Skip Navigation

Coaching Staff

Jazmyne JohnsonJazmyne Johnson
Associate Head Coach/Recruiting Coordinator

Jazmyne Johnson joined the Louisiana Ragin' Cajuns Volleyball program in June 2021 as an assistant coach. She was the first coaching staff member hired by Kristi Gray for her debut season with the program.

Johnson’s duties include working with the Ragin’ Cajuns hitters, more specifically the middle blockers. She also serves as the defensive coordinator, and coordinates the program’s recruiting efforts.

Her guidance of the team's blocking technique led to Louisiana improving its numbers in the 2022 season from 2.02 blocks per set to 2.27 blocks per set which ranked fourth in the Sun Belt Conference. Johnson's work with the middles resulted in both Cami Hicks and Kara Barnes ranking in the SBC's Top 10 for hitting percentage during conference play. Hicks sported a .389 hitting percentage in conference play (.320 overall), averaged 1.02 blocks per set for the season and earned second team spot on the 2022 All-Sun Belt team.

The highlight of Johnson's second season with the Ragin' Cajuns came in December 2022 when Louisiana competed in a national postseason event for the first time ever, taking part in the National Invitational Volleyball Championship (NIVC) in Edinburg, Texas.

During her first fall season in Louisiana, the Ragin' Cajuns finished with .230 season hitting percentage, which is the program's rally era record, and she assisted in the development of Kelsey Bennett and Coco Gillett into All-Sun Belt performers.

A standout middle blocker who competed collegiately at Mississippi State and Middle Tennessee producing 399 career blocks, Johnson joined Gray and the Ragin' Cajuns after spending the 2020-21 season as the assistant volleyball coach at Norfolk State. She served as the Spartans' recruiting coordinator and provided instruction to the hitters and blockers.

The DeSoto, Texas, native launched her coaching career in 2018 assisting the staff at Texas Woman’s University, working with the middle blockers and helping lead the Pioneers to 18 wins and the first winning record in over three seasons. In the 2019 campaign, Johnson served as a graduate assistant at Harding University for a squad that finished 21-11 and advanced to the Great American Conference Tournament championship match.

Johnson’s instructing of middle blockers resulted in a pair of Harding team members, Libby Hinton and Kelli McKinnon, earning all-conference honors.

She also spent time as a head coach with 360 Volleyball Club in Texas in 2019 and as an assistant at various university summer camps the last few years.

Prior to completing her collegiate career at Mississippi State, where Johnson led the Bulldogs in blocks with 89 her junior season and with 136 as a senior in 2016, she climbed to seventh all-time in total blocks in only two seasons at Middle Tennessee (2013-14).

Mississippi State finished with a winning record in her first season (2015) on campus, the program’s first in nine years, and her senior-season blocks total ranks fourth in the school’s single-season records.

Johnson received her bachelor's degree in communications with a concentration in broadcast journalism from Mississippi State in December 2016. She earned her master's in business administration from Harding in December 2020.

Johnson was a 2020 AVCA Diversity Award recipient and is an active member of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority Incorporated. She currently serves on the AVCA Assistant coaches committee.

Kelsey BennettKelsey Bennett
Assistant Coach

Kelsey Bennett, a two-time All-Sun Belt Conference performer for the Louisiana Ragin' Cajuns Volleyball program, returned to campus in July 2023 when she joined the program's coaching staff as an assistant coach.

Bennett's responsibilities include day-to-day operations, including travel, scout and assist with practice planning. On court, she works with the Ragin' Cajuns attackers and defense.

An outside hitter who turned in a 1,000-1,000 career of kills and digs, Bennett competed for Louisiana from 2018-22. She was a back-to-back All-Sun Belt performer in 2020-21, elevating herself to a first team selection.

She produced over 1,100 career kills and digs, a 300-300 season of kills and digs in 2021, plus a pair of 200-200 seasons the previous two years, and generated 41 double-doubles which stands as second-most recorded in the rally scoring era.

Bennett was a three-time winner of the Sun Belt Conference's Offensive Player of the Week award in 2021 – a school record total won in a single season.

The Allen, Texas native received her bachelor's degree in kinesiology from Louisiana in December 2022. Bennett's previous coaching experience includes assisting Louisiana Volleyball Lafayette (LVL) with its club programs from spring 2021 to summer 2023.