Tim Kelly, Founder/Owner
Tim Kelly began Bring It Promotions, LLC in response to his own overseas experiences. Following his graduation from UCLA in 1994, Kelly accepted an offer to play in Spain. What he soon realized was that most agents did not have the European wherewithal to adequately advise or represent him as a client. By developing contacts of his own and touring with his fellow American volleyball professionals, he began placing male clients on teams he had established connections with. It didn’t take long for the demand to spread to aspiring female volleyball professionals too, so Bring It Promotions opened its doors to males and females alike in 1997. In 1999, Kelly began preparations for the expansion of his International Tours division. Like wildfire, the International Tours grew rapidly into three categories: University Tours, Exposure Tours, and Recruiting Tours. The Tours have grown to include over 20 different tours annually.
Kelly enjoyed a decorated playing career as a middle blocker at UCLA and as a five-year professional in Europe. He has also served as Head of Delegation for numerous European Champions League and South American Championship teams and tournaments as well as on USA Volleyball delegations. Kelly lived in Europe from 1994 to 2006, and currently splits time between San Juan del Sur, Nicaragua and Santa Barbara, California when not on tour.
Cory Solomon, Director of International Tours & Tournaments
Cory Solomon serves as the Director of Recruiting for International Tours and Tournaments. Solomon is uniquely qualified for these positions because of his extensive background in coaching volleyball at the collegiate, juniors, and high school levels, and also his years travelling and living abroad. After earning his bachelors degree from the University of Utah in 1987, he served as an assistant coach at Utah for five seasons. During his final three seasons, the “Utes” advanced to three consecutive NCAA 2nd round appearances.
After leaving the University of Utah, Solomon joined forces with Tim Kelly and assumed a lead role in the development of an International Recruiting Service as well as the expansion of Bring It Promotion’s International Tours. Solomon originally conducted business from his home in Innsbruck, Austria, and had the opportunity to watch European volleyball first hand. Living in Europe also afforded him the opportunity to serve as a coach on numerous Bring It Promotions tours. Solomon coached the Bring It USA team to a first place finish in the Sibillini, Italian Tournament with a win over the top under-20 team from Belgrade, Yugoslavia. He has led numerous tours through the Europe, Australia, New Zealand, Fiji and Japan. Solomon is also the director of the Global Challenge tournament which is held each July in Pula, Croatia and features over 24 teams from around the world. In addition, this year Solomon returned to his roots of coaching to lead the Chitwan Tigers to the Championship of the AADHI AABADI Nepal National Championships in Katmandu, Nepal.
Solomon resides in Maribor, Slovenia with his wife Andreja and their two daughters Daša and Mija.
Nick Ptaschinski – Director of Player Management, Women’s Placements
Nick Ptaschinski joined BIP’s staff in 2008 and immediately took on the responsibility of running our women’s placements. Another former client turned agent, Nick has a wide array of experience overseas on which to draw from and help our players with what they’ll be getting into as they sign contracts to head overseas.
Originally from Salt Lake City, Utah, Nick played collegiate volley at Orange Coast College in southern California and William Woods University in Fulton, Missouri, from where he earned a bachelor’s degree in Communications & Journalism in 2003. Nick’s overseas volley career (Setter) started in 2004 and spanned 10 professional seasons for five clubs – Switzerland (Lausanne UC, 2 seasons; Chênois Geneva, 3 seasons), Germany (Giesen Hildesheim), Sweden (Örkelljunga) and the Netherlands (Groningen Lycurgus, 3 seasons). Nick continues to work full-time for the agency and lives in Prague, Czech Republic with his wife Jana and their daughter, Isabella.
Female players interested in finding a team in Europe, South America, Asia, Puerto Rico, etc. need to be in touch with Nick. bipvolley.nick@gmail.com
Tony Westman – Director of Player Management, Men’s Placements
A veteran BIP Tour Coach and Scout, Tony is a Swedish citizen that has been a fixture in the international volleyball community since ’98. He has coached the Danish National Team, professional teams in Sweden, Denmark, Switzerland, and Austria and has had various American players on his teams over the years. He’s also spent several summers working university camps in the USA. He’s a great resource for BIP players because he understands both “the American mentality” and what’s expected and “normal” in Europe. Tony is a wealth of knowledge and connections for us with the teams in Scandinavia but also connected to teams across Europe and the rest of the volleyball world.
Melanie Gorter -Travel Coordinator
Melanie started her volleyball career at Rolling Thunder VBC in the Chicago area. She was a collegiate athlete and studied abroad in the UK with Central College of Pella, Iowa. She participated in the 2015 BIP Women’s Firesale Exposure Tour in Maribor, Slovenia before continuing on a month-long trek through Europe. In the summer of 2016, she became a core member of the BIP team building rosters and running tours for the annual Global Challenge Tournament in Pula, Croatia. Since then, she has assisted on many university tours all over the world. Mel currently handles university and club travel manifests along with individual logistics for all tours that BIP runs. While in the States, you can find her by the beach with her dog, Fred, or coaching boys and girls club volleyball.
Meredith Bonee -Operations & Marketing
Born and raised in Knoxville, Tennessee, Meredith played club for K2 Volleyball Club. She then went on to play collegiately as a five year starter at Maryville College in Maryville, Tennessee. During college, she went on a university summer tour with BIP to Italy, Croatia, Slovenia, Austria and the Czech Republic and The New Year’s Bash tour to Spain & Portugal in 2021.
Meredith has two bachelors degrees from Maryville College in Marketing the other in International Studies. During college and beyond she has coached at K2 Volleyball Club. She has working logistics & marketing for European Summer tours with BIP and is based in Maribor, Slovenia during the summer. She is also pursuing her MBA in marketing and is a graduate assistant coach at Johnson University in Knoxville, Tennessee.
Steven Fenosik – Director / Puerto Rico
Our man in Puerto Rico, Steven has been dealing with the professional leagues since 1998. He’s in charge of all women’s recruiting services in Puerto Rico for BIP. Steven is also involved with all our Puerto Rico volleyball tours. He has done it all in volleyball, including extensive coaching work and being general manager for several men’s and women’s teams. In addition, he has coached and worked with formers United States Women’s Olympic Team members and other great NCAA athletes. He has as much experience with the Puerto Rican volleyball culture as anyone. Another area where Steven is involved is at the youth club level by supporting kids to get exposed to the collegiate recruitment process. Steven is an Ohio State alumni and was part of the Men’s Volleyball Team coaching staff at his alma mater. Aside from Volleyball, he has expertise in the financial risk management field.
Chris Chen – Director / China
Chris Chen graduated from the Beijing Sports University and played for “8-1” Men’s Volleyball Club and the Chinese National Team during his illustrious professional career. He started his own business is 2008 and since then has been involved in manufacturing, product sourcing, custom design and business consulting in his native China. With a strong volleyball background and connections across China, Chris has also been involved in many volleyball related projects between China, USA, and Canada as well. His strength is in the sports realm and this is what he enjoys most: the sports aspect of the business. He founded Nomax Inc. in 2010 to start a new adventure combining his sports background with his business sense. Chris is in charge of all BIP Tours to China, and is also spearheading our efforts to get Chinese club and federation teams to the USA, Canada, and Europe. Chris is also our point man in the country for placing players in the high-level Chinese leagues, where opportunity is increasing annually as more and more teams embrace the idea of hiring “foreigners” for the season.
Jirka Honzik – Director / Czech Republic
Jirka was born November 17, 1976 in Prague, Czech Republic. He has lived all but one year in the Czech Republic, and in that year (1994-1995), Honzik lived with Cory Solomon’s family in Salt Lake City and was a foreign exchange student at West High School. During his exchange year, Honzik played volleyball for Twin Peaks VBC. Upon his return from the U.S.A. Honzik finished his high school education in Prague, then enrolled in Prague University of Economics, studying international trade, the European Union, and international relations. Honzik played on the Czech Junior National Team as a setter and went on to win the Czech Junior Championships four consecutive years. He played many years for a Czech professional team called MFF Praha.
Jirka has been assisting with BIP tours to the Czech Republic since 1998. He was the USA Delegation Manager for the BIP team in Spring Cup 2001 (Brno) and he is always a crowd favorite among University Tour players. He assists not only with tours, but has also helped us represent some Czech National Team players and was pivotal to the early success of the International Recruiting Service. He is invaluable to Bring It Promotions and is one of the main reasons that we are as successful as we are today. Honzik speaks fluent Czech, English, and German. His favorite music group is Metallica and he enjoys all sports.
Marie Sasaki – Director / Japan
Our beloved Marie-san Sasaki was born and raised in Kyoto, Japan. She graduated with a business degree from Ryokoku University in 2010, after a stint as an exchange student at CSU Northridge where she honed her endearing English skills. She worked for a professional basketball team through 2016 and then as a manager and interpreter the Panasonic Panthers Men’s Professional Team outside of Osaka until the end of the 2018 V-League Season. She never played indoor volleyball, but is a fan, and during her tenure at Panasonic interpreted all communications between coaches and players at every practice and match over her 2 seasons. The Panthers, coached by BIP-favorite Mauricio Paes, won the Japanese “Triple Crown” of championships in 2018.
Marie also has experience hosting international teams visiting Japan, and first worked with BIP when Minnesota State was in town in 2016. She most recently spent 9 amazing days with UC Irvine Men’s team as they traveled through Osaka, Hirakata, Kyoto (staying in a Myoshin Temple Complex) and Tokyo. When international competitions are held in Japan, Marie cooperates with the Japanese Volleyball Association and manages visiting foreign teams as a guide.
Marie enjoys playing beach volleyball, relaxing at the beach, and eating Italian food (well, mostly drinking sparkling wine) with her friends. Do not get between her and a piece of maguro sashima either! We look forward to Marie getting more involved in helping get Japanese Teams to the USA and the Global Challenge.
Pablo Cabral Salles – Director / Brazil
Pablo Cabral Salles is a native of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil where he grew up playing and coaching beach volleyball. He assists Bring It Promotions with all aspects of volleyball travel in Brazil. Pablo is certified as a Beach Volleyball Trainer Level I by the Brazilian Volleyball Confederation. He coached the German team Kohler / Sude at the World Tour and the World Beach Volleyball Championship 2011. He coached the Greek National Beach Volleyball Team in the under-23, under -20 and under -18 categories, in 2008 and 2010. And he coached the Austrian team Montagnolli / Hansel in the World Tour Beach Volleyball seasons 2009 and 2010.
Karmen “Kiki” Kocar
Karmen “Kiki” Kocar was born in Ljubljana, Slovenia and started playing volleyball when she was 12 years old. By 16 she was playing in Slovenia’s top league and has been playing professionally since 2003. She left Slovenia in 2005 to play her first season as a “foreigner” in Austria, and has since played with top professional clubs in France, Germany, and Croatia. She spent many years leading the Slovenian National Team as setter as well. Kiki is currently living in Maribor where she’s in a coaching program to eventually be a professional coach and has been helping with BIP Tours since 2008. She is fluent in English as well as Serbo-Croatian and Slovenian (yes, they’re different languages) and conversational in German.
Margaret “CJ” Sherman
CJ’s volleyball career began at Covenant College, Lookout Mountain, Tennessee, where she earned NAIA All Conference and All Region honors. A retiree from a highly successful collegiate head coaching career (Palm Beach Atlantic University, University of South Carolina Aiken, and University of Montevallo), CJ has switched her focus to Jacksonville Juniors where she is the Recruiting Coordinator and assistant coach for JJVA’s top teams.
She’s been married to Bill Sherman since 1988 and they have two beautiful daughters, Meghan and Kamryn. Meghan has been on tours since she was 13, she played at the University of Tampa and was a 2x AVCA NCAA 2 All American Setter, she played professional volleyball in Hungary and Sweden for five seasons. Meghan married Daniel Magnusson in March 2016. Both Meghan and Daniel have coached collegiate indoor and beach volleyball in the USA and are involved with JJVA.
Kamryn has played on tours since she was 11 and played 3 years at NCAA 1 Clemson University graduating and taking her remaining eligibility to NCAA 2 Armstrong Atlantic State University where she was also a AVCA NCAA 2 All American Setter. Kamryn is on the administrative team at Jacksonville Country Day School. Kamryn and her husband, Nick St Thomas have twin boys, Cooper and Chase, and are still involved with the Global Challenge Tournament and New Years Bash tours.
Giannis Athanasopoulos
Giannis is from Athens, Greece and is a former player, coach and scout person at all levels of Greek Volleyball. He is currently the head coach at Stuttgart. He played in the Greek top leagues from 1992 to 2011 and then went on serve as the lead scout for both the men’s and women’s teams in the famous Greek Club Olympiacos. Currently he is the an assistant coach and DataVolley star for Champions league team Stuttgart, Germany. Giannis has ran tours in many European countries for Bring It Promotions for the last several years, is in charge of all tours to Greece, and also handles all DataVolley for top teams in the Global Challenge. He speaks Greek and English and seems to get by pretty well in Slovenian these days as well.
Tatijana Fučka
Tatijana Fucka was born in 1999 in Bologna, Italy. Her mom is half Italian and half British, and her dad is from Slovenia. During her childhood, she lived five years in Spain as her dad was a professional basketball player there. She started playing volleyball at the age of 12 in Bologna. At 15, Tatijana and her twin sister moved to Bassano del Grappa to play for a prestigious club, winning regional championships and being U18 national vice-champions in 2017.
For her last year of high school, she moved to Milan to play for Club Italia, an A2 team run by the Italian Federation. Two years after graduating from high school, she played in two different A2 teams, and finally started her college career in Italy. In 2020, at the age of 21, she moved to the USA to play at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, competing in the Conference USA.
Rebeka Fučka
Rebeka “Rebe” Fučka was born in Bologna, Italy, and started playing volleyball at 13 years old. By 15 she was playing in the B1 Italian National Championship while she was competing in the u16 and u18 categories.
In 2017 she won the gold medal in the Cornacchia World
Cup and the silver medal in the u18 Italian National Championship. In 2019 she won the A2 Italian National Championship with VolAlto Caserta. She played with professional club teams as an amateur until 2021.
In the summer of 2021, she moved to South Carolina to play for Coastal Carolina University. She is currently an Exercise Sport Science Major. 2023 would mark her first year helping run BIP tours. She is fluent in English, Spanish, Italian and conversational in Slovenian.
Gabby Horman
Gabby was born in Long Island, New York and started playing volleyball when she was 12 years old for Long Island Academy Volleyball Club. She continued her volleyball career playing NCAA D1 at Quinnipiac University as a middle blocker. While attending university she majored in Health Science studies and minored in Biology and Psychology.
She attended The BIP Global Challenge and Women’s Firesale in 2021 in hopes of playing professional volleyball. In August 2021, she signed her first professional contract in Limassol, Cyprus to play for Lemesos Volleyball Club in the first league. In her second season she is playing for FEEL Alcobendas and competing in Superliga 1. She is an active member of Athletes in Action.
In the summer of 2022, Gabby became a BIP tour guide for tours throughout Spain and Portugal. She is also planning itineraries for tours and completing essential tasks to make BIP run!
Mark Barnard
Mark recently retired from Oregon State University after 18 years; the last 7 as head coach. He spent the 2015 and 2016 off-seasons as the head coach of the Australian Women’s National Team. Nicknamed the “Volleyroos,” the team entered 2014 ranked 100th in the world, and in one year under Barnard’s direction, improved to 46th.
Barnard had International experience prior to this appointment as he was an assistant for the National Team from 1997-00, including the Sydney Olympics.
During that time, he also served as head coach of the women’s national junior team (1999-2000) and women’s national youth team (1997-99). In 2001, Barnard led the National Team of Australia to its first qualification to the World Championships in over 20 years. At its height, the Australian team was ranked No. 12 in the world.
Mark was prolific as an athlete as well, playing on the 1984 Australian Junior Men’s Team. He also competed on New South Wales Junior Teams from 1982 through 87, three times winning the National Championships and was an All-Australian 12 selection. Barnard is a 1991 graduate of the University of Sydney with a degree in Education and Science. Mark and his wife, Louise, have two children, Isabella, and Alexander.
This will be Mark’s first time on tour (as a guide), but he has extensive experience in the country and region thanks to his many Asian tours with the AUS NT Program.
Mauro Rossato
Mauro Rossato was practically born in a sports hall as his father was the Sport Director of a volleyball club Volley Maniago Pordenone in Italy, just north of Venice. He was one of the smallest middle blockers ever (unfortunately the libero role wasn’t invented yet) and decided to start coaching at age 19. He’s coached in every category, age group, division from Provincial to B1, as is currently coaching a team in the B2 National Division. Mauro has worked for the Italian Volleyball Federation as a press agent in several events since 2000 and was in the press department during the last Women World Championships Qualification Round held in Conegliano. He first hooked up with BIP during Easter of 2005, when we brought Northern Lights 18’s to play in an international tournament that Mauro organizes every year with some friends in Pordenone. Since then he has helped host over 50 teams in the Venice area. He is also co-owner & webmaster for Volley Nordest. This club’s website is: Website: www.volleypordenone.it.
Alma Vetri
Alma was born in Rome in 1985. She began playing volleyball at the age of 12 for a team located near her home. At 15 she won the pre-juniors championship while playing for the club “San Paolo” and soon after, began her career as a professional volleyball player. She joined one of the most important societies at the national level and participated in several national finals. In 2004 she decided to transfer to Modica, Sicily to play in Serie B, where she played for three years on two different teams. In 2008 she moved to Pavia to play in Serie A (A1), and the following year with a team from Aprilia, near Rome, in A2. In the meantime, Alma earned her Bachelors in History from the University of Rome and attained her Masters degree in Immigration. After enduring a serious wrist injury, she decided to change her career path and stop playing professionally. Starting in 2011, Alma has been our main woman in Rome and has run a number of tours up and down Bella Italia.
Anna Church
Anna Church was born in Kansas City and started playing volleyball when she was 8 years old. Watching her older sister playing club volleyball, Anna fell in love with the game. She played for the top clubs in the Kansas City area as well as attending Bishop Miege High School, leading her team to become 4x 5A State Champions. She continued her career at St. Louis University as an outside hitter and libero. In 2015, Anna transferred to the University of Kansas where she and her team made an appearance in the NCAA Final Four, losing to Nebraska, the eventual National Champions. When Anna found out that playing professionally was an option (with the bonus of travelling the world), it became her goal. Anna met Tim, Cory, and Kiki when the University of Kansas went on tour with BIP in 2015. She got back in touch following her graduation in Fall 2015 and went on the 2016 January Exposure Tour in hopes of finding a team. Her first contract was in France’s 3rd League as an outside hitter with ASVS. Anna played as a libero in the 2nd Bundesliga in Germany with SCU Emlichheim from 2017-2019 and is currently looking for her next team. Anna also travelled to Vietnam in 2018 with “Team BIP” for the Binh Dien Cup, losing to a Chinese professional team in the finals. Anna’s experience at the highest levels of volleyball and love of travel make her a great fit as one of BIP’s tour guides.
Alice Genna
Alice played for several junior and professional teams in Rome. In 2009, Alice won the Serie C regional championship with her team and the year after she played in Serie B with Roma 7 Volleyball team. In 2011, Alice was offered a full scholarship to play and study at North Carolina Central University in Division I NCAA. Alice moved to the United States and played for her school’s team from 2011-2015 until she graduated and obtained a Bachelor’s Degree in Psychology and a Bachelor’s Degree in Criminal Justice with a concentration in Juvenile Justice. After college, Alice paused her volleyball career to obtain a Master’s Degree in Forensic Psychology from John Jay College of Criminal Justice. After working in New York for a year, Alice moved back to Italy where she is currently playing volleyball for a team in Rome. Alice comes from a volleyball family, as her mother is a coach, her brother plays professionally in Serie A2 with Roma Volley and her sister played college volleyball at LIU POST. In addition to volleyball, Alice enjoys reading and traveling the world to discover new cultures and traditions.
Erica Di Maulo
Erica was born in 1997 in Milan, Italy to a volleyball family. Her parents played volleyball at a professional level and her brother currently plays on a Serie B team in Milan. Erica started to play volleyball at the age of 10 and from 2011 to 2015, played for Orago Volley, a small but prestigious club near Varese, winning a u16 national championship in 2013. For her last year of high school, she moved to Turin to play on a B1 team. At the age of 19, she moved to New York City to play at St John’s University, competing in the Big East, where in 2016, she was named co-Freshman of the year and is currently a junior.
Cedric Chrisostome
Cedric is from Paris and like most French people, is a food and wine lover! A former setter, he used to play in the French National Division 2. Afterwards he decided to cross over to the teaching side and passed several volleyball degrees, which helped him develop his own volleyball philosophy. He completed a PhD in sports science, also has a degree in strength and nutrition, and is now teaching at a University in Paris. Cedric fell in love with the USA when he had the opportunity to be a member of The University of Akron volleyball staff in 2013. He often heads back to America to coach at camps in Houston, Texas. He currently coaches college teams in France.
Besides being a professor and a coach, Cedric loves entrepreneurship and co-founded a startup, La Pause Baskets, a corporate fitness solution. Cedric designed the offer, quality process and selects all the instructors.
Cedric speaks perfect English and he has been helping BIP Tours in Paris since 2014.