By Tom Nader

Publisher and Editor

The “Getting to Know” series is designed to help the community learn more about the coaches and administrators that are guiding today’s Portage County student-athletes to be tomorrow’s leaders.

Today, we get to know Garfield High School volleyball coach Ali Korosec, who is in her fourth season leading the G-Men.

Q: What schools did you attend growing up?
A: I went to James A. Garfield in elementary school and part of middle school, then I went to Windham in eighth grade and graduated from Windham (Class of 2005).

Q: College? What degree?

A: Kent State University (2009). Education.

Q: Current occupation?
A: Photographer, substitute teacher and high school volleyball coach.

Q: What inspired you to become a coach?

A: Seeing my dad coach little league all the way up to high school boys and girls basketball always made me want to coach one day.

Q: What makes being a coach at Garfield special to you?
A: I am truly lucky to get the opportunity to coach in such a great district. Not only am I surrounded by an amazing staff, I have such positive and hard-working athletes that I get to coach.

Q: Funny story nobody would believe from your playing days?
A: It is hard to only name one. We had such strong friendships on and off the court that we were able to create so many memories. A funny story that pops in my head would be my senior year of high school and my softball team was in a hitting slump. My high school volleyball coach gave the advice to rub garlic on our bats to get rid of the bad luck. It worked!

Q: Funny story nobody would believe from your coaching career?

A: I am not sure if it counts as a funny story, but I would say the knocking on the floor at certain times during the games. A few underclassmen have called me out on it.

Q: Favorite TV show?

A: Grey’s Anatomy.

Q: Favorite movie?

A: I have too many favorites to name. Mostly, now, I tend to watch my kids’ favorite movies.

Q: Favorite musical artist?

A: Carrie Underwood and Kane Brown.

Q: Favorite food/meal?

A: I absolutely love pizza and Mexican.

Q: Favorite restaurant?

A: La Terraza, Texas Roadhouse, Panini’s.

Q: Best vacation?

A: About seven years ago my whole family (parents, siblings, brother in laws, niece, nephews, my three daughters) all went to Outer Banks. I am very close with my family so that would definitely be my favorite.

Q: Favorite motto or quote?
A: In high school we used to always say, “Go big or go home” and “Don’t ever look down on anyone unless you’re helping them up.”

Q: What is your coaching philosophy?

A: To me, coaching is about helping others. I will always try my best to help my student-athletes grow and develop individually and as teammates. At the end of the day, I want to help my players become confident on the court and to play as a team.

Q: Favorite teacher from high school?

A: I had so many teachers that I really liked! After I graduated, I would go back and visit a few, including Mr. Chaffee (also my volleyball coach), Mr. Eakins and Mr. Poszgai.

Q: Favorite coach from your playing days?
A: Mike Chaffee, Tina Beer and my old club coach Chris.

Q: Coaching resume?
A: James A. Garfield 7th grade volleyball (2006 and 2008), 8th grade volleyball (2007), varsity (2009), junior varsity (2018) and varsity (2019-present).

Q: Shoutout to former teammates.

A: So many to name here! Some of my best memories in life are because of the amazing teammates I had. Megan Viebranz, Megan Wert, Jenny Eckman, Tabitha Pennington, Allison and Erika Cline, Jodi Stanley, Sara Apthorpe, Megan McClure, Collee McGuire, Beth Simpson … to just name a few. I was very fortunate to have such great teammates.