Theresa Baetzel- Director/Master Coach

Theresa played for Lakeland College before finishing her degree in Liberal Arts at UIC. She has coached both Girls and Boys volleyball for over 30 seasons at various clubs and high school programs, including Riverside Brookfield, Fenwick, Hinsdale South, and Resurrection. She has claimed both Regional and Sectional titles as the head Varsity coach at Resurrection College Prep, as well as multiple regional titles in assisting roles at Riverside Brookfield and Fenwick. Theresa is the master coach at Ignite, and has run numerous camps and clinics throughout northern Illinois for decades. She is the co-founder of Ignite. 

Rita Rouleau- Coach, 16 Sparks

Rita has coached with Ignite since 2011 and played for Ignite VBC and Nemesis from ages 14-18. She also coached at the freshman volleyball level at Resurrection College Prep High School for 2 seasons and was the assistant Varsity Volleyball coach to both boys and girls teams at St. Joseph High School for 4 years. Rita played at Riverside/Brookfield High School all 4 years and was all conference during her junior and senior years and led the team as a varsity captain her senior year. Rita then went on to play Division I volleyball her freshman year of college at UIC and then finished her college career at Resurrection University with her BSN.



Jaime Becker- Coach, 15 Firecrackers

I am from Michigan and have been playing volleyball for 10+ years. I was a libero and played at a DII school in Florida called Rollins College. I majored in Computer Science, with a minor in Math, and currently work as a Software Engineer. After Florida, I moved to Denver where I lived for 2 years, and then moved to Illinois in June 2021. I am very excited to be coaching with Ignite!

Sarah James- Coach, 18 Supernovas

Sarah is the womens head volleyball coach at Oakton Community College. She has been coaching Ignite Volleyball Club for 7 years. She has coached at Resurrection high school, and was the head varsity softball coach at Fenwick. She was awarded the 2019 Sectional Coach of the Year from the Illinois Coaches Association. She went to Riverside Brookfield HS, and then at College of DuPage and Concordia University. 

Erin James- Coach, 14 Phoenix

Hey everyone I am coach Erin! I have been playing volleyball since the 5th grade and played for ignite for 3 years! And this will be my second year coaching with ignite. I went to school for nutrition and dietetics and currently work as a nutritionist for WIC. In my free time I like to work out, read, spend time with friends and family (and of course my cat!) 

Monica Kasper- Coach, Assistant

This is Monica’s 3rd year coaching at Ignite VBC. She played DIII volleyball at Carthage College as an outside hitter and defensive specialist. She is excited to coach another year at Ignite as an assistant. Her goal is to cultivate a team environment of hard working players while having fun! Now an alumna from Riverside Brookfield High School and Carthage College, she is continuing her education at Northwestern for her Masters degree.

Tommy Witteman - Manager

All of our coaches are IMPACT certified, and safesport trained. All Ignite staff are background screened and cleared.

Most of our coaches have also played in college, coached at the high school level, and are USAV IMPACT and ASEP certified.

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