MONMOUTH, ILLINOIS (September 25, 2025) — About sixty years ago, a song by the legendary Johnny Cash detailed how he'd been "everywhere, man" — "Reno, Chicago, Fargo, Minnesota, Buffalo, Toronto, Winslow, Sarasota," and on and on.
Emily Siefken Garrett ('16) can relate. In the span of about a month from late August to late September, her travels will have taken her to (say it fast) Fort Worth, Fort Myers, Jonesboro, Austin, College Station, and Omaha, along with a stop in Monmouth to catch up with faculty members Kari Shimmin and Jen Braun, and her Fighting Scots basketball teammate, Keri Dodson ('18). Florida, Alabama and Tennessee are on the horizon.
Why all the moving around? Garrett is the director of volleyball operations at the University of Missouri, and she follows the Tigers spikers on the road. She does the job so well that she was recently named by the American Volleyball Coaches Association as one of its Thirty Under 30 Award recipients. The program recognizes up-and-coming coaches in different sectors of the sport who serve in a range of roles.
Even Garrett's side trip to Monmouth provided only a temporary reprieve from the rigors of her job.
"I'm not going to lie," she said. "I'll be up until midnight tonight," compiling the information and video she collected from watching a match at the Leatherneck Classic in Macomb, where Missouri was part of the field."There are sacrifices you have to make, but my love for the game and for the players makes all the difference."
And maybe some of Garrett's notes and observations deserve a partial credit, as Mizzou rolled through the event, downing Valparaiso, Chicago State, and host Western Illinois. She passed along any credit to her "tribe.""I'm a wife and a mom now. Having a partner, having a good support system allows me to do this job. Having supportive family and friends. 'Find your tribe' is what I like to say."
Her path to director
That's a glimpse into where Garrett is now, nearly a decade beyond her Monmouth graduation. But where was she before that? Was she envisioning life in the SEC, one of the premier conferences in Division I athletics?
That would be a hard "No."
"Initially, I wanted to be an elementary school PE teacher," she said. "I had interned at an elementary school all through high school, and I loved kids that age, especially kindergarten."
The activity part of the job was just fine for Garrett, who chose Monmouth because "it just felt like home to me," because she could play both basketball and softball, and because she received an affordable financial-aid package. But she found she "didn't love the classroom aspect" of being a teacher. An attempt to stay in the game by exploring athletic training or physical therapy also derailed when the science classes began.
"I remember going to Jen and Kari and telling them that I was stuck — essentially, 'I don't know what I'm doing,'" said Garrett. "They said, 'Why don't you explore a business class?'"
That suggestion took hold, and Garrett had a new plan — studying "the business side of sports." She actually received a sneak preview of her future career while working all four of her years at Monmouth in Shimmin's office. In addition to her faculty role, Shimmin was the Scots' volleyball coach at the time.
"One day, she asked, 'Do you know how to cut video?'" Garrett recalled. "I said, 'No, but I bet I'll figure it out.'"
She certainly did, and that's been part of the job description at her three post-Monmouth stops — Illinois State, Texas Tech, and Missouri.
In her early days at ISU, where she completed a Master's degree in Sports Management, Garrett didn't have a graduate assistant role lined up. That changed when the golf coach, Ray Kralis, expressed a need for help.
"That was an opportunity to get my foot in the door and leave my Master's program debt-free," said Garrett.
A volleyball coaching vacancy opened at the end of her first year, and ISU's senior woman administrator asked Garrett if she'd be willing to take it on.
"I had a phone interview with the new coach, and I got hired," said Garrett. "From there, the rest is history."
And travel — lots of travel. But at least Garrett has some say in the matter, as she's the staff member who lines up all of Mizzou volleyball's road trips.
"I handle all the travel arrangements, the food, the bus, the plane. I'm also responsible for organizing the camps, and I'm getting into the financial/budget part of the process. I have a more statistical and data-analysis role, too, and I serve as the liaison between athletics and the areas of academics, compliance, and marketing."
In other words, she takes care of a lot of the day-to-day concerns so head coach Dawn Sullivan can focus on the X's and O's of Mizzou's matches and on recruiting the next generation of Tiger players.
Advice for students
"I honestly love it," she said. "I was just a small-town kid [West Burlington, Iowa] who went to a small-town college. I never thought I'd be in the SEC, let alone working in the Valley and Big 12."
There was one moment at Texas Tech where that small fish in a big pond reality caught up with her.
"I had a little bit of imposter syndrome going into my interview there, but the woman told me, 'You wouldn't be in this situation if we weren't confident that you could do the job.' So I've rolled with that. If you're in an interview, they think you're qualified for the work."
She shared that advice with Monmouth students, as well as this: "If you're interested in something, do it. Put your name out there. The worst they can do is say 'No.' Then just find the next opportunity."
