Longtime Rowan volleyball coach Deana Jespersen dies after battle with breast cancer
Jespersen had been at Rowan since 2014 and led the Profs to two NCAA Tournament appearances.
Deana Jespersen, the longtime volleyball coach at Rowan, died Sunday after a battle with breast cancer, the university announced Thursday. She was 51 years old.
“Our Rowan athletics family is heartbroken with the sudden loss of a friend, colleague, coach, leader, wife, mother, and most affectionately, ‘team mom’” Shawn Tucker, Rowan’s athletic director, said in a release. “There are no words that can truly capture or articulate the pain and heartbreak that our student-athletes, coaches and loved ones are currently experiencing. Deana’s impact was universally felt and one thing is for certain, her life and legacy will live on forever.”
Mrs. Jespersen was in her 12th season coaching the program. She led the Profs to a 23-5 record and secured the No. 2 seed to earn a first-round bye in the New Jersey Athletic Conference tournament. They play in the semifinals on Nov. 13.
According to the school’s release, Mrs. Jespersen was passionate about helping other women through their breast cancer diagnoses. She started the Hope Venture Fighter Fund in 2024 to offer financial, emotional, and residential support to families battling breast cancer.
On the website, she wrote about her story. Mrs. Jespersen was first diagnosed with breast cancer in April 2021, after finding an unusual lump.
She wrote that it felt like “my responsibility to pay it forward. … I know that one single act of kindness can help you find the faith in fighting another day, it can give you the strength to face the next obstacle, and I want to continue to provide a path to hope along the way.”
Mrs. Jespersen, once a standout volleyball player at Elizabethtown College, graduating in 1996, had a coaching career that spanned 21 years. She complied more than 300 wins and got her start as an assistant coach at Eastern University in 1996-97, then became the head coach at Swarthmore for one year in 1999.
Before coming to Rowan in 2014, Mrs. Jespersen spent a decade at Neumann University. She guided the Knights to three Colonial States Athletic Conference titles and three NCAA Tournament appearances. She also earned CSAC Coach of the Year honors five times.
With Rowan, Mrs. Jespersen was named the NJAC Joy Solomen Coach of the Year in 2021 and 2022 after leading the Profs to consecutive conference titles. She also led Rowan to two NCAA Tournament appearances.
She is survived by her husband, Orlin, and children, Dane and Bryn.
A viewing will be held at Notre Dame de Lourdes Church in Swarthmore on Nov. 16 from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. There will be a secondary viewing at the same church on Nov. 17 from 9 a.m. to 10:30 a.m., followed by an 11 a.m. mass.
The family requests that donations be made to The Hope Venture.