Irene Matlock was head women’s volleyball coach at Community Colleges of Spokane from 1986-2004, where she amassed 715 wins and captured four Northwest Athletic Association of Community Colleges (NWAACC) championships. Prior to coaching CCS, she won over 100 matches and four state championships with Sandpoint High School in Idaho.
Matlock won numerous awards during her head coaching tenure, highlighted by the Tachikara/AVCA JC/CC National Coach of the Year honor in 1994. The 2001 Tachikara/AVCA West Region JC/CC Coach of the Year was also named NWAACC East League Coach of the Year eight times and NWAACC Coach of the Year three times.
Matlock earned a Bachelor of Science degree in physical education from the University of Washington, and a Master of Science in physical education from Eastern Washington University. In addition to her coaching duties at CCS, she spent 10 years as its athletic commissioner, and is still a physical education instructor there to this day.
“Although it is hard to believe, wins were never a motivation for her. Teaching was at the core of her passion,” said Pamela Parks, Associate Athletics Director and Senior Woman Administrator at Eastern Washington University. Her philosophy was that if her athletes “understood why they were doing something they would be able to do it on their own and master it.”