Eastern Michigan Athletics
Volleyball
- Title:
- Assistant Coach
A familiar face around the Eastern Michigan University volleyball team has returned. Karen O’Brien begins her second year back with the program as the squad’s second assistant coach. O’Brien spent the 1996 and 1997 campaigns as Berrington’s assistant coach.
The 45-year-old O’Brien (8-24-63) spent the past nine years coaching volleyball at Dundee High School in Dundee, Mich. prior to returning to EMU in 2007. Before coming to EMU, O’Brien was the head coach at Siena Heights University in Adrian, Mich. for the 1995-96 campaign. Prior to her one-year stint at Siena Heights, O’Brien served the University of Toledo as the head volleyball coach from 1989-94. She led her 1993 Toledo squad to the school’s first-ever Mid-American Conference postseason tournament berth. She was 75-97 during her tenure. She was also an assistant volleyball coach at both Michigan State University (1988-89) and the University of Georgia (1985-88).
O’Brien was a first-team All-America selection at Schoolcraft Community College in Livonia, Mich. before finishing her college career at the University of Georgia where she was an All-Southeastern Conference pick in both 1983 and 1984. She graduated from Georgia in 1985 with a degree in therapeutic recreation.
A native of East Lansing, Mich., O’Brien grew up in Livonia and graduated from Livonia Stevenson High School in 1981. She was the first female athlete in Stevenson history to earn nine varsity letters in volleyball, basketball and track. She was a first-team All-State volleyball player in 1981 and was named her school’s Female Athlete of the Year.
O’Brien lives in Petersburg, Mich. with her husband, Dan, and their son, Wyatt (1-2-00).
