The Lutheran High School’s Volleyball team’s motto is “As One for the One.” Their focus is on playing as ONE team for the ONE, our Lord. To emphasize this, it has become their tradition to form a circle at the end of every game night, holding the hands of teammates, and sing the common doxology. Following the Class 2 State Championship win, the team gathered together to sing one final doxology with teammates, parents, and fans, witnessing to all those around them.
Varsity Team
JV Team
Freshmen Team
Rachel.Versemann@fhsdschools.org
Coach Versemann has been playing and coaching volleyball for many years. Rachel graduated from Concordia, Chicago where she was a 4-year varsity starter on the women’s volleyball team. She also played basketball and ran track for the Cougars….
Rachel began coaching after college at St. John, Forest Park, IL, where she coached volleyball and basketball for grades 5-8 and served as a 3rd grade teacher. The following year she added varsity volleyball coaching responsibilities at Walther Lutheran High School in Melrose Park, IL. After 3 years at Walther, she joined the staff of Concordia University as an assistant volleyball coach.
Coach Versemann moved with her family to the St. Louis area to be closer to family when her children were little. She began coaching here at Lutheran High as an assistant with the volleyball program under coach Kathy Chapin. As children and family responsibilities increased, Rachel left Lutheran to coach her daughter’s club teams. During these years, she coached ages 10U-16U with St. Charles Xplosion. She also coached at Messiah, Weldon Spring, for 2 seasons. Coach Versemannserved as an assistant coach at Francis Howell High School in both the girls’ and boys’ programs from 2010-2017. In 2017, Versemann joined the Cougar’s girl’s volleyball staff as the freshmen coach.
Rachel and her husband, Todd, live in the Cottleville area. They attend Messiah Lutheran Church in Weldon Spring, and their children, Abbie and Jake, are both graduates of Lutheran High. Abbie is now a senior at Texas Woman’s University in Denton, TX, where she is on the gymnastics team, and Jake attends Missouri S&T in Rolla, where he plays football. Coach Versemann is currently teaching kindergarten in the Francis Howell School District at Fairmount Elementary.
Coach Versemann will take the reigns of our girl’s volleyball program and join an already-excellent team of coaches: Lisa Gnade (assistant varsity), Greg Franklin (head JV), and Allison Patton (assistant JV). In addition to her new role with the girl’s volleyball program, Coach Versemann will also serve as the JV boy’s volleyball coach this coming spring.
Coach Franklin graduated from Hazelwood West High School where he played club volleyball for two years while serving as the captain his senior year. In 2001, he graduated from Southern Illinois University-Edwardsville with a bachelor of science degree in …
mass communications and a minor in kinesiology. He played club ice hockey for the SIUE Cougars and became the starting goalie for two years. In 2012, Coach Franklin completed his Master’s in Education (K- 12) from Missouri Baptist University.
Since then, he has coached middle school A and B-team volleyball at Atonement Lutheran School, where his girls went to the state tournament twice in four years. Coach Franklin was also an assistant varsity/JV head coach for the Whitfield Warriors volleyball program. Along with coaching volleyball, Coach Franklin has also been an assistant ice hockey coach for Whitfield, assistant track coach for Atonement Lutheran as well as a varsity girl’s lacrosse head coach for Villa Duchesne, Whitfield and Hazelwood Central.
Coach Franklin continues to play volleyball at a high level. He has played on a men’s league for over 15 years and continues to play in indoor and sand tournaments.
Christine Cowger is estatic to be entering her first season as the Lutheran High School Head Freshman Volleyball Coach. Christine was introduced to volleyball in her high school career in Tucson, Arizona. She continued her volleyball career in college at Missouri…
Valley College where she graduated with her Bachelor’s Degree. After graduation, Christine started her coaching career as the women’s assistant varsity volleyball coach at Missouri Valley college while simultaneously earning her Master’s Degree from Lindenwood University. Following completion of her Master’s Degree, Christine relocated to the St Louis area where she coached a club team with N2VB. Recently, she has been coaching with Immanuel Lutheran School – Wentzville (girls & boys) and with St Louis Crossfire Elite.
Mrs. Cowger is also a real estate agent with Berkshire Hathaway HomeService Select Properties and lives in Lake St Louis with her husband and son. Her son, JayDee, is currently a student at Immanuel Lutheran School – Wentzville and her husband, Chris, works at Mastercard.
Mrs. Cowger’s coaching philosophy is simple …… God, family, school, and then sports. She encourages her players to do their best at all the times while teaching them that effort level is the easiest thing they can control. She emphasizes that while doing well in any sport is important, it is more important that athletes have the opportunity, through both success and failure, to gain the confidence required to not only succeed on the court, but in life as well.
State Final Four Appearances
State Champions: 2004, 2015
Second Place: 2003, 2005, 2006
District Championships
1990, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015
