda Lee
Creative Head
Amanda Lee
Creative Head
Lee Stoner
Marketing Head
Monica Gala
Graphic Designer
Frequently Asked Questions
We are/want to be affiliated with all clubs! Our staff has a wide range of experience coaching collegiately and with various clubs and programs around the country. NEXT staff will be training at multiple locations and are always on the lookout for positive coaches and new facilities. Please reach out to anyone who would be interested in partnering in our mission to improve volleyball players everywhere!
NEXT clinics are a single training session that is open for registration to anyone by age/skill level. Each session has a specific focus in advance so you can choose the skill you want to focus on by the clinic description.
Our camps are multiple sessions and can span multiple days. Most camps are multi skill and system. Satellite team camps are available if your school coach contacts us to come to your school!
Lessons, sometimes called ‘Private Lessons’, are 1-4 athletes and time is reserved by you with the other athletes. The session is geared toward your specific requests (jump serving for 4 athletes, 3 middles training together, whatever you need to improve).
Absolutely not. We do our best to have a player to coach ratio of 8 to 1 so everyone can benefit from their time on the court. Our coaches are teachers first who love the game and want to make the sport better for everyone.
Most definitely! Watch, sit close enough to listen, video, whatever you want. While we ask parents not to coach, being able to positively reinforce after sessions is a great thing if your athlete needs encouragement. We will always have multiple staff on site, but another adult in the gym in case of emergency is always welcome.
Unfortunately, no. Only if this is approved by Coach Matt and only in very rare instances. We know this is a change for most people and everyone hates paying processing fees even though our credit cards get points/miles. The ACH (online check) option is FREE (NEXT loses money on these but we want a free and easy option for our families).
Our quality control, coach to athlete ratio, and court availability is dependent on booking online with this system. Even though it’s different, hopefully it makes for a consistent and better training experience overall.
We are certainly open to helping you begin to navigate the volleyball world. We can get an evaluation during a lesson or clinic. We want everyone to find success at their level and enjoy the volleyball experience. We’re happy to talk about club options and put you in touch with our friends in the volleyball community to find the right fit.
Please let us know a minimum of 24 hours in advance so we can be prepared with our schedules as well. We’re happy to reschedule.
In case of an emergency (family, injury, etc.) with less than 24 hours notice, we may not be able to reschedule and may only be able to provide a partial refund. We have fixed gym rental costs and our coaches will miss out on other training opportunities unfortunately. Please just communicate and we’ll do our best to work with you.
Yes, we need to be able to manage lots of training requests and we ask that you do your best to book your sessions within 90 days after the date of purchase. This shouldn’t be a problem for most and again, please communicate if there is a problem!
You can book a 2-4 athlete session in our lessons page. One parent will need to book for the whole group and handle individual payment amongst the participants. Please let us know in the comments or follow up communication the names of the athletes that we’ll expect and what the group would like to be the focus of their lesson!
If you don’t have a group of athletes in mind, please check out our clinic sessions that are open to everyone.
Online booking closes mid-morning generally. If you text, call, or email, we might be able to work something out if there is court and coach availability.
614-378-2585 is Coach Matt’s cell and email is matt@nextvolleyball.com
No guarantees but we will do our best!
Contact us via text or call and let us know. We will try to train for a full hour if possible. If gym the gym is booked after your session, we may not be able to get to 60 minutes. Please arrive early so you can warm up and maximize your time on the court!
Train with us Anywhere
Want us to run a clinic at your home gym? Contact us and we'll do our best to come to you!
Proven Coaching Techniques
Our coaching resumés range from the youngest beginners to collegiate national champions and international tournaments representing USA Volleyball.
Value
We're confident that you'll walk away from your session a better player and get lots of attention from your coach with our low player to coach ratio.
Secure Payments
We've gone to great lengths to find the right payment processing companies with the highest level of security available.