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Alex Simons
- Title:
- Volunteer Coach, Volleyball
An experienced local high school and club coach with a highly successful career in the tech world, Alex Simons joins the Washington program in 2022 as the team’s volunteer assistant coach.
Simons has fifteen years of coaching experience, with eleven of those coming at Sudden Impact Volleyball Club in Bellevue, Wash., where he also serves on the Board of Directors. He also was an assistant high school coach for six years. Simons has coached every age group from 11 to 18. Thirty athletes coached by Simons have gone on to compete at the NCAA Div. I level, including four past or current Huskies.
"Alex is an exceptional leader in the professional world in which he operates, and also an experienced coach with a background in teaching at a high level," said Husky Head Coach Keegan Cook. "He brings new ideas in volleyball and in leadership in a professional space."
Volleyball has been a lifelong passion for Simons, who began playing the sport at the age of fifteen. He and his wife, Chris, have two daughters, Logan and McKaela, who played the sport through high school and one into college.
“I’m deeply passionate about motor skills learning and applying principles based on Ecological Dynamics to create optimal sports learning environments,” says Simons. “For the last few years I’ve been reading books and research papers, attending seminars and discussing the science, concepts and applications with other coaches and researchers. My primary focus while at UW is to work with the coaching staff to increase the skill with which we apply these concepts to optimize team culture, design effective practices, improve drill design and communicate and cue more clearly and effectively. I’m really excited to have the opportunity to work with the team and the coaching staff to apply these concepts at one of the top programs in the country and to have the opportunity to learn from Coach Cook, Coach Gabriel, Coach Mansfield and the team to improve as a coach.”
Simons is taking a sabbatical from his full-time employment at Microsoft, where he has been employed for 30 years, to work with the Huskies.
The Corporate Vice President of Product Management for the Identity and Access Management Division at Microsoft, Simons and his division is responsible for the Microsoft Entra product line including Azure Active Directory, Entra Permissions Management and Entra Verified ID as well as the Microsoft Account consumer service. The services are used by over a billion users and most of the world’s largest organizations including national governments, global banks, auto and electronics manufacturers, mega retailers, national health care systems, and logistics and delivery systems to run their businesses.
Simons has a degree in Marketing and Strategic Management from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania and is a self-taught computer programmer.
Simons has fifteen years of coaching experience, with eleven of those coming at Sudden Impact Volleyball Club in Bellevue, Wash., where he also serves on the Board of Directors. He also was an assistant high school coach for six years. Simons has coached every age group from 11 to 18. Thirty athletes coached by Simons have gone on to compete at the NCAA Div. I level, including four past or current Huskies.
"Alex is an exceptional leader in the professional world in which he operates, and also an experienced coach with a background in teaching at a high level," said Husky Head Coach Keegan Cook. "He brings new ideas in volleyball and in leadership in a professional space."
Volleyball has been a lifelong passion for Simons, who began playing the sport at the age of fifteen. He and his wife, Chris, have two daughters, Logan and McKaela, who played the sport through high school and one into college.
“I’m deeply passionate about motor skills learning and applying principles based on Ecological Dynamics to create optimal sports learning environments,” says Simons. “For the last few years I’ve been reading books and research papers, attending seminars and discussing the science, concepts and applications with other coaches and researchers. My primary focus while at UW is to work with the coaching staff to increase the skill with which we apply these concepts to optimize team culture, design effective practices, improve drill design and communicate and cue more clearly and effectively. I’m really excited to have the opportunity to work with the team and the coaching staff to apply these concepts at one of the top programs in the country and to have the opportunity to learn from Coach Cook, Coach Gabriel, Coach Mansfield and the team to improve as a coach.”
Simons is taking a sabbatical from his full-time employment at Microsoft, where he has been employed for 30 years, to work with the Huskies.
The Corporate Vice President of Product Management for the Identity and Access Management Division at Microsoft, Simons and his division is responsible for the Microsoft Entra product line including Azure Active Directory, Entra Permissions Management and Entra Verified ID as well as the Microsoft Account consumer service. The services are used by over a billion users and most of the world’s largest organizations including national governments, global banks, auto and electronics manufacturers, mega retailers, national health care systems, and logistics and delivery systems to run their businesses.
Simons has a degree in Marketing and Strategic Management from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania and is a self-taught computer programmer.
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