Coach Laurie Kelly is entering her tenth season at the helm of the volleyball program at RMC. Last season under Coach Kelly's leadership, the Battlin' Bears made their fifth trip in six years to the NAIA National Tournament. Kelly was selected 2014 Frontier Conference Coach of the Year and Northwest Region Coach of the Year. The Battlin’ Bears were Frontier Conference Champions the last three seasons and earned automatic bids into the National Volleyball Tournament. Last season the team garnished the honors of setter of the year, libero of the year, and player of the year. Three seniors were selected as NAIA All-Americans.
Previously, Coach Kelly spent two seasons as head volleyball coach at Miles Community College in Miles City, where she was given the task of starting a new volleyball program for the Pioneers.
Kelly was also the head volleyball coach at Roundup High School for 19 years compiling a 456-167 record with a winning percentage of 74 percent. Laurie has been the Montana Coaches Association (MCA) Coach of the Year five times and nominated as a finalist for Regional and National High School Volleyball Coach of the Year. In the last nine years at Roundup, her teams won five state championships including four in a row, 2000 through 2003, a second place finish as well as three third place finishes at the state tournament.
In 2005, Coach Kelly was inducted in the MCA Hall of Fame. She is also in the Hall of Fame at Bemidji State University as a field hockey player for being part of the nationally ranked teams of 1979, 1980, and 1981. She is also inducted in her high school Hall of Fame as an athlete and educator. In 1997, she was selected "Montana Teacher of the Year" from the Milken Family Foundation in California.
