Damien Hardy
Damien Hardy will enter his second season as an assistant coach for Tarleton State Volleyball in 2025.
In his inaugural season with the Texans in 2024, Hardy assisted with scheduling, practice planning, recruiting and other day to day tasks.
Hardy joined Tarleton State Volleyball after spending the 2019-24 seasons with Menlo College. During his time as an assistant coach with the Oaks, Hardy assisted with practice planning and recruiting.
Prior to his time at Menlo College, Hardy was an assistant coach at Notre Dame de Namur. The 2014-19 seasons saw the Pearl City, Hawaii, native, managing the practice plans and recruiting.
In 1993, Hardy began his coaching career as an assistant coach at Hawaii Pacific. During his 10 years with the Sharks, Hardy assisted with practice planning, recruiting, and conducting strength and conditioning programs. In the 1998 season, Hardy assisted in leading the Sharks to the National Championship title, being the first ever Division II program to go undefeated. HPU fought their way to another National Championship title in the 2000 season.
Hardy was a member of the Men’s Volleyball program at the University of Hawaii from 1986-90 as a middle blocker. During his time as a Rainbow Warrior, Hardy received his undergraduate degree in sociology in 1991.
Hardy was born on June 16 and has three children, a son Aaron, and two daughters, Damiana and Tara. Hardy is an uncle to Gabriel Norwood, who plays professional basketball in the Philippines and Jordan Norwood, who plays in the NFL with the Denver Broncos.
Alleah StamatisTarleton State Volleyball introduced Alleah Stamatis as assistant coach and recruiting coordinator on Jan. 21, 2025.
Stamatis joins Jazmyne Johnson and Damien Hardy ahead of Tarleton State Volleyball's 2025 season.
"Alleah is the missing piece to my puzzle of what I want to build here at Tarleton," said head coach Jazmyne Johnson. "Alleah values the relationships, the mentorship and the betterment of the student-athletes. She is someone who will bring great experience and knowledge as both a student-athlete and a coach. Alleah has worn multiple hats during her career and I believe the city of Stephenville and the Texan community will fall in love with her beautiful spirit. Alleah is a competitor in every way. I am extremely blessed and excited that Alleah is joining our staff in this new era of Texan Volleyball."
Prior to being selected as an assistant coach for Texan Volleyball, Stamatis served as an assistant coach at Mississipi State University from 2023-24. During her first season coaching in Starkville, Stamatis helped lead the Bulldogs to a victory over No. 14 ranked Florida. The team also achieved victories over Auburn and Western Michigan, who both received NCAA Tournament bids that year. Mississippi State recorded a 13-15 overall record with six wins across the SEC. The Bulldogs swept Alabama twice during Stamatis' debut year and also had notable wins over LSU and Ole Miss. Additionally, she assisted in the development of three student-athletes who received SEC weekly honors in 2023. In 2024, MSU notched an 11-14 overall record. Stamatis helped lead the Bulldogs to a six-match winning streak in September and a win against No. 25 ranked Missouri on Nov. 24, 2024. The Bulldogs played four matches against top 25 opponents during Stamatis' second season.
"I'm incredibly grateful for the opportunity to be a part of Jazmyne's staff," said Stamatis. "She's a fantastic leader, great mentor of mine, and it was an easy yes for me to join her at Tarleton. The vision is clear and the expectations are high for the program. I can't wait for the Johnson era of TSU volleyball to begin!"
Additionally, she served as the director of volleyball operations at Mississippi State University from 2021-2022, managing travel, match operations, and statistics. This was her first Division I volleyball position.
The Lexington, Kentucky, native played her freshman and sophomore seasons at Jacksonville under current Mississippi State Head Coach, Julie Darty Dennis. Her debut collegiate season was 2017 where she accumulated 154 digs, 35 assists, 27 kills and 10 blocks across 19 matches. In her sophomore year at Jacksonville, she was tabbed as a second team All-Atlantic Sun conference selection. She ranked second in the Atlantic Sun conference with 1,038 assists, tallying 50 or more assists on seven different occasions throughout the season. She then followed Coach Dennis to Mississippi State University to continue her academic and athletic career in the SEC.
In 2018, she recorded 10 double-doubles and three games of 20 or more assists. The Bulldogs had a notable 3-2 victory over Auburn during Stamatis' first SEC season. The setter totaled over 1000 assists during her senior year in 2019, becoming the seventh MSU player to reach that mark in a single season. Throughout two seasons at Mississippi State, Stamatis registered a combined total of 1300 assists, 515 digs, 46 blocks, 86 kills and 49 service aces.
In November of 2020, Stamatis was named a recipient of the American Volleyball Coaches Association Diversity Award, which allowed her to participate in series of educational, developmental and relationship building experiences in conjunction with the 2020 AVCA Virtual Convention. The award was sponsored by SEC assistant coaches.
She graduated from Mississippi State University with a bachelor's degree in psychology.
Stamatis will look to rejuvenate the Tarleton State Volleyball program alongside Coach Johnson in the fall of 2025.